The Raja Saab Postmortem

Pan India Star Prabhas is known to give different subjects with different directors and is lauded for his strength to do unique and novel roles in each of his films.

Prabhas rose to stardom following this creative and novel approach and that is the reason in his rise to stardom he did so many unnqiue roles in  his career which none of his contemporary stars did.

His latest film The Raja Saab falls under this category.

Experiment That Exploded In No Time

Prabhas with the stature of Pan India Star giving green signal to medium range director Maruthi itself is one of the wonders and that too the project being announced as horror genre scared all and gave sleepless nights to everyone.

Maruthi however managed to increase the hype on the project by promoting the film sometimes as a not just a horror genre but horror fantasy, horror thriller, horror comedy , action and comedy loaded in it turning it into a complete commercial entertainer.

With Prabhas too speaking confidently over his role and the film, fans thronged the theatres with immense expectations. Except for the confusion in the Nizam region, the premiers scheduled one day earlier got tremendous response.

How Prabhas Got Trapped

Inspite of fans having their own fears over the combination of Maruthi and Prabhas, with Prabhas giving greensignal and going ahead with utmost confidence, many thought that the story is extremely strong and powerful and became confident on the project.

One will get a clarity whether fans fears came true or Prabhas' confidence scored over them.

It all boils down to a lonely Mahal and haunted by an Evil Spirit. There is only entry and no exit to the Mahal. What happens when the Hero enters and gets haunted by the Evil Spirit? form the thrilling part.

Maruti spent sleepless nights for this story and got more than four hour long output and this was edited to get the final duration of around three hours. Wonder what made Maruthi to work so hard losing his sleep for more than three years for this senseless and mindless story .

True, if screenplay is racy and entertaining elements are there story doesn't matter.

What Appeared On The Screen

The starting should scare all with the haunted mahal and then the protagonist should make his entry in a dashing way before a beautiful heroine appears on the screen which is followed by a fight.

A grandmother is used to facilitate hero's entry into the haunted Mahal. In between there should be one attraction on the screen and that should be in the form of a glamorous song. With one heroine introduced as the lover of the hero and the hero instead falling in with another heroine, the time is set for the entry of the third heroine.

The inbetween gaps are filled by stale and jokes and outdated scenes dragging the narration. Antagonist rememers that it is time for an interval with hero entering the haunted mahal.

Few intelligent viewers as a precaution save their home destinations in their mobiles to book vehicles in a hasty retreat before entering back into the theatre.

The second half nosedives with the same stretched scenes and drags and viewers forget their expressions and emotions as hero romances with the three heroines and irritating comedy appearing as errors in marring the feel of the horror.

Maruthi at that time, takes pity on the plight of the viewers and ends the film with a decent climax. People in the theatre who are already experiencing scorching heat with their sighs watching the film, make a fast retreat in the impression that it is better to brave the chilling cool weather at late night to reach their homes.

How Movie Lovers Were Misled

There is a saying that when 'Matter is not there, Publicity should reach peaks". Whether Maruthi followed the same or he felt that he came up with a cinematic wonder, he made extremely tall statements at the pre release event of The Raja Saab. He even went to the extent of giving his house address in full public.

Maruthi who got the golden opportunity to direct a Pan India Star who can get record breaking collections, producers who can spend without any second thoughts and the maximum time of around three years, presented a spineless story spinning scenes as per his liking in a senseless manner and testing the patience of the viewers with a crap output,  ended up delivering a Good For Nothing project.

Maruthi should be asked the necessity of three heroines for this story and the release of Prabhas' old getup motion poster which was not used in the film.  He is answerable to innumerous diehard fans of Prabhas who will be baying for his blood, as Prabhas gave him the great chance due to his kind heart though he had sky high demand and many top banners and star directors running after him.

Prabhas The Only Saving Grace

Prabhas is at his entertaining best with his stylish look and inbuilt glamor on the screen. He tried to wade from the troubled waters created by Maruti's mistakes with his screenpresence. Though Prabhas  known for breathtaking stunts also showed his willingness to comeup with his unique dance moves, the stunts and songs should be in a spellbinnding manner.

But the intenisty and energy is lacked in them and even the ennergised fans couldn't electrify the theatres with their aura. They couldn't fathom why Prabhas appears in different styles and getups in different scenes. Prabhas however made a powerful impact with his hilarious acts initially, emotional act in the hospital and with his performance in the climax. He in two songs came up with energetic dance moves.

Has The Danger Been Minimised?

Karthik Palani, the cinematographer put in lot of effort but missing innovation in the VFX resulted in the deficiencies in the quality. All the extravagantly erected sets looked like sets and even  a child could make it out. Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao managed to trim down the runtime from over four hours to three hours but with his hands paining he left unwanted and uncessary scenes that resulted in 30 minutes unwanted footage.

Though Thaman came up with thumping music, the background music turned out to be dismal. The songs he tuned are not suited fot the Pan India star as Prabhas. Thaman shouldn't have tuned these songs for any project considering the form he is in. Thaman earlier went on record that he set aside the songs he tuned and came up with these fresh tunes. Many would have said that Thaman would have included his initial compositions itself and they would have concurred after listening to the song he released yesterday.

Other technical crew worked as per the remuneration they received and did justice to the vision of Maruti.

Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani and Zarina Wahab got prominent roles after Prabhas. Zarina Wahab did justice to the role of grandmother. Sanjay Dutt role didnot get the character arc and strength suited for his stature. Boman Irani got the role which is a cakewalk for him. Samuthirakani role is confined. There are many noted comedians but comedy turned out to be a crap and one should introspect the reason for this.

For People Media and its head TG.Vishwa Prasad, three flops and one hit puts questionmark and surely dangerbells are ringing.

Viewers

The Raja Saab got the good date ahead of Sankranti at the start of this New Year 2026, though they failed to come at the scheduled time.  The postponement of Vijay's Jana Nayagan, The Raja Saab got a golden opportunity to break box office records.

Maruti missed the golden chance as even a reasonable talk for The Raja Saab would have got territic collections riding on Prabhas' mania. The Raja Saab journey starts in a completely damaged manner with fans who came to theatres with huge hopes got disappointed right from the early premiers. Only the season advantage and Prabhas' stardom should save the sinking ship of The Raja Saab.

Maverick director Maruti also revealed that The Raja Saab will have a sequel ending the first part torture , showing Prabhas in the getup of a joker and announced the title The Raja Saab Circus 1935.