Very few of the adaptations from theater to cinema went right [Othello- Omkara and Macbeth- Maqbool] others became a sordid tale. ‘Maharathi’ being a successful Gujrati play which ran for 700 shows since 1987 in Gujarat makes its big-screen appearance but lacks the intensity when it comes to engaging the audience on the silver screen.
Paresh Rawal, who played an unsuccessful actor-conman in the play which he has directed, essayed the same role on the big screen but he still seems to be under the hangover of its theatrical success.
On the other side of it ‘Maharathi’ being a thriller fails in engaging the viewers and in the end director and writer looks in hurry to wind-up the whole affair in a tizzy and that bombs the whole plot.
Subhash [Paresh Rawal] is a small time actor who has been trying unsuccessfully from 10 years to get a chance in the films. He saves a life one night and takes the injured man back home. Subhash is surprised to see the affluence of Adenwalla [Naseeruddin Shah]. Subhash then hired as a driver for Adenwalla which doesn’t go well with his wife Mallika [Neha Dhupia].
Subhash soon realizes Mallika want to kill Adenwalla. While Adenwalla goes insane with her wife’s hunger for money and decides to kill himself and commits suicide!
Subhash finds a chance in this to get rid of his middle class mediocrity and poverty; he joins Mallika to acquire all the money and property of Adenwalla. They together chalk out the plan to go further, for this they take help from family lawyer Mr. Merchant [Boman Irani] who gets a care taker to be a witness to Adenwalla’s presence in the house as an ailing man.
But when everything looks working out for them, enters ACP Gokhale [Om Puri] and inspector Borkar [Vivek Shauq].
Now you must be finding the story very engaging but the biggest problem with ‘Maharathi’ is its limping script which leaves the audience with full lot of question. If Naseer wanted to teach Neha a lesson why would he committed suicide? Why not kill Neha? And can you imagine a person to donate all his money to a stranger who he hardly knows?
Barring some well-executed sequences, the film derails on its script part that is the lacuna with ‘Maharathi’ and for the fact it bothers the audiences or else it could have been an engaging thriller.
The film has an excellent star cast and the way it was promoted expectancies are inevitably higher. On the performance front Naseeruddin Shah lived up to the expectations. Paresh Rawal as ever hits the chord; Boman Irani looks good while Om Puri would have been better if given a better role. Neha Dhupia is passé.
Overall the film has nothing much more than its star cast…just a passable weekend treat!
