User Reviews

Whilst searching around online to try and answer a question which had been asked on the IMDb Film Noir board,("Is there a movie based on the Hadley Chase novel There's Always a Price Tag?")I was very happy to find that there was a 2008 Bollywood adaptation of the novel,due to having searched for a good while to find a Bollywood Noir,which I hoped to use as an introduction to the genre for a friend,who is a pretty big fan of Bollywood films.

The plot:

Whilst driving back home,washed-up film producer Jaisingh Adenwalla suddenly crashes his car.Luckally for him,a man called Subhash Sharma is near by.Sharma,realising that the car could blow up at any moment,bravely pulls Adenwalla safely away from the wreckage.

As Adenwalla begins to regain consciousness,he tells Subhash that he has been completely taken aback,by how much a total stranger was willing to risk his own life to save another's.To show his gratitude for Subash, (who has been attempting to become a film star for the last 10 years) Adenwalla pushes Sharma into excepting a job offer of being his private driver,whose wages he will pay for himself.Sadly,this does not go down too well with Adenwalla's "trophy wife" Mallika,who is constantly trying to get money out of him,to repay some of the debt from his box office disasters-ten years ago.

Although his wife tries to get Subhash fried,by playing some very nasty games,Adenwalla stubbornly refuses to fire him,partly because he sees in Sharma someone who he would have pushed into the spotlight,during his heyday.Shortly after the argument over the hiring,Mallika becomes extremely angry,when she is told by Adenwalla that all her cheques will now permanently bounce,due to him having cancelled all the transfers of his cash going into her account.

Hearing this,Mallika ends up throwing Jaisingh's breathalyser away,during a horrible asthma attack.Thankfully,Subhash is near by,and he is able to get hold of the breathalyser in time.Being distraught over the treatment from his wife,Adenwalla gathers Subhash,to secretly give him a letter,which he orders to be delivered to his lawyer the next day.Later on that same day,Jaisingh tells Mallika and Sharma to come and sit with him,so he can announce something to both of them.

To Mallika's shock,Adenwalla tells her that he has changed his will,so that she would be unable to collect any of his money if he commits suicide.Jaisingh then tells Sharma that he asked him to be here,so that he would not be set up as a murderer.Suddenly,Adenwalla pulls out a gun,and kills himself!Whilst they both try to gather there thoughts,Subhash decides to open the letter that Adenwalla had left for his lawyer.To his amazement,Subash discovers that the will has been changed for him to be the main benefactor.

As he gets to the end of the letter,Subash realises that Adenwalla had written the letter,so that Sharma would also not be able to get the money if he commits suicide. Quickly realising that if he and Mallika make it look for a few days that Adenwalla is still alive,they would be able to convince people that Adenwalla has actually been murdered,Subash stops Mallika from phoning the police,and tells her that if she wants to get hold of any of her husbands money,then she must follow his plan...

View on the film:

The first people who I feel should be really praised for giving the film a great Noir mood are the wonderful cast,with Naseeruddin Shah delivering a scene-stealing performance as the boozed-up movie producer,who whilst softening to Subhash,still has a very crusty,bitter side.For the role of his trophy wife,Neha Dhupia has Mallika be someone who attempts to dig her nails deep into her husbands bank account,hoping that nothing will cause her to lose her grip.

Playing the main character who devises the cunning plan to cover Adenwalla's suicide,Paresh Rawal excellently shows the cunning,darker side of Subhash gradually creep in,with Subhash being shown to strongly believe that,if,he and Mallika are able to convince people that a murder has taken place,he will at last be able to get hold of all of the riches,that Subhash has been trying to grip on to,since attempting to break into the film industry.

With the very good directing of the film,director Shivam Nair wisely leaves out any songs,until the end credits.Instead,he unexpectedly gives the film a David Fincher look,with some stunning shoots in the film,being ones that would not be out of place in Finchers under- appreciated 2002 thriller Panic Room.Nair also cleverly keeps Mallika in distance shoots,until the suicide of her husband,leads her to "crossing the floor" and grudgingly talking to Subhash.

Sadly,the praise the can be given to the excellent cast and great directing can not be given to the screenplay by Uttam Gada.After having done well to build up to Adenwalla's suicide in the first half Gada. Sadly gets the film to full into a hole,which it is never able to completely escape from,with the death of a major character in the middle section of the film,giving a huge opportunity for the film to end on a Noirish,moody note.Shockingly,Gada decides to handle the death of the character as badly as possible,with no explanation being offered,and any possible hint of the other characters having a motive for the killing,being swiftly brushed under the carpet.

Final view on the film:

A very well directed,overlooked Bollywood Film Noir,with great performances from the excellent cast,let down by an unexpectedly tangled screenplay.

