The Rajasaab Review: A Bold, Complex Drama

The film opens with young Raju (Prabhas), a genial, slightly aimless young man searching for his missing grandfather. A cryptic letter leads him to a crumbling, impossibly large mansion in the heart of rural Andhra Pradesh - a place the locals whisper is cursed. Inside, he stumbles into a family legacy that he never knew existed. His grandfather, Pekamedala Kanakaraju (Sanjay Dutt), is not merely missing but trapped in a spectral loop by a vengeful matriarch, Gangamma (Zarina Wahab). The curse? A century-old feud that, if awakened, will unravel reality itself, allowing the dead to walk and the living to lose their minds. Raju must navigate the mansion’s shifting rooms, befriend a ghost named Bessy (Nidhhi Agerwal), battle a warlord named Ganagaraju (Samuthirakani), and uncover the secret of the Rajasaab title - a mask of power that grants immense strength but demands a terrible sacrifice. Along the way, he meets Bhairavi (Malavika Mohanan), a fierce guardian of the mansion’s dark history, and Dr. Padmabhushan (Boman Irani), a quack exorcist whose methods only make things worse.

The most honest thing I can say about The Rajasaab is that it’s never boring. That may sound like faint praise, but in a landscape of formulaic blockbusters, Maruthi Dasari deserves credit for sheer audacity. He throws everything at the screen: a scene of earnest family melodrama will be cut short by a slapstick sequence involving a furniture-throwing ghost, which then pivots into a sword-and-sorcery action beat, and then into a jaw-dropping visual-effects spectacle that looks like it cost a fortune. The tonal shifts are jarring, but they’re also, at times, exhilarating.

Prabhas is the film’s anchor. He plays Raju with a boyish, slightly goofy charm that feels fresh for a star of his stature, and when he eventually transforms into the Rajasaab - donning a golden mask and a warrior’s stance - he sells the transition with genuine gravitas. His physicality in the action sequences is impeccable; there’s a fight scene on a spiral staircase that is genuinely inventive. Sanjay Dutt, sadly, is wasted in a role that requires him to either be a menacing villain or a tragic figure, but the script gives him neither the menace nor the pathos to work with. Zarina Wahab, on the other hand, delivers a chilling performance as Gangamma, her eyes conveying centuries of grievance.

The cast is stacked with talent, and most of them are underused. Malavika Mohanan has exactly two impactful scenes - one monologue about the origin of the curse, and a tearful confrontation in the third act - but is otherwise reduced to a screaming damsel. Nidhhi Agerwal’s ghost character, Bessy, is credited as a comic relief, but the comedy falls flat. Boman Irani does his Boman Irani thing - which is to say, he’s the only actor in the film who understands its goofy logic - and he walks away with every scene he’s in.

The biggest problem, aside from the bloated runtime, is the third act. The stakes become so convoluted - alternate dimensions, timelines folding in on themselves, a “choose your sacrifice” finale - that the emotional core of Raju’s search for his grandfather is buried under exposition. The fantasy elements go into overdrive, and the film loses its grip on what grounded it in the first place. By the time the credits roll, you’re more exhausted than satisfied.

Pros

• Prabhas delivers a committed, dual-note performance that anchors the chaos.
• The visual-effects budget is clearly not small; several set-pieces are stunning.
• Boman Irani brings a welcome jolt of comic energy in a film that takes itself too seriously.
• The central idea - a haunted family curse that bends reality - is genuinely ambitious.
• The action staging in the second half is creative, especially the spiral-staircase duel.

Cons

• The 186-minute runtime is unforgivable; at least 40 minutes should have been cut.
• Tonal whiplash from horror to comedy to fantasy is more disorienting than clever.
• Sanjay Dutt and Malavika Mohanan are wasted in underwritten roles.
• The third-act exposition dump is tedious and kills all momentum.
• The comedy largely falls flat, relying on tired tropes and loud sound effects.
• The TMDb rating of 5.125 feels generous; it’s a film that needed more rewrites, not more budget.

The Rajasaab is the kind of film that will be remembered less for what it is and more for what it tried to be. It tries to be a horror film, a comedy, an action spectacle, a family drama, and a fantasy epic - all at once - and it fails to excel at any of them. And yet, there’s a strange sincerity to its ambition that I find admirable. Prabhas is clearly giving his all, and director Maruthi Dasari has a vision, even if it’s a blurry one. This is not a good film. But it is an interesting failure, and in a world of safe, algorithmic cinema, I can’t bring myself to hate it. Watch it if you want to debate its flaws over a drink. Skip it if you simply want a coherent movie.