Rajkummar Rao rules and roars in a tenacious but tried-and-tested crime drama – Firstpost

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Manushi Chhillar, Saurabh Shukla, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Saurabh Sachdeva

Director: Pulkit

Language: Hindi

Rajkummar Rao was almost unrecognizable when he first appeared in Dibakar Banerjee’s remarkable Love Sex Aur Dhokha 15 years back. He was an uncommon common man who has a sexual relationship with a sales woman only so that he can brag about this achievement to his friends. He even records the raunchy and roaring rendezvous that borders on the creepy and chilling. Some of the nuances of his repertoire are hidden with classic mass and masala comments that unfortunately were never celebrated as much as they deserved. Post the pandemic, there has been an unhealthy obsession to watch bodies being sliced and blood pouring out of every possible organ. So the actor has jumped into the bandwagon.

This not only allows him to satiate the nation’s appetite but also expand his own capacity as a performer. So with Maalik, we see him in his most heroic form yet. He plays a common man again who’s challenged by overwhelming circumstances. It’s a trope that was marvellously explored in titles like Satya, Vaastav, and the middling Raees with Shah Rukh Khan. There’s a dream but one stroke of reality changes everything. The film is based in Allahabad so the rustic flavor and fervor is taken care of. Maalik is an orgy of bone-crushing action, bloodbath, and bullet shots so intensified that Sandeep Reddy Vanga would surely be gratified. There’s a good masala like about Majboor baap and mazboot beta. And Rao is having a blast playing this larger than life character he has not dabbled with before.

The ensemble is almost contagious. We have Saurabh Shukla and Prosenjit Chatterjee who lock horns with the eponymous character. Chatterjee enters the scene that’s juxtaposed by Maalik’s line that says that Hume Maarne Waala Paida Hi Nahin Hua. This is a conflict that Sanjay Gupta and Milan Luthria have milked quite a few times in their stories. But director Pulkit, who also made the meticulously crafted Bose with Rajkummar Rao, makes Maalik tenacious even if the narrative is tried and tested. And Saurabh Shukla is adorable and delightful no matter whose side his money is on. He can be evil and entertaining together if thrown into such devilish world. Raid 2 is the recent example. And then there’s Saurabh Sachdeva, who comes back to the big screen in a haunting fashion only the way he can. To deflate the horror of his persona, the makers do the right thing by casting Manushi Chhillar who looks like a breeze, and adds a lot of breeze into Maalik’s claustrophobic life as well.

Rising from the ashes… and back to ashes

There’s another inevitable factor in telling the tale about a man that rises from the ashes, that he ultimately has to go back to the ashes. His destiny made him who he is today, and it’s nothing but Karma that makes him go back to where it all began, or maybe where he could or should have gone.

But the question here is how long can this trope survive? The visceral visuals, the bruised souls, the battered bodies, the badassery of barbarism—Everything seems to have become rousing instead of repulsive. It seems it’s impossible to root for the hero unless he breaks a few bones. He can stand up for his people not before he has mutilated the monsters around him. The restrained form of storytelling rooted in heartland seems to have evaporated into oblivion. We can barely make titles like Gangaajal and Sehar. We need over the top and exaggerated stories and characters. We need the old wine. Bottle be dammed!

Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)

Maalik is now playing in cinemas