The opening credits of Daaku Maharaaj introduce Balakrishna with the tag ‘god of masses’. A little later, in the introduction scene, Balakrishna calls himself the “god of death” and delivers a dialogue, “I did Masters in Murders”. The interval is announced with the words, ‘All rise up for the king of Chambal’ and in the second half of the movie, a key character defines Balakrishna as a ‘wild animal.’ That in short should explain the direction and purpose of the film which was released around the time when Balakrishna had completed 50 years in the film industry.
The parameters for Balakrishna’s movies are the ‘highs’ and emotional quotient rather than logic or innovative storytelling. To sum up, Balakrishna’s movie is a blockbuster if his fans can rise up and hoot for his action scenes. In Balakrishna’s universe, Daaku Maharaaj is a marvel which absolutely delivers what it promised. In fact, compared to his recent releases, Daaku Maharaaj has more substance and freshness.
We are introduced to the picturesque plantations of Madanapalle where a respectable family, which manages a school runs into trouble with the local MLA (Ravi Kishan). The head of the family is played by Sachin Khedekar whose family members include his daughter, played by Chandni Chowdary, and his granddaughter, Vaishnavi. The MLA’s brother, who took the property of the family on lease, misuses it for illegal wildlife smuggling. The family wants the MLA and his brother to face the law and, in return, the legislator lets loose a reign of terror on the family traumatising the child, Vaishnavi. One member of the family staff (Makarand Deshpande) sends out a message through a mediator to Nanaji (Balakrishna).
Now the location shifts to the barren lands of Chambal valley in Madhya Pradesh where Balakrishna is rescued from police custody by a group of bandits owing allegiance to him. Balakrishna then travels down to the south of India and joins the family as a driver with the intention of protecting the child, Vaishnavi. The next set of action sequences involves him getting into conflict with the MLA’s men. Notable is the fact that barring a song where he romances Urvashi Rautela, who plays a cop, the rest of the movie has no trace of vulgar display of romance. The movie has more to it than MLA, Madanapalle and Nanaji, as Gujjars, Thakurs and water issues of Madhya Pradesh are thrown in.
A clean-shaven Balakrishna appears as an engineer working for the central government who lands up in the Chambal region to help the villagers get access to water. The second half has answers to the transition of the civil engineer to Daaku Maharaaj to Nanaji, how the Chambal valley is connected to the Madanapalle and the relation between Vaishnavi and the hero.
Bobby Deol plays a villain who belongs to a Thakur family of three brothers who ought to kill Balakrishna. He appears in his stylish self. The characters in the movie have been written well and justify their roles. The plot and characters justify revenge and action scenes which are visually entertaining.
Thaman’s background music is the biggest asset to the film, especially while elevating Balakrishna’s heroics and reminding the audience of Anirudh’s work which made a valuable contribution to the Rajnikanth-starrer Jailer. Director Bobby has crafted a success with the product where exaggeration was kept under control and the reel rolled on smoothly without much boredom or cringe.
Film: Daaku Maharaaj
Director: Bobby Kolli
Cast: Balakrishna, Pragya Jaiswal, Sachin Khedekar, Shraddha Srinath, Bobby Deol, Urvashi Rautela, Chandni Chowdary
Rating: 3.5/5