A big release this Friday was Sridevi’s Mom – a resounding comeback for the veteran actor, after a hiatus of five years since English Vinglish. A rape-revenge thriller set in (where else but) the capital, Mom has uncanny similarities with Raveena Tandon’s Maatr, which released earlier this year.
Both films revolve around a grotesque crime against the protagonists’ daughter, justice is subsequently denied and then the mother (Sridevi in Mom and Raveena Tandon in Maatr) decides to navigate the treacherous streets of Delhi to plot revenge.
While the plot lines (and even some of the scenes) are nearly identical, here’s the clinching difference – Mom is a far superior film than Maatr. It may not be the best film, but it is a better film by any stretch of imagination.
1. ‘Mom’ Takes Its Time to Set Context
From the outset, Mom seems to be a better conceptualised film than Maatr. It takes its time to set context.
We find out that Devki (Sridevi) has a strained relation with her step-daughter Arya (Sajal Ali), who hasn’t been able to accept Devki as her father’s wife.
Played by Adnan Siddiqui, Arya’s father seems to be a likeable and sensitive man, as opposed to the cardboard cutout that is Tandon’s husband in Maatr.
Devki also happens to be Arya’s biology teacher at school, much to Arya’s chagrin, who insists on always calling Devki ‘Ma’am’ out of resentment.
The film builds slowly, allowing the audience to have empathy when the actual conflict occurs (in this case Arya’s brutal kidnapping and rape by a classmate and his older brother).
In Maatr, by contrast, the film jumps from event to event, almost as if the editors thought “let’s get the rape part out of the way so we can move on to the hamming”.
2. The Violence in ‘Mom’ Isn't Demonstrated
Maatr and Mom are both films about violence against women, but unlike Maatr, Sridevi’s Mom refrains from actually demonstrating that violence.
Here’s where the camera and cinematography are put to effective use in Mom. A dark-coloured SUV leaves from a farmhouse late at night. We know Arya is in the SUV, but what is happening in the car is conveyed not by grotesquely showing it, but by suggesting it.
We see a top shot of the car driving through the city, stray dogs chasing behind it to convey the quietness of the night. The car comes to a halt midway and the driver exchanges seats with a man in the rear. At the end of the journey, a body is thrown from the car and into the gutter.
This, of course, is in stark contrast from Maatr, where watching Tandon or the other female characters being thrashed on screen can make your stomach revolt.
3. Far Better Fleshed Out Characters
Though there’s a large margin for improvement, the characters are better sketched out in Mom (to be fair, casting better actors possibly had a lot to do with it.)
For starters, the men are not bumbling idiots belting corny dialogues with zero motivation. Akshay Khanna, as Inspector Mathew Francis, brings vitality to the role and packs a punch with his dialogues (even if some of them were cliched).
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as private eye DK, provides some comic relief in the second half, and is shown to be a dedicated father to a teenaged girl himself (though that alone as his motivation to help Devki plot revenge is hardly convincing). Even Arya’s father, Anand, shows a genuine ability to empathise with his daughter, though with limited screen time.
It seemed like the script writers actually gave thought to what the male characters would say, instead of creating misogynistic caricatures to simply justify a ‘woman against the world’ plot line.
Even Arya is a spirited 18-year-old, with no reluctance in showing an entitled male his place.
Also Read: Is Sridevi’s ‘Mom’ Good Parenting Advice?
4. ‘Mom’ Does a Better Job at Handling Issue of Rape
Mom handles the issue of rape (far) more sensitively than Maatr. For starters, the doctor – a professional – breaks the news of the incident to Devki delicately, as opposed to in Maatr, where a nurse simply blurts to the victim’s father“Sir, aapki beti ka rape hua tha. Actually, gangrape.”
Arya seems to have a support system in her parents, and even her little sister, who doesn’t quite understand what happened, is there for her sister. There’s even a glimpse of a WhatsApp chat from a friend Arya’s own age.
In stark contrast, Tandon in Maatr was a rape survivor herself, had lost her daughter to a brutal act of violence and had become estranged from her cardboard cutout husband – yet there seemed to be no semblance of a support system for her, save a lousy friend who did a fairly bad job at providing support.
Mom also steers clear of hackneyed flashback sequences, set to a sad song, to milk every last drop of emotion. There’s only one song in the film (with maestro AR Rahman lending his voice), showing the whole family on vacation in picturesque Kufri, trying to turn a new leaf.
5. 'Maa Ka Dard' Card Milked, but Judiciously
The theme of motherhood – as the film titles suggest – are central to both Mom and Maatr. But the difference is that Mom manages to milk the maa ka dard card far less than Maatr, and yet manages to make some what of an impact.
You feel empathy for Arya and her family not because you’re forced to conjure up faux maternal feelings, but because Arya (an individual, not just a maa ki beti) has been horribly violated and abused.
So much so that in the climax scene, when Arya finally refers to Devki as ‘mom’, you do feel genuinely moved, even if it’s not to a massive degree.
6. Boney Ji Ka Paisa
Finally, despite seemingly better conception and execution, what it comes down to is finances. Mom, produced by Sridevi’s husband Boney Kapoor and distributed by Zee Studio, seems to have employed better resources in every fathomable way – be it the sets, cinematography, or even the cast – probably because it could.
Maatr, on the other hand, produced by CDB Musical Production, seemed to be less fortunate.
Maybe it’s unfair to compare the two films, given how far apart their starting lines were. But for two films with themes this similar, and with two leading actresses of yester years, a comparison was expected and inevitable, and Mom wins the battle hands down.
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