Why is Paresh Rawal’s new film being credited to a 20 year maha-successful gujarati play when its actually a Straight Lift from a James Hadley Chase book called-There’s always a Price Tag(1956)? And who’s this Uttam Gada fellow that the play’s credited to?
After Ketan Mehta’s ill fated Aar-ya-paar(Jackie Shroff/ Deepa Sahi)- Maharathi is the next attempted rip-off from the acknowledged master of pulp-fiction. Since the gujju play has been Paresh Rawal’s pet project for so long, he insists on playing a young-ish swindler who walks into the life of a rich, lonely, neurotic, alcoholic wastrel (Naseeruddin Shah) and immediately gets into loggerheads with his gorgeous but bitchy wife (Neha Duped-ya).
Then when the old man kills himself and leaves behind a twisted will to punish his unfaithful wife, con-man turned car driver Paresh must store the body in a convenient Olympic sized sized Deep Freezer in the kitchen till the cops(led by Om Puri) come in and start asking awkward questions to everyone. Odd questions like-Will Naseer taste better frozen with chocolate syrup or thawed and well done with barbeque sauce?
For all the intruigue, twists and turns that Chase is famous for-I would recommend the book. Trust me-its shorter than this overly long ‘thriller.’ Meanwhile, director Shivam Nair first spends too much screen time in setting up the ‘crime’ scene and then follows it up with too many scenes that are either loosely written or hurried through. As a result things don’t add up as they should and the stench of the corpse begins to filter through to the audience. The heavy wt cast of Naseer, Paresh Rawal,Om puri and Boman Irani are competent enough in the limited scope that the long-wound script affords them but they largely fail to hold the audience’s interest. The screenplay just doesn’t grip. Now, for a crime thriller-that’s a real shame. Maharathi is a very unimaginative and weak Indian entry into the library of umpteen noirish films that have been made on Chase’s books. Get a load of that.
After Ketan Mehta’s ill fated Aar-ya-paar(Jackie Shroff/ Deepa Sahi)- Maharathi is the next attempted rip-off from the acknowledged master of pulp-fiction. Since the gujju play has been Paresh Rawal’s pet project for so long, he insists on playing a young-ish swindler who walks into the life of a rich, lonely, neurotic, alcoholic wastrel (Naseeruddin Shah) and immediately gets into loggerheads with his gorgeous but bitchy wife (Neha Duped-ya).
Then when the old man kills himself and leaves behind a twisted will to punish his unfaithful wife, con-man turned car driver Paresh must store the body in a convenient Olympic sized sized Deep Freezer in the kitchen till the cops(led by Om Puri) come in and start asking awkward questions to everyone. Odd questions like-Will Naseer taste better frozen with chocolate syrup or thawed and well done with barbeque sauce?
For all the intruigue, twists and turns that Chase is famous for-I would recommend the book. Trust me-its shorter than this overly long ‘thriller.’ Meanwhile, director Shivam Nair first spends too much screen time in setting up the ‘crime’ scene and then follows it up with too many scenes that are either loosely written or hurried through. As a result things don’t add up as they should and the stench of the corpse begins to filter through to the audience. The heavy wt cast of Naseer, Paresh Rawal,Om puri and Boman Irani are competent enough in the limited scope that the long-wound script affords them but they largely fail to hold the audience’s interest. The screenplay just doesn’t grip. Now, for a crime thriller-that’s a real shame. Maharathi is a very unimaginative and weak Indian entry into the library of umpteen noirish films that have been made on Chase’s books. Get a load of that.
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