July 14, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Pulkit
Hindi with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in the late 1980s in Allahabad, India, the action film “Maalik” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: After his father is brutally assaulted, an aspiring soccer star goes on a gory rampage as the leader of a ruthless gang.
Culture Audience: “Maalik” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and violent and idiotic movies that overload on depicting savage murders.
“Maalik” is yet another soulless action film that glorifies despicable violence in a mindless revenge story. The movie’s vile title character (who goes from good guy to gang leader) deliberately and viciously murders a boy’s father in front of the boy. That’s all you really need to know about about “Maalik,” which is the cinematic equivalent of a toxic dump.
Directed by Pulkit (who co-wrote the abysmal “Maalik” screenplay with Jyotsana Nath), “Maalik” is one bloody murder scene after another, with a protagonist who is made to look like a “hero,” even though his twisted motives do not justify his cruel killing spree. “Maalik” (which means “master” or “owner” in Hindi) also has a sloppy narrative that jumps all over the movie’s timeline, which takes place in Allahabad, India, the late 1980s. The only thing that the central character is a “master” of is being a hateful serial killer.
In “Maalik,” the main character (played by Rajkummar Rao) goes through a personality change and a name change that represent when he went from “good” (when he was known by his birth name Deepak) to “bad” (when he was known by his self-chosen name Maalik). The period of time before he became involved in a murderous life of crime are shown as flashbacks in the movie. During the time when Deepak was still a “good guy,” Deepak was clean-shaven. As he gets more involved in crimes, he becomes Maalik and grows a beard that gets bushier the worse that he gets.
Deepak was an aspiring soccer star who grew up in a farming family. His humble and loving parents—father Bindeshwar (played by Rajendra Gupta) and mother Parvati (played by Baljinder Kaur)—are nothing like the vengeful criminal that their son turned out to be. A powerful politician named Minister Shankar Singh, also known as Dadda (played by Saurabh Shukla) owns the farm where Bindeshwar works. Shankhar is the mentor of Balhar Singh (played by Swanand Kirkire), who is a member of the legislative assembly and who has a fanatically loyal group of supporters.
Deepak seems to have resentment toward these two politicians because when they visit the farm, he doesn’t even want to say hello when Bindeshwar asks Deepak to greet thee visitors. It’s the first indication that Deepak has mistrust of authority figures in the area. After this uncomfortable incident, Bindeshwar privately scolds Deepak for being rude. Deepak comments on Bindeshwar’s employer: “You work hard for years, but he’ll toss you aside when he finds someone better.” Bindeshawr, who normally doesn’t lose his temper, slaps Deepak in the face in response.
One day, Bindeshwar is attacked by a thug named Langda (played by Yogi Raj) because Bindeshwar was defending the farm’s fields from a criminal invasion. The assault of Bindeshwar seems to “flip a switch” on Deepak, who blames Shankar Singh for this attack. Deepak tracks down Langda, murders him, and sets Langda’s body on fire.
Deepak then changes his name to Maalik, as he becomes the leader of a gang involved in various crimes, including murder. Maalik’s most trusted sidekick is Badaun (played by Anshumaan Pushkar), who is also Maalik’s best friend. Maalik’s parents don’t approve of Maalik becoming a criminal, but they feel powerless to stop him.
Someone who also gets on Maalik’s “enemy list” is Prabhu Das (played by Prosenjit Chatterjee), a bullying police officer who was suspended in his previous job in Lucknow, India. Prabhu has now been tasked with apprehending Maalik in Allahabad. An early scene in the movie shows Prabhu and a team of police doing a raid of the home of Bindeshwar and Parvati because the police are looking for Maalik there. During the raid, the home is trashed and many possessions are destroyed.
The rest of “Maalik” is mostly about Maalik on a grisly rampage where he seems to want to kill anyone associated with Shankar, Balhar, Prabhu and a corrupt businessman named Chandrashekhar (played by Saurabh Sachdeva), who is Maalik’s chief rival in Maalik’s criminal business deals. The movie’s violence is extremely sadistic and doesn’t serve any purpose but to show different ways that people can be gruesomely tortured and murdered.
Maalik has a wife named Shalini (played by Manushi Chhillar), who wants Maalik to stop being a criminal. The movie shows brief, superficial flashbacks to their courtship. In his persona as Maalik, he doesn’t pay much attention to Shalini. And when he does, it’s usually when she confronts Maalik about his life of crime, or when he expects her to tell him that she’s pregnant because he wants to start a family with her.
The dialogue in “Maalik” is painfully bad. At one point, Maalik tells Balhar Singh: “You’re making me commit these sins.” Maalik then slight slaps Balhar lightly on Balhar’s rear end and says, “Take care of your ass.” It’s the movie’s attempt at comic relief, but so much of “Maalik” takes itself so seriously, nothing is really amusing in this horrible film.
“Maalik” also clumsily throws in some upbeat song-and-dance numbers in this excessively violent film. This shift in tone makes “Maalik” look like even more of a mess than it already is. And just when you think rampaging Maalik couldn’t get any more heinous, the most predictable thing happens that sets him over the edge to the point of no return in his murder spree.
The movie treats women as mere props who are in service of the men in their lives. Shalini is depicted as a Barbie doll type who’s mostly there to hang around and look pretty. The same can be said about a singer named Mallika (played by Huma Qureshi), whose character serves no other purpose than wearing sexy outfits in the musical scenes. Parvati has a blank personality who lets her husband do most of the talking.
“Maalik” offers no believable explanation for why the main character goes from one extreme to another: from law-abiding citizen to sociopathic serial killer. None of the acting is impressive. The film editing is choppy and disjointed. And there’s a moronic ending that presents an implausible scenario hinting that this cinematic trash could have a sequel that no one who likes good movies should want.
Pen Marudhar released “Maalik” in U.S. cinemas and in India on July 11, 2025.
