Maalik movie 2025

Maalik movie is a 2025 Bollywood Hindi action thriller film, directer is Pulkit while producer are Kumar Taurani and Jay Shewakramani.

This film’s leading star cast are Rajkummar Rao in the main role, with Prosenjit Chatterjee and Manushi Chhillar.

When Maalik was released on July 11, 2025, critics gave it mixed reviews.

Cast and Crew:

• Director: Pulkit
• Writer: Jyotsana Nath, Pulkit
• Producer: Kumar Taurani, Jay Shewakramani
• Star Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Manushi Chhillar, Saurabh Shukla
• Cinematography: Anuj Rakesh Dhawan
• Editor: Zubin Sheikh
• Production companies: Tips Industries, Northern Lights Films
• Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, Gangster
• Distributor: Pen Marudhar
• Release date:11 July 2025
• Running time: 152 minutes
• Country: India
• Language: Hindi

Maalik movie 2025 Trailer

Star Cast

• Rajkummar Rao as Deepak (Maalik), the Gangster Man
• Prosenjit Chatterjee as Prabhu Das
• Manushi Chhillar as Shalini
• Huma Qureshi as Mallika
• Saurabh Sachdeva as Chandrashekhar
• Saurabh Shukla as Minister Shankar Singh
• Anshumaan Pushkar as Badauna
• Swanand Kirkire as Balhar Singh
• Rajendra Gupta as Bindeshwar, Deepak / Maalik’s father
• Baljinder Kaur as Parvati, Deepak / Maalik’s mother
• Yogi Raj as Langda

Story of the film

The movie takes place in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, in the late 1980s. Deepak (Rajkummar Rao), a young man from a farming family whose life takes a violent turn, is introduced in the story. Deepak, a prospective student at Allahabad University, is motivated and inspired by the speech of the revered Minister Shankar Singh (Saurabh Shukla), well known as Dadda. Langda, a man Dadda assigns to trespass on the farmer’s field, seriously injures Bindeshwar, his father (Rajendra Gupta), an ordinary farmer. The old guy was trying to keep his employer’s crops from being invaded when Langda gave his troops the order to run a tractor over him. When the latter permits the former to do so, Deepak uses a Pandit to locate Langda and kill her mercilessly. Deepak’s journey into the criminal underground begins with this deed.

After this first violent deed, Deepak takes on the name “Maalik” (Master/Owner) and starts his merciless climb. In the turbulent sociopolitical environment of Allahabad, he methodically constructs a criminal empire while negotiating complex relationships with rival gangs, political figures, and individuals like his mentor Dadda, business rival Chandrashekhar (Saurabh Sachdeva), and powerful MLA Balhar Singh (Swanand Kirkire).

Balhar Singh is convinced by Chandrashekhar to address Maalik’s growing power. Balhar appoints Prabhu Das (Prosenjit Chatterjee), a suspended Bengali police officer who claims to have 98 encounters, to capture Maalik. While Maalik is temporarily absent, Prabhu storms into and searches Maalik’s home. He mistreats Maalik’s wife, Shalini (Manushi Chhillar), causing her to cry, and threatens Maalik’s parents. Maalik dispatches his men to abduct Debu, Prabhu’s grandson, in retaliation. However, before departing, he frees Debu, forbids Prabhu from committing the same crime in the future, and publicly challenges him to fight.

Ramsevan Ghosh, who handled transportation for Maalik’s company, is killed by Chandrashekhar, causing Maalik to incur large damages. Maalik cautions Balhar and Dadda against interfering with his business dealings. Chandrashekhar chooses to take over Maalik’s factory because Ramsevan Ghosh’s murder did not significantly impact Maalik’s business. All of Chandrashekar’s assigned troops are shot and killed by Maalik and his men. After being defeated, a helpless Chandrashekhar turns to Balhar for assistance, and the two are successful in inciting Prabhu Das to confront Maalik directly, albeit in vain. With the aid of his devoted friend Badauna (Anshumaan Pushkar), Maalik defeats Prabhu’s officers. Dadda and Balhar strongly disagree with Maalik’s intention to run for office. Dadda chooses to covertly mentor Balhar, Chandrashekhar, and Prabhu despite appearing amiable and encouraging to Maalik. Balhar vehemently opposes Maalik’s chances of winning elections, Prabhu protects the Allahabad boundaries, and Chandrashekhar’s soldiers seize Maalik’s hiding places. Maalik discovers new weapons, such as the AK-47 and AK-56, out of wrath. Using his new weapons, he successfully attacks Dadda’s home and kills him with his own hands.

Maalik has a close relationship with his parents and wife despite his increasingly aggressive and powerful public character. Shalini often tries to convince him to give up his life of crime, particularly after she gets pregnant. At Shalini’s request, Maalik nearly gives up, but he hesitates when Badauna tells him that Shalini was shot and killed by Chandrashekhar’s goons. After hanging the four guilty goons by himself, Maalik kills Chandrashekhar in front of his kid.

Balhar telephones Maalik in an apparent attempt to bargain, but Maalik’s group quickly discovers that the police have ambushed them. Badauna shoots Balhar, and the gang flees. But Maalik’s gang is shot and killed one by one. Despite suffering significant losses as well, police forces can encircle Maalik and Badauna under Prabhu’s orders. There, Badauna kills Pandit in an odd deed. He informs Maalik that he, along with Prabhu and Balhar, was responsible for Maalik’s wife’s murder. Badauna sought to seize Maalik’s dominion and prestige and had no intention of giving up. This is the only reason he kills Balhar directly, tells Maalik about Dadda’s influence (which prompted Maalik to kill his mentor), accuses Chandrashekhar of killing Shalini (which prompted Maalik to shoot Chandrashekhar), and employs goons to kill Shalini. For this reason, Badauna also killed Pandit and Maalik’s employees. It was Badauna, not Balhar, who told the police that Maalik had arrived at his house.

