So what, if Maharaj is maha bore!

Not that Irsquod heard of one Karsan Das Mulji before watching Maharaj 2024 But it would be fair to enlist him among Bombayrsquos GOAT journalistsGiven that he started his own citywide publication Satya Prakashmdashsingularly to expose the serial sexual exploiter Jadunathji Maharaj religious leader of the Vaishnavite Pushtimarg sect in the mid19th CenturyKarsan belonged to the same Hindu sect Many of whom blindly endorsed this sexual exploitation of young women under the garb of faithHe used to regularly write for Dadabhai Naorojirsquos AngloGujarati journal Rast Goftar Which refused to publish his piece against the sectguru because the publication ldquoenjoyed wide circulation among Vaishnavites the devotees wouldnrsquot tolerate such accusations against the MaharajrdquoMay as well start my own newspaper then Karsan said and moved on Only the distribution manager he employed for the newspaperrsquos circulation was in cahoots with the Maharajmdashburning down copies of Karsanrsquos newspaper copies In order to bury the truthSo presumably people wouldnrsquot even have known about what Karsan had written Except the Maharaj shut down several havelis ie temples of the sect to reopen only if Karsan publicly apologised to the godman He didnrsquotIrsquom guessing this wouldrsquove made the public more curious They further lined up outside the Supreme Court in Bombay for what became the landmark Maharaj Libel Case of 1862Similarly I hadnrsquot heard of the said case even when on my way to catch the press screening of the film on it In fact Irsquod confused Maharaj with another movie Maharaja releasing in theatres the same weekendFurther confounded by an invitation from Yash Raj Films YRF while the movie is a Netflix presentation meaning to drop exclusively on the OTT platformMaharaj is probably the first YRF movie to go directly onlinemdashldquointroducing Junaid Khanrdquo as in superstar Aamirrsquos sonmdashshrouded in such statelevel secrecy that there were no teasers let alone trailers for the picture before releaseYet basis a few news clips online about Maharaj given nobody had seen even snippets of the moviemdasheight businessmen from Ahmedabad and a few others claiming to represent the Pushtimarg sect took offence to the unseen picture moving multiple courts to stop its releaseTheyrsquod sued the government along with the content creators involved This isnrsquot uncommon in a country where barbers have formed an association to alter title of the Shah Rukh Khan movie Billu Barber to Billu 2009 or Censor Board Sharmila Tagore chief has nearly lost her job once because of the word lsquomochirsquo deemed casteist slur in a song in Aaja Nachle 2007A local court in Bombay trashed the lsquonew Maharaj Libel Casersquo on Day One itself Gujarat High Court actually stayed the moviersquos releaseWhat could anybody find objectionable in itmdashwere people defending the sexpest Jadunathji Maharaj over a century and half after the fellowrsquos carnal escapades He wasnrsquot surprisingly punished for the crime having filed a defamation case against journalist Karsan insteadGujarat HC Judge Sangeeta Vishenmdashthe only person apart from a movie critic to opine on a movie for a living heremdashwatched and let Maharaj pass without any suggested cuts My bright lirsquol cousin Ketki Jha with senior advocate Jal Unwalla won this case for NetflixThe petitioners had cherrypicked lines from the long original 1862 Maharaj Libel Case verdict to cite how Sanskrit was named a ldquodead languagerdquo with stuff said about Krishnarsquos rasleela by the British judge then The movie is admittedly based on the case Those lines would reappear on screen Not trueWhat clinched it for Ketki amp co at Gujarat HC was the petitioners withholding a crucial fact That the film was based on an existing 2013 book by Saurabh ShahWhich is also to win on a technicality given books in general get away with a lot more than moviesCorrect assumption for India is that nobody readsEither way the movie directed by Siddharth P Malhotra finally made it to Netflix How did I first watch Maharaj at a preview in a packed hall that it isnrsquot intended for Frankly as a lsquomaha borersquo Which often happens with features faithfully predictably documenting lesserknown historyActor Jaydeep Ahlawat kills it as the towering Maharaj in the eponymous pic of course Opposite him is Junaid a likeable bloke alrightmdashbut more so because of the character than anything particularly moving in his performance per se The heroine Shalini Pandey appears aping Alia Bhatt This isnrsquot a starson celestial debut for JunaidMaybe he wants the same flight as his father Aamir who tinkered with an FTII student flick Subah Subah for his debut dabbling in Ketan Mehtarsquos arthouse Holi before landing the theatrical blockbuster Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak 1989Glad I didnrsquot summarily pass a personal verdict on Maharaj though For itrsquos only when you read more on the striking subjectmdashsurveying characters in it the Bombay physician Bhau Daji Lad Naoroji the brave Karsan of coursemdashthat you figure how much the scriptstory is biggerbetter than the movie itselfA seemingly important film neednrsquot be the most interesting Unless you sufficiently place it in context As I did second time on Netflixmdashthanks to Ahmedabad petitioners reminding me of its relevance Oh so should youMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper