Spoilers ahead…
Every Mother’s Day, we see this sentiment: MOM upside down is WOW. Repeat this mantra for two-and-a-half-hours and you get Sridevi’s new movie. Or Maatr, which featured Raveena Tandon and several of this film’s plot points. The crux is the same: a daughter’s rape is the radioactive spider that transforms mom into crime-fighting Supermom. (To accept these ordinary housewives as avengers, you need the same suspension of disbelief you bring to… The Avengers.) But Maatr didn’t have a scene where the heroine says God cannot be everywhere and gets this reply: “That’s why He made moms.” A few decades ago, the brothers and the fathers used to be the ones who set out on revenge missions. Something’s changed. Maybe it’s that DAD upside down is just hieroglyphics.
Devki (Sridevi) is a wow teacher. She explains rectus abdominis using a picture of a bare-torso Salman Khan. (We aren’t allowed a peek into the English class next door, where, presumably, Dickens is being discussed with stills of Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapur.) At home, too, Devki is wow. She’s on top of everything. Her husband (Anand, played by Adnan Siddiqui) says he’d be lost without her. Between you and me, the character is lost even with her. After the daughter, Arya (Sajal Ali, who looks like a pre-size-zero Kareena Kapoor), is raped, Anand breaks down – but the camera quickly shifts its gaze to Devki. Anand told Arya she could attend the party (the crime is committed by four men there), but his guilt is never explored.
What about Arya’s trauma? We get a few scenes of her screaming, weeping. And we get a glancing touch that hints at healing. At the hospital, she draws the curtain around her bed. When she hears that one of her attackers has been castrated, she opens the curtain in her room and lets some light in. But had the story been about her, it would have been a different movie. (And the film would have had a different producer, not Boney Kapoor). This is about Devki. This is about Sridevi. Does that make Mom a vanity production? No more than Tubelight is one. If male stars can build shrines to their awesomeness, why not the female ones?
But with this star and this story, there’s the unavoidable tabloidy subtext – for Arya is Devki’s step-daughter, the child of her husband’s first wife, and while she accepts that Devki is her father’s wife, she refuses to accept Devki as her mother. I was reminded of Arjun Kapoor’s confession on Koffee with Karan that Sridevi would always be his “dad’s wife” and nothing more. What does one make of dad’s wife (in a movie bankrolled by dad) finally being accepted by her stepchild? Wish-fulfilment taken to the extreme? Or inadvertent tastelessness? Not since Silsila – and outside the Mahesh Bhatt oeuvre – has a film so blatantly flirted with real life.
Still, Mom is a fairly predictable affair, helped by the performances. Akshaye Khanna plays a cop, and he proves again that he’s a much better supporting actor than leading man. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as a detective, slaps on a balding wig and bad teeth and has a lot of fun. He keeps flicking his tongue out like a snake, and I’d pay good money to know what went through the actor’s mind when he came up with this tic. As for Sridevi, her star quality is undeniable. One part of me protested that this was too much of a performance, while another part marvelled at her control, the way she lets just a cheek quiver in indignation or allows her entire body to convulse with grief. Whatever it is, it’s unquestionably effective.
Director Ravi Udyawar is a painter and ad-film maker, and his control over his frames is breathtaking. (Anay Goswamy is the cinematographer.) Whether a film about a ghastly crime can afford to look so gorgeous is another debate altogether (can you soothe the eyes while seeking to lacerate the soul?) – let’s, for now, just look at that gorgeousness. The film plays with reds – the frames of Devki’s spectacles; the colour of her car; the dress Arya wears to that fateful party. By the time we get to apples being used as a murder weapon, I began to wonder if it was due to the cyanide content of the seeds or the colour of the fruit. So precise is the palette.
The filmmaking is equally precise. During the rape, we hear Arya’s blood-curdling scream from inside the car, and in an instant, we’re yanked to silent outside, with just the thrum of AR Rahman’s disorienting score. The long-drawn court case is blithely free of surprise – if the accused aren’t set free, there’s no movie – but the slick editing makes the sequence less tiresome. Much later, after Devki nabs her first target (with a very problematic representation of transgenders), the passage of three days is elided in an instant. Udyawar seems to have decided he’d have to freshen up this stale content with form. And by jettisoning a lot of potential dialogue. The Akshaye Khanna character’s reason for doing what he does at the end is presented in one simple stretch after a murder.
But should we buy this reason? I wished Udyawar had lavished his skills on another subject. Given the headlines today, it seems wrong to be thrilling at Devki’s deviousness and the punch moments. (Some of the audience actually clapped.) Then again, this is another kind of wish-fulfilment. A cop says it’s impossible that Arya’s family could have anything to do with the murders, because they are “shareef log,” good people. A film like Mom is designed to make the good people in the audience feel a little less impotent. At least on screen, justice is served.
Plus, the film makes the case that this is divine retribution. It’s not just that line about God creating mothers because He couldn’t be everywhere at once [to vanquish evil]. Devki – she of the appropriately mythical name – is aided by a man whose every other utterance is “bhagwan” or “Bholenath,” and who has an idol of Shiva in his office. And the most stunning use of red comes when we see a painting about Draupadi avenging herself with her tormentor’s blood. Mom says: What if the law says it’s wrong? Hindu belief says it’s right. The result is a vigilante movie that’s scarily of our time.
