Maalik review: Rajkummar Rao’s gangster act is predictable and pointless

New Delhi: There’s a moment in Maalik where Rajkummar Rao’s character, Deepak, is caught between loyalty to his father and his growing appetite for power. You half expect him to erupt into some iconic monologue similar to Deewar 's, ‘Uff ye tumhare usool…tumhare adarsh…’ However, he settles for a tired justification about wanting to be the Maalik (owner), not the Naukar (servant).

It’s in that moment that Maalik reveals his hand. And you realise that the story simply brims with borrowed intensity but little originality of its own.

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Set in Allahabad during the 1990s, Maalik opens with a stylised shootout. Deepak, now a full-blown gangster, is holed up in a safehouse, wounded and surrounded. A Bengali superintendent (Prosenjit Chatterjee) tries to coax him out with a filmi dialogue over a loudspeaker. It’s a scene that should be electric, but turns out to be too mechanical.

The narrative then rewinds, as these films always do, to trace Deepak’s rise from a common man to a blood-stained political aspirant. Director Pulkit leans heavily on genre tropes: corrupt politicians, loyal sidekicks, a moral compass wife, and the ever-so-obvious betrayal subplot. You can almost tick off the clichés as they appear. That sense of predictability becomes Maalik’s biggest enemy.

Rajkummar Rao, known for his understated brilliance, seems miscast here. It’s not that he doesn’t try. He walks the part, growls on cue, smokes menacingly, and even manages a moment of shocking cruelty early on. But despite the costume changes, gold chains, thick beard, and a cigarette perpetually dangling, the soul of Maalik never quite emerges. He remains an actor playing a fancy dress, not a character living his truth.

Manushi Chhillar, as Deepak’s wife and emotional anchor, fares better. Her scenes with Rajkummar offer some much-needed human texture, and she manages to hold her ground even as the script offers her little beyond the “suffering yet strong woman” archetype. Anshumaan Pushkar, as the loyal aide, and Saurabh Shukla and Swanand Kirkire as the slimy villains, do what’s expected. No more, no less.

What ultimately weighs Maalik down is the fact that it doesn’t trust its audience. The story drags for 150 minutes (yes, I took a power nap in one particular fight sequence) when it could’ve packed a punch in 100. The violence feels more performative than consequential. And when it circles back to the opening shootout, you’re left wondering what the point was. This journey could have ended at any juncture and still felt the same.

Maalik wants to be many things: a political thriller, a gangster saga, a commentary on power. But what it ends up being is a collage of better films. It’s Satya without the heart, Vaastav without the grit, and Agneepath without the fire. There’s a good film hiding somewhere in Maalik’s ruins. But much like its protagonist’s dream of becoming a king, it collapses under its own ambition.

Don’t watch Maalik, watch Satya instead.

Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Anshumaan Pushkar, Manushi Chhillar, Saurabh Shukla, Saurabh Sachdeva, Swanand Kirkire

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Director: Pulkit

Ratings: ½ (1.5 stars)