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Wednesday 12 February 2025
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Utharavu Maharaja Movie Review

The movie starts off with a title card mentioning the main two characters and their sole definition – Prabhu acts and Udhaya reacts. This gives us enough details about what the plot would be.

The story happens in various timelines and we see Udhaya (Ravi) in different states of mind with his DID syndrome (Dissociative Identity Disorder) which is not different from Ambi’s in Anniyan. But, what Ravi goes through is totally uncertain until we get a clear picture in the interval when the first knot of the screenplay is untied.

There are some aspirational moments in the film like an Indian girl going to Mars and Raja Raja Cholan’s warriors coming back to life. With such instances, writer and director Asif Kuraishi has articulated everything without letting his audience get confused because of the four different timelines his story has. Finally, when he gives an explanation through a couple of monologues, that seem to be quite dramatic, he delivers a new twist to the plot.

When it comes to Prabhu vs Udhaya, in terms of performances, Prabhu establishes organically that he is a bit more experienced one to handle close-up frames. However, there are some Udhaya-moments in the film where he has been given wider space to emote on screen.

Na Muthukumar conveyed the crux of the movie in four minutes. But, this philosophical intensity of the whole movie was the same element that backfired at times when Asif tries to say a lot in a limited time.

With a little more effort from the cast and scriptwriter, Utharavu Maharaja could have been even better. Nevertheless, the movie that starts off in a complicated structure, sets itself on track to end with its ideology conveyed well.

Though Sriman, who plays a cop, keeps asking Ravi, “Who are you man?” like Padayappa Neelambari, I’m pretty sure most of the audience know who he is, even before the end of the first half. And when the final reveal happens, we are left with no choice but to echo MS Bhaskar’s dialogue in the film, “Yemaam padam parthu irupen, idhu kudava theriyama irupanga?”

Just when we think the film is over, Udhaya stares at the camera and begins a never-ending monologue, followed by a song that goes “Enna vena enna vena enna vena pannu da.” Maybe the director Asif Kuraishi mistook this as motivation and came up with Utharavu Mahraja’s script.




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