It would be reasonable to argue that The Raja Saab would have worked better had the comedy portions and almost all rom-com scenes (including the star-studded remix, Nache Nache) been done away with in the second half. The film's run-time wouldn't have been too long and the barrage of criticisms would have been limited.
The scenes immediately following the interval add nothing to the story. These tracks feature Satya, Saptagiri, Prabhas Sreenu and the Nidhhi Agerwal-Malavika Mohanan duo. In the first half, too, about 7-10 minutes of content could be trimmed completely without affecting the story. The flashback involving Sanjay Dutt's character is interesting in the first half. But the film takes forever to arrive at this point.
The Raja Saab was conceived as a horror-comedy first and foremost. The fantasy element, involving hypnotism, was added later. Relaunching Prabhas as an entertaining superstar, as against the action hero of Baahubali, Saaho and Salaar, was at the core of The Raja Saab. This idea, however, became a single-minded obsession. The stubborn thought shouldn't have been allowed to spill over into the second half.
