A budget of Rs 450 crore, Prabhas, India’s biggest superstar, and the horror-comedy genre, which has been a cash cow for filmmakers in recent years. But the audience that watched “The Raja Saab” is saying things like this about the film:
“I’m already stressed enough in my life, and watching movies like this is making me even more stressed. On one side, there’s buffalo dung, and on the other side, there’s this film called Raja Saab.”
Everyone is trolling the film everywhere. However, this film is outperforming movies like Dhurandhar and Chaava on its first day.
A Rs 450 Crore Prank on the Audience
Yes, the film has touched the Rs 100 crore mark on its first day. And look at the makers’ confidence; they’ve even announced a sequel as “Circus 1935 origin story.”
Now, what they’ll show further is impossible to predict right now, and to be honest, I don’t even want to predict anything because I’m not going to waste my time in the theater again, like I sacrificed my time this time by going to the theater for you.
The Ghajini Dadi and Carefree Raju
So Raju, played by Prabhas, lives with his grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s, meaning she suffers from memory loss, but she can’t forget her husband, Pekamedala Kanakaraju, played by Sanjay Dutt.
On the other hand, Raju is a completely carefree comedian-type guy, but he’s very attached to his grandmother and is ready to do anything for her at a moment’s notice.
A Prabhas’s Worst Entry Ever?
There’s no grand entry for Prabhas. Raju and his grandmother go to the market to buy fish, and some goons are harassing a girl. That’s where Prabhas’s entry happens in the film.
Prabhas is sleeping peacefully on his bike, his face covered by a handkerchief. Seeing what’s happening to the girl, he suddenly wakes up and beats up three or four of the goons right there.
I’ve never seen a worse entry for Prabhas than this.
Anyway,
The story progresses, and one day it’s revealed that Pekamedala Kanakaraju, Prabhas’s grandfather and Ghajini Dadi’s husband, is spotted at the Charminar in Hyderabad.
Raju (Prabhas) discovers this information from a wedding photo shoot picture of someone he knows.
A Logic Left the Chat: The Nun & The Missing Money
So Raju decides to go and find his grandfather. Now, tell me, what should Raju do after arriving in Hyderabad? Obviously, he should look for his grandfather. But look at the writers’ creative choices! They make the film’s hero fall in love with a nun. And that nun is Nidhhi Agerwal.
Listen to what happens next. The nun is about to fall in love with Raju when she discovers that Raju’s grandfather had hypnotized her and stolen three lakh rupees from her bank account. She then files a case against Raju’s grandfather.
And this is where the unnecessary comedy and forced character placements reach their peak.
The nun asks Prabhas for three lakh rupees. Meanwhile, the police inspector, who had promised to find Raju’s grandfather for five lakh rupees, only received two lakh rupees because Raju had already given three lakh rupees to the church for a child’s heart operation.
So the police inspector calls Raju and gives him a hard time. But wait, there’s more! Another heroine makes an entry. While they are wondering how they will repay the nun’s three lakh rupees and the police officer’s three lakh rupees…
Suddenly, a heroine enters with Rs 1 crore. She tells Prabhas that his grandfather had helped her grandfather, so here’s Rs 1 crore. But wait a minute, she says, “I’ll give this Rs 1 crore to your grandfather, not to you.”
Suddenly, three to four goons, out of nowhere, find out about the money and try to snatch the Rs 1 crore and run away.
Now, our mighty Raju fights them, and this wildcard entry also falls in love with Raju.
Please don’t ask what happens to that Rs 1 crore because it’s not shown in the film.
Upon arriving in Hyderabad, Raju is shocked to learn that Pekamedala Kanakaraju, his grandfather, is actually dead and has become a dangerous evil spirit.
As Raju investigates, he discovers that his grandfather’s past was quite dark. He practiced black magic, hypnosis, and other evil things in pursuit of power, money, and immortality.
Then, Prabhas’s close friends and his two girlfriends learn about his grandfather’s mansion. But upon visiting the mansion, it’s revealed that Pekamedala Kanakaraju was no ordinary man. Years ago, he had meticulously planned a major conspiracy against his own family.
Raju’s grandfather, using black magic, married Raju’s grandmother, who was a queen, and seized all her wealth and power.
While it’s understandable that he stole everything, he didn’t enjoy the wealth and property; instead, he stole it and ran away—a bloody thief.
After committing these thefts, he dies one day. But now he wants to come back to life, and to do so, he must kill his wife, Raju’s grandmother, naturally. Therefore, he summons his grandson, Raju, to his mansion.
So Raju and his two girlfriends, Bessy and Bhairavi, go inside the mansion. There, Kanakaraju’s spirit doesn’t bother them with sudden appearances from under the bed, behind the curtains, or with dripping water sounds; instead, he tortures them psychologically and magically.
