Maharaj movie review: Junaid Khan and his debut are both strictly passable

The film’s opening credits say that it ‘has been inspired by real events, and is an adaptation of the book titled ‘Maharaj’, written by Saurabh Shah. In the following paragraph, it also says that ‘the film does not make any claims of authenticity or correctness of any events or incidents depicted in the film’. This is the kind of dissembling that Bollywood producers have long been driven to, just to save themselves from harassment. Given that it is set in Gujarat, revolving around a reformist patriot who is genuinely someone to be proud of, YRF must have thought that they would be safe. But no, because their tale’s chief enemy is a Sanatani guru who is a straight-up sinner in the way he preys upon unsuspecting women, all his ‘dushkarm’ (wrong doings) will, of course, be ignored, leading to the same, creaky accusations of showing ‘Hindu dharam in bad light’.

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Everyone can relax, because ‘Maharaj’ is nothing but the usual story of good against evil, the meek against the powerful, which Bollywood has been telling forever, with a change in protagonist and antagonist. Khan plays the ‘taaja aur nai soch waley pragatisheel’ (progressive) Karsandas Mulji, whose beginnings as a journalist and teacher lead him to the point where he finds the courage to take a principled stand against the adharmi Yadunath Maharaj (Ahlawat).

The stand-off ends up in court where we get multiple close-ups of the smirking Ahlawat settled back in a throne-like chair, and Karsan getting to spout his rousing monologue: ‘pratha purani nahin sahi honi chahiye’ (customs should be correct, not just followed through with just because they are old); said ‘pratha’ being the lustful Maharaj’s right to choose the lucky girl for ‘charan seva’, which is rape and molestation by another name.

These kinds of holy men, ‘pakhandi sadhus’, have long been legitimate bad guys in Hindi movies, and heroes have been encouraged in their fight against them, with the supporting cast in full vocal agreement. Karsan’s to-be-wife (Pandey) becomes grist to the Maharaj mill, and the way the former deals with it (not well) could have lent some heft to the proceedings, but weepy familiar melodrama is where the film chooses to go. A pert young miss (Sharvari) is a welcome addition, even if she is very much in the ‘chulbuli moonhphat’ heroine mould.

The only one who is completely in sync with the film’s tonality is Jaideep Ahlawat, who has given us a ‘dharm ka thekedar’ to beat all ‘dharm ke thekedars’. You can see he is really working his mildly smiling visage, belied by the arrogant look and his street-style lines “maafi toh uska baap bhi mangega,” and “dharm ka paalan darr se karwana padta hai”. You also wonder how an actor who is capable of great nuance kept a straight face through it all, but maybe that’s why watching him go through his paces is the high point of this film.

And that brings us to the real question: does Junaid Khan have his father’s genes? Is he as eye-catching as Aamir was in his debut ‘QSQT’? As far as likeness goes, Junaid looks like his own person, and you can see him growing in confidence as the film progresses. But does he leap off the screen? Not really. Does he have that very special something papa had, and still does? He is passable, like the film.

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‘Maharaj’ does have a line which could have turned truly epic: “Dharm se zyaada koi hinsak yudh nahin hai.” But then the film’s treatment would have had to be much sharper: why blunt the edges when you want to show us someone with such historic significance?

Maharaj movie cast: Junaid Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Shalini Pandey, Sharvari
Maharaj movie director: Siddharth P Malhotra
Maharaj movie rating: Two stars