In the last year, it was reported that there were more than forty movies which couldn't manage to make a revenue of ten lakhs as its producer share to their poor makers. With many small time movies coming up with no proper plans, inane storylines and without any sort of publicity, this fate is definitely inevitable in current day Mollywood..'Maharaja talkies' is one such movie which may get into this lists, if the present state of revenue in the theatres is the load star.
The movie is all about the attempts of Vimala (played by Urvashy) to somehow run a dilapidated film theatre which is passed over to her family by their mother as an ancestral property. Vimala had been a fatherly figure to her three sisters Ganga, Yamuna and Unnimaya,since their father desolated them years ago, but she some how manages to run the theatres with the help of her sisters. The major obstacle to the theatre running comes from Moorkhanparambil Pappachan (Vijayraghavan), a rich local man who is all set to somehow close the running of the theatre. For that he employs every cheaper ways including hiring a cabaret dancer to the highhandedness of the local panchayath members. Pappachan, instead has plans to go for a bigger well quipped theatre in the lone town. To fill in the screen time apart from the fights between Pappachan and vimala, there is the romance in the air for the fours sister where Mukesh to Ramesh Pisharday comes up as the suitors to the four.
As usual with the all the recent small time movies, Maharaja Talkies' also falters in the script department, with nothing fresh in the offering, though there are enough scenes that can be titled as comedy to fights, romance and sentiments. The lavish chances of interesting scenes that arises when a movie theatre is used as the backdrop(remember Kamal's `Pradhesika Vaarthakal') is not utilised to the needed extent, which itself could have guaranteed a watchable flick. The characters are ill sketched with little life and the performers on them has got little to enliven them. The story appears disjointed and narrative styles seldom have the energy to keep the viewers engaged. In the acting side, given the poor script, there's not much the lead actors can really do. Urvashy is handicapped by a character which doesn't have any depth. Mukesh seems to be in a cameo while the rest including Vijayaraghavan, Harishree Ashokan and Jafer idukki are in their routine roles.
The director Devidasan has a pale debut with 'Maharaja Talkies' as nothing even in the technical side is worth mentioning. At the box-office, with the lack of promotion and a poor opening, coupled with a nondescript script, the fall of the movie is inevitable.
