Daaku Maharaaj

I don't know if it's too much to ask a basic, decent movie, with bare minimum emotional touch, watching big hero movie from Telugu is frustrating

Balakrishna does everything in his usual style, albeit with the loudness toned down. Urvashi's Butts has got more screentime than her face, Pragya does nothing, Shraddha Srinath surprisingly has got a decent role and did well. Bobby Deol except for fighting cigarettes does nothing.

Technically, movie is super slick with solid cinematography by Vijay Karthik, rousing score by Thaman, fair work by editor Ruben, production values are fine for a Balayya film.

Coming to writer-director Bobby Kolli, don't know how he keeps churning out such half baked movies on a consistent basis, might do commercially well, but they are far from satisfactory.

BOTTOMLINE : It's neither VIKRAM nor JAILER.

Bobby seems to have picked up where he left his villainous role in animal movie.

These type of movies need a ruthless villain and Bobby delivers, your all familiar with Balakrishna style, larger than life character.

The movie is a good weekend entertainer, with a recycled storyline of good vs evil.

The director's of south have found a winning formula of cramming 2 stories into one movie, although highly entertaining and your getting more movie for your buck. Not every movie can pull this off and this is where daaku maharaj leaves you yearning for more.

This movie would have been a solid 10 but, storyline seems rather rushed.

Routine south Indian movie, where hero fights to save a village or a family with some backstory and few elevation scenes.

Positives: 1. Balakrishna performance 2. Thaman background score 3. No cringe comedy between hero and other characters 4. No unnecessary between hero and heroine 5. All the elevations worked well because of Balayya's screen presence

Negatives: 1. No snakes and ladder game between hero and villain. Always hero wins as in all the south Indian movies 2. Few emotions didn't work well 3. Few scenes in the second half are not that engaging and felt bore 4. Multiple villains just to extend the storyline and have more fights 5. Few illogical scenes from direction point of view.

Nandamuri Balakrishna has been delivering solid mass entertainers since Akhanda. With a careful approach to script selection and collaborations with young directors, he's been connecting with a new generation of audiences. Expectations were naturally high for Daaku Maharaaj, especially with director Bobby, who previously delivered a blockbuster with Chiranjeevi. The trailer, packed with slick visuals and stylish sequences, only amplified the hype.

Balakrishna looks incredibly stylish in the first half, with cinematographer Vijay Karthik's striking visuals and dark tones giving the movie a Hollywood feel. Bobby's sleek direction and fresh presentation keep the first half engaging, despite the kid-sentiment subplot feeling repetitive-it's reminiscent of Balakrishna's previous film Bhagavat Kesari. Still, the stylish execution and the mystery surrounding Balakrishna's protection of the little girl maintain interest. The baby girl, who is central to the story, delivers a commendable performance. Urvashi Rautela's role feels unnecessary, but her glamorous presence caters to mass appeal. The "Dabidi Dibidi" song is a highlight for fans. Interestingly, the real heroines don't appear until the second half, an unusual choice. The interval bang, featuring the introduction of Bobby Deol as the antagonist, is well-executed and exciting.

The second half, however, falters. The setup of oppressed common people suffering under corrupt villains has been explored in countless films like Khaleja, KGF, and even the recent Saripodhaa Sanivaaram. The storyline lacks freshness, and themes of drugs and smuggling evoke comparisons to Vikram and Leo.

Among the heroines, only Shraddha Srinath gets a somewhat meaningful role, though her sudden brotherly bond with Balakrishna's character feels unconvincing. Pragya Jaiswal's character, unfortunately, lacks depth. Similarly, Bobby Deol's antagonist feels half-baked-his confrontation scenes with Balakrishna lack the impact they should have had. Balakrishna's Daaku persona is let down by weak makeup and inconsistent character depth. While his rugged look with a bull beard stands out, his clean-shaven appearance as an engineer doesn't quite fit the intense action sequences. The transformation into the Daaku could have been more gradual and impactful. Additionally, the scenes where his followers kneel in awe feel overly theatrical.

The remaining cast does their job adequately, but many actors sadly end up as padding artists, with little to contribute to the story.

Thaman's background score is one of the movie's strongest aspects. The Daaku theme is outstanding and at times feels reminiscent of Anirudh's style, showing Thaman's versatility. His music elevates many key moments. Vijay Karthik's cinematography is another highlight. His work, as seen in Jailer, brings a unique visual flair to Daaku Maharaaj. His use of color schemes and lighting makes Balakrishna's stylish portrayal stand out, especially in the first half.

Director Bobby aimed to repackage Balakrishna for Gen Z audiences with a stylish narrative and mass-elevation moments, and he succeeded in that regard. However, the film's story and core themes feel overly familiar, lacking the novelty to truly stand out.

You can watch Daaku Maharaaj for Balakrishna's new look, his signature dialogues, and the stylish execution. Just don't expect an innovative or groundbreaking story.

IDaaku Maharaaj is a new Telugu language movie directed by Bobby Kolli and it stars Balakrishna, Pragya Jaiswal, Shradha Srinath and Bobby Deol with a cameo appearance by Urvashi Rautela. This movie tracks well with Balakrishna template where he is introduced as nobody but has a flashback where was a savior of people and he unleashes that fierceness in the climax. No surprises there. This movie was as predictable as sunrise and sunset.

While there is nothing wrong with formulaic commercial mass movies, the way this particular movie is written is an insult to the audience. The makers planned a "high elevation" scene every 10 minutes where we see Balakrishna uttering a senseless "punch dialogue" to cater to the "masses" followed by equally senseless songs with disgusting lyrics disguised as "mass numbers" all the while aided by S. Thaman's raucous background score that he lifted from Anirudh's Jailer theme "Alapara" and Hans Zimmer's Dune desert bass. Fortunately, this movie was not as loud as his other recent works so that's a concession, I guess.

While the movie shows so many objectionable scenes, especially involving little girls and women, the audience have to come accept that these form the core of a "Balakrishna Template". This is an unfortunate development where the audience make this kind of low effort scrap a commercial success. I cringed a little every time Balakrishna spanks the female lead in the movie. If that is not enough, the director Bobby Kolli made a little girl, probably a 6 year old, spank the female lead for Balakrishna in the name of "mass". Not stopping there, the liberal use of double entendres which leave no room for imagination is low even for Balakrishna's standards. The screenplay leaves no element of surprise by providing you exactly what you'd expect to happen exactly at the time you'd expect to happen.

What felt fresh, again for a Balakrishna template, was the cinematography. They were more subdued than a typical Balakrishna movie. However, the color grading was all over the place. There are scenes where excessive grunge effect was applied turning blood into a black colored liquid, again, presumably, to appease to the masses I guess.

Bottomline: This movie was a low effort scrap that caters to very specific set of audience.