Integritus Prime

I watched the Netflix film Maharaja recently with increasing levels of horror. The film stars Vijay Sethupati as Maharaja, a barber with a daughter. The story (spoiler alert – don’t read on if you haven’t seen this film!) isn’t as simple as that though. From the beginning, the storytelling binds the viewer in a narrative that we later learn is false.

Maharaja is seeking “Lakshmi” – the name he has given to a dirty and dented metal dustbin, that fell on his daughter when she was little, during an accident, and saved her life. Maharaja lost his wife in that accident, and we see that he dotes on his daughter, Jothi: she means everything to him. Lakshmi, the dustbin, is important to him because it saved Jothi, or so we are led to believe.

In Maharaja’s narrative, as he explains over and over to the police, someone has stolen Lakshmi after ransacking his home and assaulting him physically. The police are bewildered, but because they find out that Maharaja has money, they decide to find Laskhmi for him for a large payoff. Instead of diligently looking for the dustbin, their corruption is evidenced by their endeavor to have a dustbin made and pass it off as the original. Their theory is that if Maharaja is willing to pay 7 lakhs for a dirty and dented dustbin, there must be something valuable hidden inside it.

As the story tightens its grip on the viewer, we learn that Lakshmi wasn’t stolen from Maharaja’s home. We learn that it wasn’t Maharaja who was assaulted. His daughter, now a teenager and an athlete, was gang-raped by two men, while a third, their leader, beat her to subdue her before the rape. The leader, Selvam, played incredibly well by director-actor Anurag Kashyap, also has a daughter and a wife, but he beats this young woman so mercilessly. He is taking revenge for what he believes to be true: that Maharaja told the cops about his crimes and got him sent to prison. He is wrong, as we find out later.

His fellow thieves, Nallasivam and Sabari, represent the shocking truth of rape culture. Nallasivam rapes the teenager (Jothi is played by Sachana Namidass) twice because his wife is out of town and he wants sex. Sabari has raped before, so for him, rape is shown as a norm.

The violence that ensues is also horrific: Maharaja finds the two rapists and beheads them one by one. His rage matches the tender love he has always had for his daughter. Even the police, once they find out about the rape, support and sanction the murder of Nallasivam by Maharaja.

The most gripping part of the storyline happens when Maharaja confronts Selvam in a highrise that is still under construction – they hit each other until Maharaja is able to subdue Selvam. There is confusion, an intentional weaving of the narrative across past and present to keep the viewer guessing, but at the end we find out, as Jothi speaks to a badly beaten Selvam, assuring him that she will move on from what has been done to her, and leaves him with jewelry from their house, which presumably Selvam had failed to steal. In that pile of jewelry, Selvam finds a pendant on a chain that he had picked out for his own daughter, Ammu, over a decade ago. He is confused, and then we see a fateful flashback.

The accident that killed Maharaja’s wife, also killed his daughter, Jothi. That accident occurred when Maharaja, his wife and Jothi were at Selvam’s house returning the necklace that Selvam had dropped in Maharaja’s barbershop while having his beard trimmed. Selvam’s wife was refusing the necklace, saying Selvam had bought it with tainted money. Selva, meanwhile was in jail, falsely believing that Maharaja had called the police on him, when in fact the police had obtained intel about Selvam independently and thrown him in jail.

As the giant lorry slammed into the house where Maharaja’s wife and daughter were speaking with Selvam’s wife and daughter, Maharaja was across the street, choosing a soft toy to gift to Ammu, Selvam’s daughter.

As fate or karma would have it, the dustbin fell on Ammu, and saved her life. Maharaja lost his wife and daughter, Jothi, in that accident. Selvam’s wife also perished. Unbeknownst to all, Maharaja raised Ammu as his own, doting on her at every moment.

When Selvam realizes that Jothi is in fact Ammu, his pain is palpable. He recalls how he beat her and allowed his accomplices to repeatedly rape her. He flings himself off the high rise where Maharaja confronted him, smashing his body into death. The last scene shows his blood dripping into a footprint made by Jothi (actually Ammu) as she departed the building.

The viewer is left reeling from the revelation of what Selvam did: he facilitated the devastating gang rape of his own daughter.

This karmic story begs us to consider the importance of compassion. When we feel like perpetrating violence onto someone, may we stop to consider: what if this person is the person we love most in the world? Would we still do what we are about to do?