‘The Raja Saab’ movie review: A bizarre spectacle where the joke never lands

Early connected successful The Raja Saab, a wellness scare prompts Prabhas to inquire comedian Mahesh Achanta to fetch an unusual assortment of items, from footwear to cigarettes. When Mahesh asks if helium is serious, Prabhas snaps backmost with: bash the needful — telephone an ambulance. The speech is meant to beryllium funny, but it lands flat, mounting the code for what follows.

Written and directed by Maruthi, The Raja Saab aims to rewind Telugu cinema to a pre-Baahubali Prabhas — erstwhile helium thrived successful light-hearted roles with abstraction for romance and comedy, à la Darling oregon Mr Perfect. The histrion appears consenting to clasp this blend of horror, comedy, phantasy and romance. Yet the movie collapses into a baffling hotchpotch that squanders a promising premise. At 189 minutes, it becomes an endurance test, wherever the occasional spark of amusive is smothered by a dull, meandering narrative.

It is hard to look past the aerial of artifice that hangs implicit the movie from the outset. The communicative opens with glimpses into the lives of Raju (Prabhas) and his grandma (Zarina Wahab), who is gradually losing her bearings to Alzheimer’s. Yet adjacent these simple, mundane moments deficiency conviction, due to the fact that the satellite they inhabit ne'er feels real. The location and the neighbourhood lucifer a constructed movie acceptable alternatively than spaces that person been lived in.

The makers whitethorn person chosen sets implicit existent locations, fixed the beingness of an A-list prima and the logistical challenges of assemblage control. Fair enough. But cinema has repeatedly shown that adjacent constructed spaces tin consciousness lived-in and convincing capable to gully viewers into the communicative and its characters. Here, the make-believe satellite remains flimsy until the communicative shifts to a dilapidated, supposedly haunted location heavy successful the jungle.

A important information of the play unfolds wrong this abandoned mansion. The accumulation plan by Rajeevan Nambiar — filled with statues, props and hypnotic spiral motifs that echo the story’s caput games — does make the requisite ocular mood. On paper, it should work.

When Prabhas, joined by Malavika Mohanan, VTV Ganesh, Satya, Nidhhi Agerwal, Saptagiri and aboriginal Riddhi Kumar, finds himself trapped successful this fearfulness location with nary evident mode out, 1 expects the fearfulness to beryllium palpable. Instead, barring an occasional leap scare and a stunt involving a VFX-generated crocodile, the hostility ne'er materialises. None of the characters look genuinely frightened; they behave arsenic though they are connected a spirited escapade weekend. There is adjacent a throwaway mentation involving a magic wardrobe to warrant the starring women’s immaculate styling, alongside casual chatter astir sunscreen and moisturisers. Haunted house, did anyone say?

At its core, The Raja Saab hinges connected a backstory from the younger years of the quality played by Zarina Wahab. A glimpse of what Sanjay Dutt’s quality is up to successful this section carries the makings of genuinely unsettling horror. Yet the penning fails to excavation this potential, offering neither sustained creepiness nor an emotionally engaging drama.

Zarina Wahab is stoic and effortlessly regal arsenic a pistillate who has been profoundly wronged. Had her narration with Prabhas been etched with greater care, immoderate of the film’s aimless stretches mightiness person been forgivable. Boman Irani appears briefly, nudging the communicative towards an intriguing strand of intelligence caput games, but adjacent this detour is not capable to rescue the film.

Prabhas makes an earnest effort and seems to relish playing a lighter, much playful character, though inconsistent looks and uneven dialog transportation successful places beryllium distracting. As for the 3 starring women, they are saddled with flimsy characterisations that hardly merit comment.

The overlong climax — stretching beyond 30 minutes — stages an absorbing clash of forces, fought mostly arsenic a conflict of wits. By then, however, it is acold excessively precocious to redeem a movie that feels lazily written and executed. Several scenes look to person been changeable against greenish screens and heavy propped up by ocular effects, further distancing the spectator emotionally.

In The Raja Saab, characters find themselves trapped successful a haunted location with nary casual escape. Ironically, watching the movie successful a theatre tin consciousness overmuch the same. When the last moments tease a sequel — The Raja Saab: Circus — it lands little arsenic a committedness and much arsenic a threat. As the archetypal of 5 Sankranti 2026 releases, the movie arrives during a play erstwhile audiences are usually indulgent, provided determination is immoderate amusive to beryllium had. Unfortunately, this 1 is simply a slog.