"How do you murder a man who has already committed suicide?" This is the tagline of the film & it's really honest attempt by all the players & script writer to engage the audience with its thrilling effects of theme. The movie is adaptation of a Gujarati thriller drama by the same name, written brilliantly by Uttam Gada & it has created history with more than 1000 shows. The acting talent of Paresh Rawal got noticed as a lead player of this drama by many film directors then & one of them is Mahesh Bhatt who gave him break in 'Naam.' The movie is perfectly cast with multiple acting giants of screen & almost all of them have played their parts with their best abilities. The script & screenplay maintained elements of successful thriller. The film is at par till the interval with Nasser's short but powerful act, Paresh Rawal's interesting character portrayal & brooding crime of murder & betrayal win game with entry of certain other players. But post interval it becomes more dramatic & less natural and that's make it low in the end. This is the biggest shortcoming of the film that in the second half even Paresh Raval & Boman Irani become too dramatic with their stage instincts & altogether movie becomes so predictable for the common audience & here director as well as actors falters to make it compact screen adaptation. Naseer & Paresh has done commendable job & it's sure shot for you if you admire their acting. Om Puri has the shortest role in the film & nothing much to do & we all know it's act for sake of his rapport with Paresh & Naseer. Drama would be better but film adaptation is nice attempt & it's more appreciation worthy than criticize much. One watch is recommended.

Ratings-7.5/10

Based on a successful play by Paresh Rawal, "Maharathi" is said to be a thriller but I found it lacking the requisites of a tight thriller or a good murder mystery. The very start of the mystery sequence or murder scene pops up some questions which are enough to make you lose interest in the plot. The main blunder why I am calling it "An Unqualified Thriller" is made by the writer who penned it and the director who never questioned it.

If the writer and director of a murder mystery think that putting a Dead Body in a deep freezer for many days will keep the time and day of the murder A Secret, then it simply means that they still have to get their facts right. It's the most childish forensic liberty taken ever in a crime movie.

To make it simple, it's based on a plot where Naseer shoots himself in front of Paresh Rawal and Neha Dhupia and leaves them a challenge to prove his suicide as a murder if they can. Now in the next scene you see that Paresh & Neha both decide to put the dead Naseer in a deep freezer and plan to take him out after some days. And this is all done saying that putting the body in the freezer will never tell the day and time of the murder to anyone. And the whole movie moves around that freezer in which the body lies.

The moment this came on screen I lost all my interest of seeing the talented star-cast together in a mystery movie. The movie has been shot competently but the writing leaves wide cracks open in the mystery. Paresh Rawal as always carries the movie on his shoulders and tries hard to make it convincing. Though the performances of Naseer, Neha and Boman were enjoyable and the director Shivam Nair also manages to shoot some good sequences. But the viewer cannot be served performances alone. The makers need to think that audiences have some to see a crime drama with twists and turns opening new angles to think.

If a Murder Mystery raises too many questions and there are no answers to those queries in the narration then it doesn't qualify to be a good thriller. "Maharathi" is the best example to that. For example, Why Nasser kills himself and why not he kills his wife Neha instead to get rid of all troubles? Why he leaves everything inherited to Paresh whom he has met just few days ago? Ironically, there is a life insurance of 25 crores done by Nasser and he is living his life miserably all in debts. If he can manage to pay the premium of this huge sum then why he cannot pay his debts off? Tara Sharma, an architecture student, is kept as a house keeper who never visits the room of his sick employer and just keeps on washing floors. She is shown to be dumb and a night walker too but surprisingly she is sharp enough to help Paresh by giving false statement to the police knowing that he will never get caught.

What is Boman Irani (The Lawyer) contribution to the plot? What was his relationship with Neha? Boman seems to be doing silly things in the climax, not expected from a well established Criminal Lawyer? Om Puri (completely wasted) enters as a detective and he is so experienced but he doesn't doubt Paresh and never questions him about background or his entry in the house just few days back. And in the climax he just shoots Boman, just like that as if it was an encounter. Why he doesn't shoot on his hand as a responsible officer? Apart from these there are so many questions which I can go on with but there is no use of listing them as they would not get any answers. But I must say that if a die-hard fan of Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, Felu-Da and Byomkesh Bakshi (like myself) watches this movie then he will not like to say anything but would only love to get back to the masters of mystery cinema as soon as possible and see or read any one of their creations again.

Interestingly the plot of putting the dead body in a box (deep freezer here) is quite similar to that in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope". You can watch "Maharathi" only if you can ignore the faulty plot and would love to see the performances of the talented actors together.

Apparently based on a gujarati play that featured Paresh Rawal himself, this is a very interesting movie with some good twists and turns.

A very interesting plot that seems original and well thought out. The movie starts off average, builds very well. Unlike most movies that seem to miss the bus at the end, this one does well at the end.

The first half belongs to Naseeruddin Shah, the old eccentric one time successful film producer, who is now in debt and has a drinking problem. He is helped by Paresh Rawal in a car accident and subsequently, gives Rawal the job of a driver.

His wife, Neha Dhupia is a gold-digger who constantly fights and wants him dead to then lay her hands on the hefty insurance policy.

The story picks up when Naseer shoots himself and challenges her to prove that it was not suicide. If a suicide is proved, she doesn't receive any insurance. While the movie says that it will be because he has written that clause in the benefactor agreement, I believe most insurance companies offer no compensation in the case of a proved suicide.

This is where Paresh Rawal enters the center stage and its brilliant to watch him transition from a demure master-worshiping driver to a scheming thug.

Boman Irani, Neha Dhupia and Tara Sharma perform their parts well and are thoughtfully cast. While I wonder what Dhupia and Sharma were doing in the movie at first, I believe there has been some good thought put into their casting.

The background score was non existent {didnt realize that there was one} and could have complemented the actors well. The director thankfully resists the temptation of item numbers.

An interesting twist in the ending and a screenplay that makes a lot of sense.

All in all, a great watch.