Maharaja

Story:

Nithilan Saminathan is the director of the 2024 Tamil-language action thriller Maharaja. Think Studios, Passion Studios, and The Route collaborated in its production. In addition to Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, Natarajan Subramaniam, Abhirami Gopikumar, Divyabharathi, Singampuli, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Sachana Namidass, Manikandan, and Bharathiraja, the film’s title star is Vijay Sethupathi. In the movie, a Chennai barber named Maharaja goes to the police station to get his stolen trash can, but the authorities discover that he has other plans.

The project, which is Sethupathi’s 50th feature as the lead actor, was formally announced in February 2023 with the provisional title VJS50. The same month saw the start of principal photography, which mostly took place in Chennai over the course of one schedule. The official title was announced in July, coinciding with the filming being wrapped and Think Studios by joining as co-producers. The film has music composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, cinematography handled by Dinesh Purushothaman and editing by Philomin Raj.

Critics applauded Sethupathi’s performance, Philomin’s editing, and Swaminathan’s screenplay and direction in Maharaja, which was released globally on June 14, 2024, to great success at the box office. It became one of the biggest-grossing Tamil films of 2024 and set the record for the highest opening weekend in Tamil cinema.

Plot

Maharaja, a calm man, is a barber at Chennai’s Ramki Saloon. His wife dies after a truck crashes into a residence he and his family are visiting one day. When a garbage falls and covers his daughter Jothi, she survives. The dustbin is affectionately named “Lakshmi” by the Maharaja and Jothi.

To the cops’ amusement, Maharaja goes to the local police station one day to report a robbery, claiming that Lakshmi has been robbed. He describes how an armed gang broke into his home, assaulted him, and kidnapped Lakshmi. The cops agree to a payment of ₹5 lakhs for the criminals, but they don’t want to put in the work to find an empty trash can.

Past (2009): Two crooks named Selvam and Sabari rob homes, rape women, and then murder them. Selvam leads a happy life with his wife Kokila and their infant daughter Ammu, who is unaware of his true occupation. Sabari tells Selvam one day that the press has reported on their crimes. During the phone call, Selvam is in Ramki Saloon getting his beard cut, and he believes Maharaja overheard. He leaves but forgets a gold chain at the saloon that he wants to gift Ammu on her birthday. Maharaja visits Selvam’s house to return it, but the police simultaneously arrive, gun down Sabari, and arrest Selvam, who believes that Maharaja exposed him. Kokila gets shocked after knowing the truth and disowns Selvam.

Present (2024): Maharaja watches a delinquent named Dhana, who works in a car garage, get into a brawl at a bar. In the meantime, Nallasivam consents to pretend to be the offender in order to “solve” the trashcan issue. In order for Nallasivam to respond appropriately, the police call Maharaja and ask him to recount the incident.

Maharaja describes the incident, but a flashback shows what actually happened, showing that Jothi, not him, was the victim. While Maharaja was still at work, Jothi had come home from a sports camp that her P.T. teacher Aasifa had organized. Three males who have been identified as Selvam, Dhana, and Nallasivam are at the residence with the intention of killing him. Even if Maharaja isn’t home, Selvam still thinks that 14 years ago, he betrayed him and promised retribution. Rather, Jothi is physically abused by the three, and Nallasivam repeatedly rapes her. Jothi is in the hospital. Back home, Maharaja finds out about Dhana’s previous bar altercation from a dropped receipt. Before Maharaja beheads him, Dhana discloses that one of his accomplices is actually inside the police station.

At this point, as seen at the beginning, he goes to the police station and makes up a tale about how his trash can was taken. Nallasivam, who is now a little agitated, is brought to the Maharaja’s house by Inspector Varadharajan and his group to return the dustbin. Varadharajan then reveals that his team had discovered Nallasivam’s involvement in the rape of Jothi while investigating Dhana’s death. Thus, they carried out the ruse of bringing him to Maharaja for vigilante justice, giving Maharaja the freedom to punish him.

Before killing him, the Maharaja discovers the identity of the third collaborator. When he gets to the construction site where Selvam works, he renders him incapable of working and, per her request, delivers Jothi to him. Assuming that he had come to their house for the jewelry, Jothi throws a sack of it in his face. Selvam finds the gold chain that he had bought for Ammu on her birthday—the very one that Maharaja had come to return so many years earlier.

Additional background reveals the entire scene from the initial death of Maharaja’s wife. Kokila’s new home was visited by Maharaja, his wife, and their infant to return the chain following Selvam’s detention. When Maharaja went to the store across the street to buy Ammu a present, a truck crashed into Kokila’s house, killing everyone but Ammu, who was spared by Lakshmi, the garbage. After adopting Ammu, the Maharaja renamed her Jothi and brought her up as his own daughter. Upon discovering that Jothi’s shoulder bears the same scar as Ammu’s, Selvam realizes that he unintentionally assisted in his own daughter’s rape and assault. Maharaja, Ammu, and her instructor Aasifa depart.