Maalik

Rajkummar Rao’s film is an action drama that falls into the same trap of several other releases from the same genre. The film has very little uniqueness to offer as compared to other OTT films and shows based in the same region, with similar dialogues, political issues with violence at the center of it all. From Mirzapur to now Panchayat, Maalik fits right in, without much setting it apart, other than Rajkummar Rao’s performance. But the film’s violence heavy screenplay leaves little focus on his emotional moments. Maalik begins with Rajkummar Rao’s character Deepak punishing and killing a police officer for stopping his trucks at a check point. Without wasting much time, the filmmaker clears the air about who the film will follow and how the events will take place. For the next 30 minutes the makers focused on the political environment of Allahabad and how Maalik intends to make a space for himself.

In the run-up to its release, Maalik has been promoted as a gangster film with a difference. Gangster film? Yes. With a difference? Not really. The Hindi heartland setting — this time (like all other times) it is Uttar Pradesh — is familiar. So are the players — corrupt politicians, kingmakers, cops without scruples, dime-a-dozen goons….The trajectory of its protagonist-cum-antagonist is, unfortunately, as old (and cold) as the gangster genre itself. With so many seen-there-watched-that elements, Maalik only works in bits and spurts, grounded as it is by a strong, fiery against-type turn from Rajkummar Rao. Rajkummar, with one of his earliest roles being a bit part in Anurag Kashyap’s landmark gangster outing Gangs of Wasseypur, plays a farmer’s son who lets go off the football at his feet and picks up a gun in his hand when his father (played by Rajendra Gupta) is assaulted by a local goon. Driven by the belief: “Maalik paida nahin huye toh kya, bann toh sakte hain”, Deepak soon becomes ‘Maalik’, with director Pulkit not willing to devote any time into tracing how a simple college boy becomes Allahabad’s most dreaded gangster. Despite its long runtime — 152 minutes feels extremely stretched — Maalik doesn’t spare much time or thought for any other details as well, and operates on a superficial level, with the action, though gory and visceral, quickly slipping into repetitive territory.

‘दुनिया में दो तरह के लोग रहते हैं… एक जो पसीना बहाकर रोटी कमाते हैं, और दूसरे जो खून-पसीना बहाकर रोटी छीन लेते हैं।’ सिनेमाई पर्दे का ये ‘मालिक’ उस दूसरे तरह का बंदा है। कुछ वैसा ही, जैसा 80 के दशक के एंग्री यंग मैन हुआ करते थे। उसकी फिलॉसफी भी वही है कि मालिक पैदा नहीं हुआ तो क्या हुआ, बन तो सकते हैं। उसके लिए मार-काट, गोली-बंदूक, डर-हिंसा का रास्‍ता ही आसान है। आजकल पर्दे पर यह सब खूब चल भी रहा है, तो उसी विजय दीनानाथ चौहान और पुष्‍पाराज वाली कड़ी में एक गरीब परिवार के लड़के के बाहुबली बनने की कहानी है ‘मालिक’। कहानी 80 के दशक में इलाहाबाद में सेट है, जहां एक मजबूर किसान राजेंद्र गुप्ता का बेटा दीपक (राजकुमार राव) अपनी किस्मत के आगे झुकने को तैयार नहीं है, बल्कि वह अपने पिता की किस्मत बदलकर उसे एक मजबूत बेटे का बाप बनाने पर आमादा है। उसे यह मौका तब मिल भी जाता है, जब इलाके के बाहुबली नेता शंकर सिंह (सौरभ शुक्ला) का गुर्गा उसके पिता के ऊपर ट्रैक्टर चलवा देता है। दीपक इलाके के बाहुबली शंकर सिंह को आइडल मानता है। बस फिर क्या था, इसके बाद दीपक बीच चौराहे पर उस गुंडे को बेरहमी से खत्म कर अपनी दबंगई साबित कर देता है और बन जाता है- मालिक।

We are living in dire times. Films are being made by the dozen, and none can be told apart. Generic music is the norm, and graphic, violent visuals leak from one Friday to the next. This trifecta of male rage, ruthlessness and sad music has been reiterated with such force and abandon that a deep insensitivity has cultivated in both the makers and the audience. A splash of blood doesn’t cut it anymore; a jab of a knife doesn’t do the job. People cannot be gunned down. They need to be murdered, sliced and butchered. They need to really, really die for the hero to be sated and the audience to cheer. When violence assumed such glamour is hard to pinpoint, but the continued success of most actioners, each centring on a bloodthirsty lead, is spawning iterations of the same. And each male actor is trying their chances at it. Rajkummar Rao does the same in Maalik, a film so imitative that it could be the synonym of ‘derivative’.