Maa review: Kajol gives her all but fails to salvage this underwhelming mythological horror

Directed by Vishal Furia who has an impressive resume when it comes to the horror genre, Maa, starring Kajol, feels like a poor rehash of his previous works. 

While watching Vishal Furia's mythological horror Maa, all I could think about was when a movie is so predictable that you've seen the whole plot unfold within the first 20 minutes, ‘spoiler warnings’ given by publicists feel so irrelevant! Starring Kajol, Maa is a story of a mother, who is determined to protect her daughter from a demonic curse, in a mission marked by fear, blood, and betrayal. While Furia commands great respect for handling the genre with great skill, sensitivity, and sincerity like we've seen in Chhorii, Bali, Lapachhapi, his latest offering comes across as nothing but a poor rehash of his previous outings. 

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Watch the trailer here!

The film opens with an influential clan of the Chandrapur village, West Bengal celebrating Kali pooja while also anticipating the birth of a child. The family rejoices as the bahu delivers a baby boy but it is revealed that she is expecting another baby who turns out to be a girl child and no surprise for guessing that the orthodox family decides to sacrifice her to Goddess Kali, a practice which they believe protects the village from a demonic force - Daitya. Years later, Shuvankar (Indraneil Senugupta) the surviving son, is shown to have settled far away from the cursed village and leading a modern life with his wife Ambika (Kajol) and daughter Shweta (Kherin Sharma) thereby breaking the ancestral practise of sacrificing his daughter for the ‘safety of the village’. However, fate brings the happy family back to Chandrapur, compelling Ambika to do all in her power to protect her daughter from the evil force.

While we can cut Furia some slack as genres of horror or mystery thrillers can follow similar tropes, subplots and camera angles but not even trying to present a fresh theme and story is where we draw a line. Maa, just like Chhorii explores the subjects of patriarchy and female feticide, celebrates the power of women, especially mothers and features a demonic antagonist that demands human sacrifice. Long cut short, Maa is simply Chhorii with a different cast and setting. On a serious note, the film lacks thrills, whether its the cursed Chandrapur village, Shuvankar’s ancestral mansion or the demonic forest infested with ghostly figures and ancient evil rituals. Maa rarely has moments that elicit goosebumps or spookiness. While the VFX elements are decent, they lack creativity and imagination, ultimately affecting the horror value of the film. Pushkar Singh’s camera work that captures the details of the eerie world is however impressive. 

The film boasts of a seasoned cast with Kajol, Ronit Roy, and Dibyendu Bhattacharya among others, however their acting prowess falls prey to the poor character arcs and detailing. While Kajol leads the charge with confidence, Bhattacharya’s talent has been wasted, reducing him to that irrelevant elderly figure who comes from time to time to warn the actress about the curse in order to add jump scares that don’t work. Surprisingly, the biggest disappointment comes from Roy, not that we doubt his abilities as an actor but his Bengali diction, styling and body language are caricaturish enough to offend the most generous person from the state.  

The climax of the film, however, is exciting. It starts with a prayer song dedicated to Maa Kali, the lyrics and choreography of which look like a college street play, however, Kajol saves it with her gracious performance. The dialouges, too lack impact and emotional appeal and feel inspired by high school Hindi essays on nari shakti. Having said that, Kajol's action sequence with the demon evoke the spirit of devotion, thrill, and feminine pride. 

Maa is playing in cinema halls near you!

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