The Raja Saab has failed to impress the film critics, as it has garnered negative reviews and average ratings. They say that the movie may work well with Prabhas fans.
Director Maruthi has chosen a horror fantasy drama with an interesting concept, but a clumsy and disjointed screenplay makes it tiresome. The Raja Saab begins on an interesting note with a brief mystery element, but outdated commercial elements make it boring. The movie picks up the speed pre-interval, say the film critics
After a long time, Prabhas picked up an interesting movie and has done his best. However, he fails to make the filmgoers laugh. Sanjay Dutt and others have done a good job and succeeded in impressing the viewers. The Raja Saab has rich production values, and VFX is the highlight on the technical front, say the critics.
Here are some critics' verdicts of The Raja Saab:
India Today 1.5
The Raja Saab wastes its Rs 400 crore budget on a muddled screenplay that jumps aimlessly between genres and locations. Despite Prabhas's sporadic comic timing, the film lacks depth, cohesion and basic storytelling craft. What could have been an engaging horror comedy becomes a tacky, unfunny three-hour ordeal that disrespects both audience intelligence and cinema.
The Hindu
In The Raja Saab, characters find themselves trapped in a haunted house with no easy escape. Ironically, watching the film in a theatre can feel much the same. When the final moments tease a sequel — The Raja Saab: Circus — it lands less as a promise and more as a threat. As the first of five Sankranti 2026 releases, the film arrives during a season when audiences are usually indulgent, provided there is some fun to be had. Unfortunately, this one is simply a slog
Indian TV News
The Raja Saab is an ambitious horror-fantasy that relies more on emotions than on fear. It is neither a full mass entertainer nor pure horror. Instead, it is a blend that may not satisfy every viewer equally. For Prabhas, it marks a new direction. He comes across as sincere, even if the film does not fully live up to its potential.
Telugu360 Rating: 2.25/
Maruthi's core idea is interesting- mixing fantasy with horror- but the execution does not match the ambition. The lack of strong horror elements is disappointing, and the usual comic timing seen in Maruthi's films is missing. This is a pan-India film made with Prabhas, and the team has claimed a massive budget and a global-scale horror fantasy. However, the final output does not reflect that scale or substance. Overall, Raja Saab is a below-average film.
123telugu Rating: 2.75
The Raja Saab is a horror fantasy that works only in bits and never comes together as a cohesive whole. Prabhas' attempt at comedy is sincere but inconsistent. The female characters are underwritten, while pacing issues, tonal imbalance, and weak storytelling weigh the film down. Though the second half offers a few engaging moments, they are too sparse to elevate the overall experience. The comedy works sporadically, making this film suitable only for die-hard Prabhas fans or viewers inclined toward the genre, provided expectations are kept firmly in check.