Before Badauna leaves after gravely hurting Maalik, the police set the area on fire. A few months later, Badauna wins an MLA seat, and when Prabhu steps down, he receives recognition for overthrowing Maalik. But when Prabhu is enjoying Kolkata’s Durga Puja festivities, Maalik appears out of the crowd, and the film ends abruptly.

Production

Development

It was announced on July 4, 2024, that filming would start in September 2024, including locales in Varanasi and Lucknow. Rajkummar Rao concentrated on developing a more muscular body in order to be ready for the physically demanding position. The muhurat shooting happened in Pathakpur village on August 25, 2024. The action scenes were designed by Vikram Dahiya. On August 31, 2024—the day of his 40th birthday—Rao formally revealed the movie with a poster.

Casting

After working with filmmaker Pulkit on the historical drama Bose: Dead/Alive, Rajkummar Rao was chosen for the title role. Medha Shankr, who was originally cast opposite Rao, was replaced as the female protagonist by Manushi Chhillar. Nine years after Traffic (2016), Prosenjit Chatterjee returned to Hindi films with the role of a police officer. It was also reported that Huma Qureshi made a brief appearance.

Film Shooting:

August 2024 marked the start of principal photography. Lucknow, Varanasi, and Unnao were all included in the film’s three-month shooting schedule. The first schedule, which included Rao and Chhillar, started in late August on the outskirts of Lucknow along the Lucknow-Kanpur route. On September 25, 2024, filming was also done at the Subhash Hostel at Lucknow University. Midway through November 2024, the two-month Lucknow program came to an end.A few sequences were filmed in Unnao’s District Hospital.

The protagonist’s wedding sequence on November 14, 2024, marked the conclusion of the final schedule, which was set in Kanpur. Rao also executed intense action scenes, such as hand-to-hand and weapon-based fighting.

Music/Songs

Amitabh Bhattacharya wrote the lyrics, and Sachin-Jigar composed the soundtrack. Ketan Sodha wrote the background music.

On June 10, 2025, the debut single “Naamumkin” was made available. On June 20, 2025, “Dil Thaam Ke” was released as the second single. On July 4, 2025, “Raaj Karega Maalik” became the third single.

Marketing

On July 7, 2025, Raj Mandir Cinema in Jaipur had a pre-release event.

Release

Theatrical

On July 11, 2025, Maalik was released.

Home media

On September 5, 2025, the movie went live on Amazon Prime Video.

Box office

Compared to Bhool Chuk Maaf, Rao’s last release of the year, which made ₹7 crores on its opening day, the movie made ₹4.02 crores. In just four days, it was able to gather ₹20 crores.

Review

• Critics gave the movie mixed reviews. With an average rating of 4.7/10, 23% of 13 reviewers’ reviews on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes are favorable.

• Pulkit doesn’t focus too much on the issue of socioeconomic disparity, according to News 24’s Subhash K. Jha, who rated it four out of five. All he wants to do is keep us on the edge of our seats with a punitive story. Maalik scores both cunning and physical points in that. Firstpost rated the movie 3.5 stars out of 5, praising the performances even though they thought the plot was overdone.

• India TV rated the movie three stars out of five, praising Rao’s performance, the action scenes, the plot, and the direction, but criticizing the film’s length and Chatterjee’s badly written role.

• Maalik is Rajkummar Rao’s Satya and Vaastav; he’s at his visceral best in this mafia drama, according to Devesh Sharma of Filmfare, who gave it a 3/5 star rating.

• Despite its shortcomings, Maalik stands strong, much like its hero, fighting above its weight because to Rajkummar Rao’s fierce intensity, according to Rishabh Suri of Hindustan Times, who gave it a rating of three out of five.

• Bollywood Hungama rated the movie two stars out of five, complimenting the acting and direction but finding the plot cliched and reminiscent of earlier gangster movies like Vaastav and the Shootout series, as well as the TV show Khakee: The Bihar Chapter.

• A fresh gangster thriller with classic beats is not the breakthrough that Rao must have been looking for, according to Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express, who scored it 1.5 stars out of 5.

• According to Anuj Kumar of The Hindu, the movie is less than the sum of its parts and is a typical gangster tale that originated from class conflict in the Hindi heartland.

• Despite strong performances and excellent technical work, Dhaval Roy of the Hindustan Times gave the movie two out of five stars, claiming that Maalik “can be skipped” and that it was a cliched and uninspired mafia thriller with a weak, boring plot.

• Rediff.com’s Deepa Gahlot gave Maalik two stars out of five, stating that it is merely disagreeable and not even remotely interesting.

• According to Shreyas Pande of Cinema Express, who gave the movie a rating of 1.5 out of 5, it seems satisfied with merely showcasing Rajkummar in a clichéd gangster tale.

• India’s Sana Farzeen Today rated the movie a 2 out of 5 and noted that, despite excellent performances, it suffers from cliched narrative and emotional detachment.

• “Maalik” lacks both single-screen essence and multiplex sheen, according to Rahul Desai of The Hollywood Reporter India.