Stop! Or My <Super Talented> Mom Will Shoot
Movie Review of Mom, Directed by Ravi Udyawar, Starring Sridevi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshay Khanna, Sajal Khan, Adnan Siddiqui and Abhimanyu Singh with Music by AR Rahman
4.5/5 Stars
Watched Mom, the movie, over the weekend and decided to make this my first movie review ever written. At almost 150 min long, Mom is a compelling and emotional, tight and thrilling ride. It is as dark and intense as English Vinglish was light and charming. It draws you in within the first 10 min and doesn’t let go off your gut till the very end.
Set in Delhi, Mom is a simple and often told, yet highly relevant story of gangrape and subsequent retribution. What exemplifies the story is a heady concoction of 1) Brilliant all round performances, 2) Tight screenplay 3) Focused direction & editing 4) Realistic cinematography and 5) A Chilling background score. What more could a movie goer ask for!
Ravi Udyawar has clearly applied his 150 strong ad film making experience to tell a mini story in every frame in a manner only someone who understands the importance of a 30 seconder can. What’s great about him is his ability to stitch it all up and not leave too many loose ends. Hence the fraught relationship of [step] mother-daughter only heightens the mother’s intentions and actions including the predictable end, thereby making you root for her. The integration of a social media and technology pervasive world is brilliantly synthesized into a crucial element that leads the cop played by Akshay Khanna to the venue of the film’s climax. A nonchalant meeting between the mother and the detective leads to the crux of her revenge seeking mission. Even two eunuch’s who owe their entrepreneurial careers to the mom, [played by Sridevi] become a vehicle for delivering the first iota of justice.
Very little violence is shown and a lot of it is implied; the most violence is in fact reserved towards the end when the main villain, played brilliantly cold by Abhimanyu Singh gets desperately angry. The key sequence on which the film is hinged, the gangrape itself, is not shown at all but still leaves your hair standing on end at the sheer genius of an aerial shot of the moving car, where the deed takes place coupled with [among] the most haunting background score ever produced [courtesy AR Rahman]. Ditto for the castration of one of the perpetrators. Aerial shots seem to be the director and the cinematographer’s pet angle and they use it to spectacular effect.
The film moves deftly from showing a tense relationship between mother and daughter to one of sheer shock and grief at the daughter’s rape to one of hopelessness with regards to the law to one of determination and subsequent execution — all through the eyes [almost literally] of the protagonist — played by Sridevi. Clocking 300 movies and over five decades in the business of acting, this film will go down as a career highlight irrespective of its box office collections. There are enough and more opportunities to ham it, go over the top given the emotionality of her character but she knows a thing or two to emote and still be in control. This movie is a clear homage to her in much the same way as Neeraj Pandey’s films are to Akshay Kumar or Kabir Khan’s films are to Salman Khan but Ravi Udyawar must get a few extra points for focusing on the actor in her and not the star. And is she a helluva actor or what! She’s hardly wearing any make up throughout the film keeping in line with her distraught character, using mainly her eyes to convey most of her emotions. The movie is replete with scenes that stay with you long after it’s over. Catch her breakdown in the hospital on seeing her daughter post the rape, breaking down while breaking the news to her husband in incoherent language, her shock at her husband being arrested for contempt of the court, her expression when her daughter freaks out at her comforting touch, her visit to the hospital to meet the paralyzed perpetrator and towards the end when confronted by Abhimanyu Singh. I can go on and on…
Supporting her is EVERYONE else. Nawazuddin reinforces his position as one of our most gifted actor’s and has some of the best dialogues. Akshay, though faced with a slightly sketchy / edited role still shines through, and Sajal matches Sridevi’ s on screen presence with her own in every frame — and that says a lot about her potential. Abhimanyu Singh gets his arrogant Haryanvi stud act perfectly right and you do end up hating him, which is his performance’s victory.
Music by Rahman is outstanding. The songs Muafi Mushkil, Chal Kahin Door, O Sona sound great while Freaking Life fits right in. Thankfully the terrible song Kooke Kawn has been edited out but its’ the background score that is as much a hero as the lead heroine; etched so thoroughly into the script, it stays with you just as Sridevi’s performance does. How I wish it was part of the soundtrack released few weeks ago.
There are a few flaws in the movie e.g., the end is a bit rushed, not as tense and predictable, Sridevi still has a south Indian accent which at times jars the Delhi mood the film is set in, one is left wondering why Mohit’s parents do not come to jail to release him, the fast track court is faster than desired. However even with these flaws, Mom is still the best and most powerful movie of 2017. It should be released in English as well. And if this doesn’t get Sridevi the national award [shocking she is still overlooked here], I don’t know what will. Just saying.
Sridevi has clearly evolved to a stage where she is rightfully doing fewer films and only those she can sink her powerful acting teeth into but which are also commercial in nature. And this is ballsy for someone who is a) female and b) pushing the other side of 50 in our testosterone hinged world. To be a leading female actor is hence even more praiseworthy
Mom serves as a reference point and a source of inspiration for many actors of her generation and /or age who continue working in films that milk their star quality and not their acting prowess, almost making films like templates. Kudos to this Mom then and here’s to more such roles for her to chomp on. For those calling her the female Amitabh or the Indian Meryl Streep, maybe it’s time to start calling them the male Sridevi or American Sridevi
4.5/5 stars.