Copyright ©2017 Baradwaj Rangan. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
sanjana
July 8, 2017
Brilliant review!
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sanjana
July 8, 2017
I said in another forum that one can miss the movie but one should not miss your review!
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brangan
July 8, 2017
sanjana: Thank you 🙂
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MANK
July 8, 2017
. What does one make of dad’s wife (in a movie bankrolled by dad) finally being accepted by her stepchild? Wish-fulfilment taken to the extreme? Or inadvertent tastelessness? Not since Silsila – and outside the Mahesh Bhatt oeuvre – has a film so blatantly flirted with real life.
I think you are very harsh here. I don’t think it’s anywhere in the league of tastelessness displayed by Yash Chopra or Bhatt. Maybe the director wanted to try out something different rather than the usual happy (biological ) mother daughter relationship. And it’s not like boney Kapoor’s daughter is playing that character
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brangan
July 8, 2017
MANK: I am just saying the film’s storyline lends itself to speculation, not that it is literally so.
I’m wondering aloud: ‘What does one make of…” is how I framed it.
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MANK
July 8, 2017
One criticism I am continuously hearing is that film suffers because the focus of the film is completely on sridevi. I say why the hell not. If any current actor or actress in contemporary Cinema needs to have a film revolving around them, it’s her. I’ll blame the filmmaker if he can’t deliver a decent product with her in the lead. That talent, that screen presence at the age of fifty three, her fiftieth year in films, her 300 th film, we will never see the likes of her ever again.
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harish ram
July 8, 2017
Everytime I hear that a film with weak plot and excellent execution comes to the silver screen, I await your review, BR. Predictably you didn’t disappoint. On a side note, I wish we get more of these kind of templated movies instead of the dispassionate masala movies.
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MANK
July 8, 2017
. I’m wondering aloud: ‘What does one make of…” is how I framed it.
Hmm okay. Because I thought you were listing it out as one of the problems mentioned as problematic in the title of the review
And agree with this . Akshaye Khanna plays a cop, and he proves again that he’s a much better supporting actor than leading man.
He was never comfortable as the typical Bollywood leading man. His best performance IMO was in Gandhi my father, he was mind blowing in that role. It’s terrible he never got the opportunities he deserved
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Hattori Hanzo
July 8, 2017
thats why i liked pandiyanaadu so much because for most part of the movie vishal and br are clueless about the underworld and its working. they huff and puff and you can say there is a lot of fluke at work in ending the villain’s life.
they should have scenes like sridevi trying to bribe the villains’ maids to kill them with poison in food or something like that…
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Ratish Ravindran
July 8, 2017
i caught up with the movie today. The film has superb performances by its cast including Abhimanyu Singh whose cold menace reminded me of his sadistic turn in Rakta Charitra.
@BR – Regarding no film flirting with real life since Silsila………..hasn’t Kamal Hassan done a lot of meta referencing of his personal/professional life in his movies of late especially Uttama Villain which has been analysed threadbare by you in the movie review of Uttama Villain?
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brangan
July 8, 2017
harish ram: Everytime I hear that a film with weak plot and excellent execution comes to the silver screen, I await your review
A little puzzled by this. Can you explain? Are you saying I talk about the execution?
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The Hatman
July 9, 2017
I found the ‘execution’ to be pretty similar to A.K.Sajan’s Mammootty-Nayanthara movie Pudhiya Niyamam(2016). It also pulls up the point if Mammootty is doing one movie too many in this particular setting (The Great Father being one other example)
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Nishanth Krishnan
July 9, 2017
“Mom”… A predictable, problematic, well-made thriller, helped by its performances
There couldnt have been a better way to put it. Outstanding reading of cinema
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abishekspeare
July 9, 2017
i searched google for BR’s review of kal ho naa ho and got this link:
http://rec.arts.movies.local.indian.narkive.com/aPLwzs9U/khnh-review-by-baradwaj-rangan
is this review really written by BR? if so, then why is it not there in this blog?
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Anuja Chandramouli
July 9, 2017
MANK: “One criticism I am continuously hearing is that film suffers because the focus of the film is completely on sridevi. I say why the hell not. If any current actor or actress in contemporary Cinema needs to have a film revolving around them, it’s her.”
But the criticism is valid, MANK. When the film is about an extremely sensitive issue like gangrape, it is tasteless to reduce the victim to the status of a mere prop to bolster Sridevi ‘s undeniable talent. Besides it truly bothers me when these films seem to suggest that the only thing left for rape victims is revenge if they haven’t been killed off or nudged into killing themselves. And if they are too traumatized to get all ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ (one of the most sickeningly exploitative films I have had the misfortune to watch) on their aggressors then as BR points out the task must be taken on by Mommy dearest (or Stepmom).
Surely rape victims who undergo the painful process of healing, dealing with the trauma, and finding a way to get their lives back deserve better than providing fodder for a star vehicle? Doesn’t that sort of thing leave a bad taste in your mouth?
