Story/premise 

Maharshi is the story of Rishi (Mahesh Babu), a successful CEO, who comes to a small village in India and ends up solving the problem of villagers who were about to vacate the village. why? and How? he does so forms the rest of the plot.

Review 

The movie opens up with establishing Rishi (Mahesh Babu) as a successful CEO and then dwells into the past with The college episode which more often feels unreal, like for example an MP trying to buy out a topper instead of buying the college administration itself to make his son a topper and then there is an unnecessary fight sequence opposing it. Though there are some chuckles and Awww’s (especially when Mahesh Babu reprise retro look of his real father Superstar Krishna) in this episode, But most of it feels lagged and sloppy. A mini 3-idiots was attempted to pull-off in the college episode with some heroic blends. The intention behind this episode can be assumed so as to forge a strong friendship between Mahesh Babu and Naresh’s Characters to bank upon it in the second Half but the movie fails to create an emotional impact about their relationship and hence we don't connect much with the story.

In Second half Rishi transforms into Harsha from Srimantudu, you could sense it even from the dialogue deliveries, Story gets a little interesting from here. Also, Jagapati babu enters the show, we assume him to be the villain and hope to get a strong clash. But he ends Up being mere a guest role for few scenes and gets defeated easily. The second half is heavy and you get what you expect of a Mahesh Babu movie. It also focusses on the farmer issues and appeals on mass participation to uplift farmers with the #WeekendAgriculture drive which is mostly for IT people. 

Coming back to performance and technicalities Mahesh Babu out-and-out runs the show he is present in every frame. Next weighted character is of Naresh’s. Pooja Hegde’s role is very minor and is mostly for songs. There is a dented father-son relationship narrative playing subtly, which is very well performed by Mahesh and Prakash Raj, perhaps its the only emotional scene that connects well with the audiences. 

The most anticipated second half fight sequence (trend following since Srimanthudu) is well choreographed by Ram-Laxman. The Songs and background scores suit the narrative, Devi Sri Prasad has done true justice to the subject. The visuals are splendid, the camerawork is evident where the Budget has been spent.

Verdict 

Maharshi is indeed a semi-biopic, Though the Journey is long and beautiful but Nothing New, feels more like a Sequel or Adaptation of 'Srimanthudu'. it focusses more on the happenings of the life of Rishi and invests too less on the reasons or motives behind it. And whenever it does the narratives are so cliche that you hope it would have been better if they didn’t. But still its a Mahesh babu show you won’t come disappointed out of it, Maharshi would at least entertain you if not to the fullest. Go with no high expectations or assumptions and you will enjoy the show.