Paresh C Palicha reviews Malayalam film Maharaja Talkies. Post YOUR reviews here!
Every filmmaker aspires to make an impact with their first film. While some rope in stars to gain acceptance at the box office; others heavily rely on their stories to garner success.
Debutante director Devidas Chelanatt goes for both techniques for his film Maharaja Talkies, telling the story of difficulties faced by the owners of C class theatres in a rural region. He makes use of Urvashi's stardom to get through to his audience.
In a way it is heartening to see people reposing their faith in the female lead to shoulder the responsibility of a film (Urvashi has been doing this since she made a comeback with Madhuchandralekha in 2005). But, there is hardly anything else that keeps us buoyed by this film.
Written by Saji Damodar, this film offers little else except for Urvashi. It does not offer any deep analysis of the problems of the owners of such theatres let alone when a single woman is running it. It just ends up as the story of a rivalry between two personalities in the Godfather fashion.
There is Urvashi on one side, who has inherited the theatre from her mother and on the other side there is Vijayraghavan whose ancestors had sold this theatre to Urvashi's when they were in financial difficulty. Now, he wants to reclaim that property and build a modern theatre with DTS system and Air Conditioning. Do we need to dwell on the story any more?
Urvashi has three younger sisters whom she has brought up single handedly after their father deserted them for another woman and their mother died out of shock.
As pointed earlier, there is no discussion about the trouble such theatres are going through. Our leading lady runs hers by showing squeaky clean entertainers for families and gets house full on weekends and festive seasons. And, guess that is enough for her and her siblings to survive.
Urvashi exploits all her histrionic prowess to steam roll this drudgery forward. Mukesh comes in handy as Panchayat secretary and her former boyfriend. And, there are comedians like Harisree Asokan, Idduki Jaffar and others doing the standard stuff. But, none can lift the mundane material to a level that is watchable.
Final words, Maharaja Talkies is not worth the time even if you were a die-hard Urvarshi fan.
Rediff Rating: 
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