Set in the gritty alleys of late ’80s Allahabad (now Prayagraj, pronounced Illahabad in the film), ‘Maalik’ charts Deepak’s (Rajkummar Rao) raw and relentless rise from a farmer’s son to an underworld don. “Maalik paida toh nahi hue, ban toh sakte gain (I wasn’t born a master, but I can become one),” he declares, a line that sets the tone for a film that’s all about swagger and hardly any substance.
As with any classic Bollywood gangster drama, Deepak’s ambitions don’t sit well with local strongman Chandrasekhar (Saurabh Sachdeva), who sees the rising upstart as a threat to his dominance. Soon, politics, law, and a fair bit of bloodshed enter the fray. These rustic gangster tales were cinematic gold in the late ’90s and early 2000s, with cult hits like ‘Satya’, ‘Company’, ‘Vaastav’, and ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’. But after five years of OTT overload, the bullets in ‘Maalik’ don’t jolt – they just make you yawn.
Director Pulkit builds the world of ‘Maalik’ with ambition, but gets caught in the tropes. The staging is slick in parts, but the narrative rarely lifts beyond the familiar. Stylistically, the film is very much in love with itself. Every punch comes with a thundering background score, every stare magnified for impact. Dialogues boom like Instagram motivational quotes and slo-mo shots linger far longer than your patience. ‘Maalik’ wants to be a mass entertainer, but it also wants to be taken seriously, and that makes it unintentionally funny. The audience is left unsure whether to cheer, roll their eyes, or just scroll on their phone.
And at this moment, you feel sorry for Rajkummar Rao, who’s probably delivered one of his most innate performances ever. The underdog energy evolving into a surging menace will, at one point, make you want to root for him (even when the film could not). Rao seems to relish the swag and darkness of ‘Maalik’, and it’s a genuinely refreshing break from his sweet-middle-class-boy image.
Prosenjit Chatterjee, as the iron-fisted cop, does what he can, though he is also let down by writing that reduces complexity into clichs. Manushi Chhillar is sadly wasted in a role that could’ve been played by her cardboard cutout with a few dubbed lines. Saurabh Shukla, on the other hand, as the manipulative politician, seems to be having more fun than anyone else on set. Huma Qureshi also drops by for a glamorous cameo in the massy number Dil Thaam Ke, adding a momentary spark to the otherwise dark canvas.
If you’re in the mood for brooding, high-octane action and classic Bollywood moral drama, Maalik delivers on those fronts. But its emotional resonance is as thin as the new Samsung phone up for sale. Loyalty, power, revenge: Maalik hits the beats but never surprises, making you question why we need a film that feels so dated. If you still must, watch it for Rajkummar Rao.
– Ends
2 out of 5 stars to Maalik.