224 Crores… 3 scamsters… a wily lawyer… an astute ACP… a sleepwalker and a secret locket in a freezer. A game is about to begin in Maharathi…
With high stakes and desperate players.
A young discontented wife, her eccentric millionaire husband.. Then we have his trusted chauffer-cum-confidante and a wily grumpy lawyer. All think they hold the winning cards. All are wrong… for all are pawns. And as the game unfolds… a suicide will be camouflaged as murder… a phony kidnapping will result in death… an innocent caretaker will get entangled in more than what she bargained for. Maharathi movie review…
At stake – freedom from the net cast by the astute ACP Gokhale and Inspector Borkar.
As the players stage an unnerving battle to outwit each other, the cops close in for the kill. Everybody will scramble for cover… the plot will get murkier… the lies will come faster and the motives will become darker.
Suddenly the only thing that matters is survival and of course the 24 crores.
And an innocuous freezer will continue to hide a sinister secret.
A petty crook Subhash ( Paresh Rawal ) makes ends meet by his uncanny ability to think and act, surviving on small time cons on unsuspecting victims. One night he saves Adenwalla’s life and accompanies the injured man back home. The opportunist in him capitalizes on the situation, impressed with the grandeur and affluence of Adenwala.(Naseeruddin Shah ) and gets the job as his driver. An ex filmmaker who’s drinking himself to death, Adenwala is married to a young pretty but fiery wife Mallika (Neha Dhupia ) who’s favorite pastime seem to be squandering her alcoholic husband’s wealth.
Maharathi, the film based on a long-running Gujarati play Maharathi, is a situational thriller with many a twist in its winding trajectory. The plot is creatively adapted on celluloid is about a one time famous film director dejected by his wife’s behaviour, and he shoots himself and challenges his wife to prove his suicide as murder in order to get a booty of Rs. 24 crores. The director’s chauffeur-cum-confidante helps the wife in achieving her target in the hope of sharing the booty. The story unveils as different characters enter and help the story move on.
Jaisingh Adenwalla (Naseeruddin Shah) is a rich, eccentrict, smart and vengeful person. He may appear to be in an alcoholic haze through the day but he knows exactly what his beautiful young wife Mallika (Neha Dhupia) is upto and will go to deadly extents to thwart her greedy plans.
Mallika is beautiful, spoilt, greedy and ruthless. With single minded determination she sets off to cheat her husband of a vast sum of money, only to realize he’s anticipated and checkmated her every move.
Subhash (Paresh Rawal) is a failed actor turned small time crook. When he saves Jaisingh Adenwalla’s life, he expects and gets money as reward. But what he doesn’t expect to be saddled with is suicide, kidnapping, murder and the lure of 24 crores.
A D Merchant (Boman Irani), an old man and Adenwala’s supposedly trusted family lawyer. But as trustworthy as a rattlesnake. He will manipulate, threaten, kill … and do everything in his power to get his slimy hands on the 24 crores.
Swati (Tara Sharma) is a sweet little thing brought in to provide a foolproof alibi to the schemers, but her sleepwalking habit turns her into a threat they had not contended with.
ACP Gokhale (Om Puri) is a sharp, sttitute and a wise cop. He can see through lies and people. When confronted by a bunch of seemingly innocent people in the Adenwala household, he does what he knows best… watches and waits till somebody makes a mistake.
Maharathi rises above the run-of-the-mill bollywood thrillers with clever narration of the story designed to keep the audience riveted till the finale.
Naseeruddin Shah in a restrained performance as a drunkard is awesome. He does not rave and rant like our typical Bollywood heroes in such roles. Likewise, Paresh Rawal is controlled as the chauffeur.. Neha Dhupia, has acted her part very well.
Cast of Maharathi:
Jaisingh Adenwalla – Naseeruddin Shah
Subhash Sharma – Paresh Rawal
Mallika Adanwalla – Neha Dhupia
AD Merchant – Boman Irani
ACP Gokhale – Om Puri
Swati – Tara Sharma
Credits of Maharathi:
Director – Shivam Nair
Producer – Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Limited
Producer – Dhilin Mehta
Story, Screenplay and Dialogue – Uttam Gada
Original Music – Shibani Kashyap
Cinematography – Venu Isc
Film Editing – Aarti Bajaj
Production Design – Sadashiv Athule, Nitesh Mogre, Rajesh Sharma
Art Direction – Wasiq Khan
Assistant Director – Ashwin Nayak
Sound Designer – Parikshit Lalwani
Media Relations – Parag Desai
Maharathi, movie review
