Johnson Thomas
Sridevi's 300th film in the 50th year of her film career is about a revenge taking mom, Devaki, a biology teacher by profession, who is avenging her step-daughter Arya’s (Sajal Ali) brutal gang-rape at the hands of four brutish fiends. As a thriller designed to showcase Sridevi’s stellar talents, it’s a well designed show of support by director Ravi Udayavar and husband Boney Kapoor. But the plot is not well put-together nor is there much logic in the scenes showcasing the miscarriage of justice in the courtroom.
With her daughter (also her student) traumatized and blaming her for the perpetration of violence and husband Anand (Adnan Siddiqui) knocking hard on the unyielding doors of justice, it’s left to her to right the wrong -with help from a nosy all-sacrificing detective Daya Shankar Kapoor (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and a last minute turnaround from no-nonsence Inspector Mathew Francis (Akshaye Khanna)from the Crime Branch.
There are far too many inexplicable passages in Mom, especially the ones involving the judiciary and the not-so-smooth involvement of the detective. Samples and swabs rendered inconclusive because they were taken three days after the incident even though the victim was rushed to the hospital within 48 hours, the doctor explaining to the mom that her daughter ‘may’ have been gang-raped even after the medical investigations are done and treatment is on and Arya’s own testimony that she remembers having been thrown out of the moving vehicle.
Devaki also has two students from the hijra community who conveniently assist her in her opening act of revenge. The unreasonable antagonism that Arya holds for step-mom Devaki is also quite off-the-rack. Udayavar and team allow for a facile back story that doesn’t quite support the run of play and as a result most of what transpires looks and feels conveniently contrived. But Mom is Sridevi’s film and apart from her inability to rise above her tinny, inhibited voice throw and south side accent, she performs with aplomb.
Sajal Ali as Arya has a strong screen presence and might have performed better if her role was cohesively written. Nawazuddin was to be the show stealer but his sacrifice doesn’t come across as powerful and Akshaye Khanna isn’t permitted to stay in character, given the demands of perceptional commerce. The narrative tempo is a little stilted, and with the camerawork tending to the dark and music just not fitting in with the by-play- this one is at best a half-cooked film- just slightly better than Raveena Tandon’s ‘Maatr,’ which had an almost similar plotline.
