Rajkummar Rao has returned to the silver screen with Maalik, and this time, he has steered away from his usual, small-town-boy persona and taken on a gangster avatar. The film hit theatres today, July 11, 2025, and Rajkummar’s transformation into the titular character, a gritty small-town man’s brutal rise to power in Allahabad’s underworld in the 1980s, is being hailed as one of his strongest performances to date. But is that enough to carry the whole film?
About the plot of Maalik: An 80s gangster drama marked by bloodshed and fragile loyalty
Maalik, directed by Pulkit and produced by Kumar Taurani and Jay Shewakramani, stars Rajkummar Rao alongside Manushi Chillar and veteran Bengali actor Prosenjit Chatterjee, aka Bumba Da, and Saurabh Shukla in key roles. The film follows the intense and raw journey of a small-town man, ‘Amar Singh’ (played by Rajkummar Rao), as he rises from the alleys of Allahabad in the 80s to become a fierce don of the underworld. The storyline unfolds as ‘Amar’ navigates the rugged path fuelled by injustice, betrayal and personal loss, to transform into the notorious ‘Maalik’.
