This article may contain spoilers
If one were to pinpoint the most important character in Maharaja (2024), it would be Lakshmi: the dustbin that Maharaja (Vijay Sethupathi) seeks to find. Lakshmi not just helps us keep track of the film바카라s non-linear timeline바카라it does much more. It embodies the profound paradox that drives this thriller. While the cops are busy investing this seemingly worthless object with human value, a human being is reduced to an object as the story unwinds.바카라
Nithilan Swaminathan바카라s Maharaja is Sethupathi바카라s 50th film as the lead actor. It broke all records by becoming the most-watched Indian film on Netflix, after its release in July 2024. Although it바카라s got rapturous reception even beyond the Tamil-speaking audiences, it has also rejuvenated the debates around the representation of sexual violence on screen. Some critics have opined that Indian filmmakers need to move beyond the rape-revenge plot and stop milking vigilante justice for commercial gains. Even as such criticism is sound and sincere, it overshoots a more layered reading of Maharaja. A closer look at the film reveals its attempts to unravel the well-exhausted conventions of the rape-revenge formula in Indian commercial cinema.바카라
In Maharaja, Lakshmi is amusingly introduced as a distinct character from the outset. The audience knows that there is something more to its backstory than what is given away. Maharaja, a middle-aged barber, keeps reiterating a peculiar account of the burglary at his home, like a broken tape recorder, at the police station. He talks about Lakshmi with such sincerity and pathos that it leaves the listeners astounded when they find out that it is a...dustbin. They crave more information: Is Lakshmi made of valuable metal? Does it contain hidden riches? Has Maharaja concealed illicit money he doesn바카라t want to reveal? A dustbin becomes the pretext for a treasure hunt.바카라바카라
This comical trail eventually turns macabre. The viewers find out that Maharaja바카라s visits to the police station are actually to trace his daughter Jothi바카라s (Sachana Namidass) rapists. The police바카라s hunt for Lakshmi is interspersed with the classic rape-revenge mission, which Maharaja embarks on. But these parallel narrative strands merge to subvert the formula 바카라 the police collude with the vigilante, rather than the criminal. While the State바카라s failure in delivering justice in such cases remains the overarching theme, it is fascinating to note the conscientious turn in the police바카라s depiction.
But something else makes Maharaja remarkable: its climax. Seldom does an Indian film show a sexual violence survivor confronting her perpetrator. It truly transforms the 바카라victim바카라 into a 바카라survivor바카라, who wants to know why she was brutalised. Maharaja allows Jothi to assert herself in the narrative. No longer an 바카라object바카라 of sympathy for men, she becomes a 바카라subject바카라 who reclaims her autonomy from the violator. Though Maharaja goes on an overdrive of revenge, Jothi compels him to leave the main perpetrator, Selvam (Anurag Kashyap), alive so she can have the last word.
Upon meeting Selvam, Jothi flings her gold jewellery at him, giving him what he came for. Her gesture inverts the conventional patriarchal notion that a woman is 바카라robbed바카라 when she is raped 바카라 of honour, of dignity, of purpose. It smashes the idea that sexual violence defines a survivor. She proclaims that Selvam could only rob her house, not her self-respect. 바카라If you have a daughter, ask her how many like you we have to encounter every day바카라, she states. 바카라You haven바카라t spared my life; I have spared yours바카라. It is not an angry outburst or a thundering declaration바카라 just a simple conversation. Calm and composed, Jothi lets Selvam know that she will move past the violence and resume her life.바카라And that바카라s what sets Maharaja apart.
