When people deconstruct the artistic value of massy, commercial cinema, it becomes easy to ignore the craft required to make these films work. These are often films where the makers need to walk the tight rope between predictability and surprise, never letting the audience get either too comfortable or too confused with the turn of events. In Daaku Maharajamidst its use of several cliched tropes, Bobby Kolli weaves in a moment where a harmless detail about a midnight snack returns as a rousing callback during a tense moment where lives are at stake. A similar callback arrives in the final act of the film, with a simple visual of a character running away from the frame only to walk back into the room with small, calculated steps. And yet, since you have seen this exact gait before, you know what’s coming. In Daaku MaharajBobby Kolli is aware of his material, his potential, and his ambitions—and all of them fortunately come together to produce an enjoyable, albeit conventional, film.
What remains surprising is the director’s attempt to bring a visual style to his narrative even when he isn’t busy staging the outlandish action sequences. During some of the hero-elevation moments early on, one can see the director struggling to maintain a rhythm. While the pre-interval portions are fairly run-of-the-mill, things never get boring—and Bobby manages to hold a grip even as the film veers into the flashback-driven second half.
Director: Bobby Kolli
Cast: Balakrishna, Bobby Deol, Shraddha Srinath, Pragya Jaiswal, Makarand Deshpande
Comments are closed.