As a proud Marathi who will forever defend the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, I absolutely despise this film. Riteish has absolutely butchered the story. There is no nuance. No drama. No suspense. There are no characters. Just caricatures. I wanna know Shivaji. Who was he as a person? His fears. His ambition. His grit. Beliefs. Prejudices. The good and the bad. Who was Afzal Khan? Who was Adil Shah? Shah Jahan? Why be so frivolous? So simplistic? So amateurish? What the hell? This is not a movie. It's an extended Instagram reel. The visuals are so egregious, I was cringing hard. The choreography is bad, the makup is laughable, the acting is subpar. Riteish you just assembled your best buds and made them play makeup on a green screen. This is NOT a movie. And this especially NOT a movie on the Great Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Ajay-Atul, you guys rock. Har Har Mahadev. Jai Bhavani. Jai Hind.

Ritesh aani Genelia chi MITRA MANDALI YOJANA gone wrong : Hya murkhapana muley, pura filmachi vaat laaun sodli. Ritesh Deshmukh seems to have confused directing a historical epic with hosting a lavish birthday party for his friends, resulting in a 3½ hour snooze fest that treats Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s life like a high budget Marathi TV serial. The biggest insult is the casting, Ritesh as the formidable Shivaji Maharaj is a joke, lacking the voice, presence and grit required for the role, while Sanjay Dutt as Afzal Khan looks tired, sleepwalking through scenes with zero menace. Dialogue delivery of Genelia D'Souza is abysmal. The screenplay moves with the speed of a sloth, dedicating more time to slow-motion walking than actual…

As someone who was literally born and brought up listening/reading to the stories and epics of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, I’d gladly take 50 films on him a year—but not at the cost of a decent actor who can’t carry the weight of the character and ends up filling the film with friends and family for the sake of it. Riteish had gold in his hands, man—he just ruined it with all those style-over-substance shots and incredibly disastrous CGI/VFX work. I really wanted to love this film and yes there are some good scenes here and there but it just didn’t land.

Wished the movie was as audacious as we've read about Maharaj ! Looked like parody at moments.