The film focuses more on mind games, illusions, traps, and hypnosis rather than direct physical violence. And the more they try to leave the mansion, the more entangled they become.
From Horror to Yoga Class: Awakening the 7 Chakras
To escape this situation, they call a specialist, Dr. Padmabhushan, played by Boman Irani, who is a psychologist and paranormal expert.
Now, Dr. Padmabhushan teaches Raju self-hypnosis and how to access his psychic chakras.
Yes, the story isn’t limited to just ghosts and spirits. The plot escalates to Kundalini awakening. Prabhas’s character has to activate all seven chakras to counter Kanakaraju’s hypnosis and dark powers. But Kanakaraju is so powerful that even Padmabhushan fails against him.
And finally, the responsibility falls on Raju. A concept of a parallel world and shifted dimensions is also introduced. Raju finally overpowers and defeats Kanakaraju by creating a parallel world in his mind.
After this, everyone returns to the normal world. But in the end, a joker-like mysterious figure is shown, who resembles Raju. His presence leaves a lingering doubt: has the bloodline and the supernatural cycle truly ended, or is there still more to come?
The Director’s Challenge: Villa No. 17
Look, the story sounds decent enough when you hear it. If you ignore a few illogical things, that is. But its execution is so terrible, and the comedy jokes are so awful that they completely fall flat.
The film’s length is 190 minutes. Yes, it’s more than three hours of torture. But the truth is, the audience was more scared of the film’s length than of the ghosts in it. The people sitting next to me were all wondering when this film would finally end.
Now, seeing such films, Prabhas’ fans must be feeling very bad. To be honest, I’m talking about myself.
Now, as the director himself said, if even one Prabhas fan doesn’t like my film, then come to my house.
So here’s the address: Villa no 17, Kondapur, Kolla Luxuria!!
This Maruti Suzuki director has completely ruined the film and taken things so off track. Sell your house or your business, but you absolutely must return the audience’s money.
There’s the concept of a parallel world. There’s talk of activating the seven chakras. Then there’s also the concept of time travel in different timelines. But why stop there? They could have added the MIB (Men in Black) aliens, brought Arnold from Terminator, Govinda from Avatar, borrowed 2-3 dinosaurs from Jurassic Park, and added Lord Voldemort, werewolves, and Dracula from Harry Potter.
I made a mistake giving them this idea. Who knows, they might copy all my ideas in the next part.
Now, about Prabhas, well, directors make a fool of him by making big promises, just like Om Raut, and then Maruthi did. He said with such confidence that if even one fan is disappointed, they should come to his house. But how an actor as fine as Boman Irani got tricked is beyond me.
Now, talking about the Hindi songs, they were so forgettable that I forgot them the moment I left the theater. On top of that, the film has 3-4 heroines, but they have no impact on the film. Even if you remove them from the story, it wouldn’t make any difference.
The film is being marketed as a horror comedy. But honestly, it’s neither horror nor comedy. A genre hasn’t even been invented in the history of cinema to describe this film. Simply put, director Maruthi couldn’t strike a balance between horror and comedy.
The comedy became too cringeworthy, and the horror was completely ineffective. That’s why there is a saying. Shouldn’t give a monkey a coconut.
A director who has only made a couple of small-budget films is given a big-budget film and a superstar to handle, so this is the inevitable result.
Whether you know it or not, director Maruthi has previously delivered medium-budget hit films. His last few films, like Pakka Commercial, were box office flops. Handling such a huge budget and a superstar like Prabhas was a massive challenge for him.
They shouldn’t try to run the film solely by using Prabhas’s stardom. To put it bluntly, it feels like if you put Sikandhar, BMCM (Bade Miya Chote Miya), and Ganapath in a blender in the right proportions, you might get something like The Raja Saab.
Moreover, the film’s most popular scene, where Prabhas appeared as Raja Saab, was completely missing from the film. I mean, my question to the makers is, what do they think of their audience?
Final Verdict: Saaho Was 1000x Better
Now look, given what these people have done, a second part of the film is highly unlikely, but just imagine for a moment, even 1%, that if they were to attempt such a foolish thing, the post-credit title “Circus 1935” would somehow show Raju, or rather Sanjay Dutt’s, past.
The supernatural curse in the circus began in 1930. Time travel and flashback sequences will be shown.
Now, this mysterious, clown-like figure seen in the shadows is either Raja Saab’s evil clone or reincarnation, who will continue the bloodline curse of his family.
Additionally, as shown in the climax, Kanakaraju is killed. But if Kanakaraju’s soul doesn’t find peace, he can return to a parallel dimension.
So, I’ll say that I feel bad, genuinely bad. Even films like Saaho and Radhe Shyam were 1000 times better than this. But this film is beyond unbearable.
Those who watched the first-day, first-show of this film in this biting cold are not human beings, they are warriors!
Har Har Mahadev.
