Maja Ma Review | Leisurebyte
Director: Anand Tiwari
Date Created: 2022-10-06 12:30
1.5
Maja Ma stars Madhuri Dixit as Pallavi Patel, Gajraj Rao as Manohar Patel, Rajit Kapoor as Bob Hansraj, Sheeba Chaddha as Pam Hansraj, Simone Singh as Kanchan Adhia, Ritwik Bhowmik as Tejas Patel, Barkha Singh as Esha Hansraj and Srishti Shrivastava as Tara Patel. Directed by Anand Tiwari, the story is penned by Sumit Batheja. The runtime is 2 hours 14 minutes.
The synopsis reads, “Pallavi Patel is the quintessential, middle-aged, devoted housewife who is equally famous for her dance as she is for her cooking. But what happens when a rumour about her, threatens to disrupt her middle-class family’s ethos, on the eve of her son Tejas’ engagement with a rich, NRI girl?”
Maja Ma Review: Plot Summary
In Amazon Prime Video’s Maja Ma, Tejas Patel wants to marry Esha Hansraj, an NRI. Esha’s parents are American but very regressive and obsessed with Indian “values”. They want to know everything about Tejas and his family background. Tejas’ parents Manohar and Pallavi Patel in Gujarat, ensure everything is perfect and look every bit Indian to impress the Hansraj.
When the Hansraj family visits the Patels, they’re impressed with their pure Indianness. However, a rumour about Pallavi changes everything for both families. Is the rumour true? What will happen to Pallavi? We get all our answers in the two-hour movie.
Maja Ma Movie Review: Discussion
Maja Ma is one of the weirdest movies I’ve seen this year. The story starts in a certain way, brings in some unexpected twists, has ridiculous characters who make questionable decisions, and ends up like a typical daily soap saga.
The first thing that bothered me was Rajit Kapur and Sheeba Chaddha’s characters, Bob and Pam Hansraj. They play the NRI couple with an absurd American accent and garbage mentality. Maybe, the writer and director purposely made them speak like that to show how they prefer speaking in an accent but have a narrow-minded mentality. But it is just uncomfortable to listen. Barkha Singh’s accent is equally bad.
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Coming to our protagonist, Pallavi Patel, played by Madhuri Dixit, gets a good introduction. We learn that she’s an ideal wife, a loving mother and an incredible dancer and cook, adored by her family and neighbourhood. However, when a rumour about her comes to the limelight, everyone’s behaviour towards her changes. She’s disrespected and looked down on by others.
The Patels also have a daughter named Tara, who’s married and studying gender equality. She’s a social activist who wants the LGBTQA+ community to have equal rights and better treatment. However, Tara is such an aggressive and harsh character that one would never want to open up in front of her. I kept telling Tara through the screen to calm down, especially because it was not her story/truth.
The movie focuses on how badly people of the LGBTQA+ community are treated in society, even by family members. However, the approach taken to highlight the issue is very triggering and poor. Whatever happens in the last hour is extremely uncomfortable to watch. Even though Anand Tiwari is trying to be one of the voices to support the LGBTQA+ community, in the end, the person in the movie is used for the character development of straight people. The character’s arc is used to push the love story of a heterosexual couple – Tejas and Esha.
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When we look at Madhuri Dixit’s Pallavi Patel, the treatment given to her character is bad. Pallavi keeps saying that she is also a human, apart from being a mother and a wife. But in the end, she’s shown as a sacrificing goddess. When will we stop showing women as devis in our stories? Women are also human beings, flawed and deserve to have their identity and significance. I wish her character weren’t made to feel so guilty till the end. The happy ending doesn’t compensate for the humiliation she had to face.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Maja Ma is no fun to watch. It tries to call out the wrongdoings of society. But the treatment of the main subject is so poor, you feel disturbed in the end.
The movie is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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As someone in the main character’s situation, I was so grateful to watch this movie. I’m really glad Madhuri Dixit took this on.
Sad to see such bad rating for such a beautiful film! You need to keep you preconceived notions outside before judging it! I give 3.5 stars!
Wonderful movie, Madhuri rocks
You ve really missed the point of the story. Most of the metaphors in the film are lost on you. The film had a few key messages that it landed on point better than any other movie on the subject of LGBTQIA+ in recent past. As for guilt of the main character is concerned and the shame that she experiences, it’s the reality of our society – would you rather the film be untrue to how homosexuality is received in our country?
I found the ending inspiring, uplifting and very matured.
This review seems really weird!