Maharaja is Netflix’s best 2024 Indian thriller film
Netflix India’s newest film release has shocked viewers from around the world. The Tamil language Indian film titled ‘Maharaja’ has stunned Netflix viewers with its terrific storyline and tight screenplay. The movie is trending on Netflix all over the world.
Maharaja is a 2024 Tamil language action thriller film starring Vijay Sethupathi, Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, Natarajan Subramaniam, Abhirami, Divya Bharathi, Singampuli, Aruldoss and Munishkanth among others. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi in the title role with Anurag Kashyap as the main antagonist. The film is directed by Nithilan Swaminathan who also wrote the film and the film is produced by Sudhan Sundaram and Jagadish Palanisamy.
Maharaja was theatrically released on 14 June 2024 in cinemas. The film received positive reviews from critics who praised the story, screenplay, writing, editing, and performance of the lead cast. Reportedly made on a budget of 20 crores, the film grossed over 100 crores globally becoming a commercial success and emerged as the second highest grossing Tamil film of 2024 as of now.
Maharaja is a story about a barber (played by Vijay Sethupathi) residing in Chennai. Maharaja lost his wife in an accident and is survived by a daughter. When his daughter travels out of Chennai, Maharaja suffers a robbery at this house and he reports it at the police station with a hidden agenda. Selvam (played by Anurag Kashyap) is a hardcore criminal who raids houses murders the women in the houses and steals their valuable items. Selvam and Maharaja share a history and a decade later after coming out from jail, Selvam avenges Maharaja along with two other criminals.
It is the most-watched film on the digital platform
After a successful theatrical run, Maharaja was released on Netflix on 12 July 2024. On Netflix, the film received widespread critical acclaim within a few days. The film was trending globally on Netflix. The viewers were stunned, shocked, and surprised by the twist element in the climax of the film. Whereas Vijay Sethupathi was highly praised for his performance. Social media is bursting with users sharing their experiences after watching Maharaja. Many film celebrities from Telugu, Malayalam, and Hindi film industry are flattering the film. Several people who speak and understand only Hindi are enjoying this film since the movie is available in Hindi language. The movie is available in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam languages as well.
Maharaja is said to be Vijay Sethupathi’s career’s best performance. Though the actor has starred in many films and has performed supremely well. It is hard to call Maharaja his best performance as he is a great artist and performs every role to excellence. The actor even won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing the character of a trans woman in the 2019 film Super Deluxe. Before Maharaja¸ Vijay Sethupathi starred as the main antagonist opposite Shahrukh Khan in director Atlee’s 2023 pan Indian film Jawan. Jawan is one of the highest-grossing Indian films ever and a landmark film for Vijay Sethupathi. But Maharaja is career career-defining film for him and the Tamil film industry. Maharaja is certainly one of the best Indian thriller films of all time.
Besides Vijay Sethupathi, it was Anurag Kashyap who surprised everyone with his spectacular performance in a negative role. Now, Anurag Kashyap is not a daily actor. He is a noted filmmaker known particularly for directing several critically acclaimed movies and producing films as well. Though, he takes up the acting job in some cases. And definitely, no other actor could have performed Selvam in Maharaja better than him. Anurag Kashyap has received widespread fame and several awards for directing, writing and producing quite a few critical acclaim films such as Satya (1998), Black Friday (2004), Dev.D (2009, Gulal (2009), Udaan (2010), Gangs of Wasseypur Part & Part 2 (2013), The Lunchbox (2013), Queen (2014), Ugly (2014), Massan (2015) and the widespread critically acclaim TV series Scared Games (2018). Anurag Kashyap has often done cameo or guest appearances as an actor in many films but Maharaja is the first time where he played a full-fledged role as an antagonist.
Maharaja is written and directed by Nithilan Swaminathan who narrated the script to Vijay Sethupathi. Vijay Sethupathi was mighty impressed with the story and was immediately signed as the lead actor. It was Vijay Sethupathi’s 50th film and was officially announced on 1 February 2023 as VJ50. The film was wrapped up in July after shooting a major portion of the film. Later the title of the film was officially announced. And, Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, and Natarajan Subramaniam were announced as the additional lead cast. The music of the film is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, the cinematography is done by Dinesh Purushothaman with the editing is done by Philomin Raj.
Maharaja was selected as one of the films at the closing night selection at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and premiered in Los Angeles. Recently popular Indian film celebrity Katrina Kaif called Maharaja as a mind-blowing film. The actress recently shared the screen with Vijay Sethupathi in the 2024 mystery thriller film titled Merry Christmas directed by noted filmmaker Sriram Raghavan. The film starred Katrina and Vijay in the lead.
It is reported that popular film actor and one of India’s biggest superstars Aamir Khan has purchased the remake rights of Maharaja and he is all set to produce the film as well. Besides he will star in the lead and play Vijay Sethupathi’s role. The Hindi remake strategy of Maharaja seems to be a disastrous move since the film is available on Netflix in Hindi language and is already seen by thousands of users. The Hindi remake will release at least a year later and the original film on Netflix will be already seen by millions of users. So, the remake idea is already a catastrophe. But surely Aamir Khan can remake the film with a new twist element or bring some changes to the script.
The remake of Maharaja in any language has not been officially announced yet.