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NR
July 10, 2017
Sri’s performance is loud and over-acted. Screaming, shouting that one is reminded of Aishwarya’s over acting (meri over-acting teri over-acting se acchi hai). The movie is very flat with no layers. Nawaz, Akshay are totally wasted here. I went to see the movie because akshay said in one of the interviews that this is Sri’s best performance ever and Udyavar is god’s gift to director’s world thanks to Boney. Now I wonder why AK lied to us so much.
BTW sri’s husband is movie looked very much like Vinod Khanna and Daughter did look like Jhanvi Kapoor.
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mrinalnarayan
July 10, 2017
Felt the movie aimed to be something like “The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” and ended up being a “Taken” in terms of Intensity.
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Naveen
July 10, 2017
is this is a female version of Papanasam, with scores settled in ways other than subtle that Papanasam was.
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MANK
July 10, 2017
Anuja, yes it does and I wish sridevi had a better vehicle to showcase her skills. but that’s a different issue
my comment was about the criticism the came sridevi’s way – of hogging the spotlight – which I believe wouldn’t have happened if it was a current male (or even female) superstar in a similar role.
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Naveen
July 10, 2017
Anuja, Mank, nowadays a movie’s success can be fully credited to the marketing and hype it creates. Boney did a good job of pre-selling this movie on all possible avenues. post release to, nobody seems to worry (of course from namma forum ) that Sri takes all the attention in the story. everybody knows it is a Boney production to sell Sri again. would have been surprised if the story was less about THE Mom and more about the harassed girl. it had to be a different producer and lead actor.
this seems to be no English Vinglish inspite of the Sri factor
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Bharathi Shevgoor
July 11, 2017
I haven’t seen the movie, though I’m in two minds about it. I fully appreciate your point- the tastelessness of rape being used for a star vehicle. Also the conflict of so much beauty in the background of such a ghastly crime. “Can you soothe the eyes while seeking to lacerate the soul”‘. Dear lord, how well you have put it.
“The result is a vigilante movie that’s scarily of our time.”. Yes, very scary.
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Rahul
July 12, 2017
” Akshaye Khanna plays a cop, and he proves again that he’s a much better supporting actor than leading man. ” Does it mean that he is better at playing characters rather than archetypes?
MANK , some films lend themselves better to being a star vehicle and some don’t. Not having seen the movie, maybe it was better for its overall impact if it weren’t a star vehicle?
Sanjana , to post on other forums about movies is kind of a betrayal to this space. I hope BR can overlook that.
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shaviswa
July 13, 2017
I saw the movie and was not surprised to see Sridevi hogging the limelight. The movie is titled Mom – so why are we surprised?
I liked her performance – seemed to be in good form despite not having acted but for a film here and there. I was glad to see that the rape incident was not exploited at all. Very decently shot while still conveying the chilling aspect to the viewers.
My only issue though is the film promotes vigilantism. Wish they had thought of a different way of Mon getting back at the perpetrators.
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sanjana
July 13, 2017
“Sanjana , to post on other forums about movies is kind of a betrayal to this space. I hope BR can overlook that.”
Hey, Rahul. what are you smoking? What did I post other than my comment on this blog? It was done previously by other member too. And I only give links with a para of excerpt(rarely) which others are also doing regularly.
Betryal! Haha! Mind your business and BR can shoot me if I really did betray!
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brangan
July 13, 2017
sanjana: I think Rahul was kidding.
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
July 13, 2017
Shaviswa: My only issue though is the film promotes vigilantism.
So if not for the genre, we would not have got a SAC/Shankar. 🙂
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Rahul
July 17, 2017
Sanjana – now I do not remember if I was serious or kidding. An apology is due in any case.
Saw this today . I thought it suffered greatly in not providing enough thrills for a vigilante movie. The action and the second half , which should have been edge of seat stuff was very lame.
BR, could you please elaborate what you mean by problematic representation of transgenders?
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harish ram
July 30, 2017
@BR: better late than never to give a clarification. By saying I await your dissection of the film with a run-of-a-mill plot yet good execution, I meant the detail your writing gives to the execution, subtext, etc. is more compared to say a plot driven movie’s review. It is as if you are freed up in your mind about the plot and start pondering over what else is there to observe in this viewing.
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KayKay
February 25, 2018
Saddened and Shocked: RIP Sridevi
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edwardssammy
February 25, 2018
Oh, MANK saar, how prescient of you…:(
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Anu Warrier
February 25, 2018
It is heartbreaking. Feeling her loss more than any of my other idols in recent times. 😦
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MANK
February 25, 2018
My god, Just tell me this isnt true. i just dont want to believe this. just cant. feels like something in me has died with her. something that will never be resurrected. RIP oh dear one
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sanjana
February 25, 2018
I just remembered MANK, a huge fan of Sridevi, when I heard the shocking news.
Apart from my own sadness. It is not about a star but it is the suddenness of death of a mother with two young girls which made my heart ache.
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Anu
November 25, 2019
“He keeps flicking his tongue out like a snake, and I’d pay good money to know what went through the actor’s mind when he came up with this tic.”
Sure does remind me of Mad Eye from Harry Potter 5
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