Maa story:

The horrifying tale of a daitya (demon) who haunts the land of the fictitious town of Chandrapur and demands the sacrifice of young girls is explored by Ambika Maa. Following her husband Shuvankar's (Indraneil Sengupta) odd and supernatural death, Kajol's character Ambika brings her daughter Shweta, played by Kherin Sharma, back to her husband's hometown. The mother and daughter find themselves entangled in a curse that has been passed down through generations, turning what began as a quest for solutions into a horrifying experience.

Review of Maa:

Horror movies always frighten me, and I never get a decent night's sleep because of them. As a result of the occupational danger I'm in, watching Maa has certainly been difficult. But, in the end, what started out as a fear of being in a dark room and facing the horror while covering my face with my hands turned into something far worse and harder to bear. What was it? Let's start...

Maa opens with the occurrence from 40 years ago, where a woman gave birth to a boy and a girl. The village celebrates the birth of the son, but a woman close to a spooky tree immediately snatches the infant girl, leaving the mother in disarray, and the child is murdered in front of the father and the villagers. The remains of numerous female infants, whose cries echo throughout the area, are then discovered buried in the dirt below.

We are immediately transported to the present day, where Ambika (Kajol) is teaching a group of youngsters about the tale of Mahakali against Raktabeej from Hindu mythology. It also implies that Maa is moving in the same direction as the narrative. After then, we learn that Shuvankar (Indraneil Sengupta) is murdered by an unidentified man while he is coming back from his hometown following his father's burial, leaving his family devastated. However, the tale does not end here; the Sarpanch of the village, played by Ronit Roy, invites Ambika to Chandrapur in order to sell the family's land.

The narrative now begins with Ambika and her daughter Shweta having accepted the death of Shuvankar, who was killed in the village that devoured him. Additionally, Ambika wishes to shield her daughter from a family that has been murdering female children for generations under the guise of sacrifice.

The movie is directed by Vishal Furia, who has made a name for himself in the genre of supernatural horror movies, following his recent release of Chhorii 2 on Prime Video. Regarding the filmmaker's tropes and how the plot unfolds, it's not unexpected. Even if Maa is a mythical horror where the existence of divine power lessens the fear, I don't feel the need to beg God for protection all the time.

The movie's screenplay, written by Saiwyn Quadras, includes every conceivable element that makes it fascinating to see. However, at which point does Maa fail, and which point is it difficult to recover from?

When there is something frightening in front of them, why is it that there is always a child who is so inquisitive that they have no trepidation? Every horror movie makes sure that a kid does something stupid that is portrayed as the consequence he or she merits in order to become the ideal victim.

While watching the movie, I actually felt like that youngster. I was expecting horrible and frightening jump scares that would keep me awake all night. However, I felt as though I was forced to watch a movie here as a kind of punishment, one that neither frightened me nor piqued my interest enough for me to become engrossed in the plot.

Maa takes its time setting you up for the final conflict between a mother's fury and the demonic curse that has been tormenting the community for years, with a total runtime of two hours and fifteen minutes. But as it did, all it did was move the camera around with a scary soundtrack; it had a jump scare on the screen ready to frighten me when it was meant to land on a terrifying instant.

The CGI image of the tree being the demon and kidnapping the young girls is, in all honesty, so cartoonish that it's just absurd. I wanted to see the characters in the movie become frightened by living in a house that was nearly haunted or only a stone's throw away from the tree where the demon lived. The residents of that house have come to terms with their fate, which is understandable. However, Ambika and Shweta are not afraid and don't appear to be aware even when danger is nearby.

In one of the moments, the demon is seen grabbing Shweta by the hair and pulling her away, while all Ambika does is stand there, stare in disbelief, and react when her daughter is no longer in sight. After that, she discovers a corpse in the residence and attempts to shield her kid in some way. Ambika and Shweta pack their stuff and attempt to flee from there without losing much composure in response to that.

It seems as though the characters are trying to trick the audience into believing whatever they say because the way the situation is handled seems so lacking.

Well, as you can see from the cast, Kajol is, of course, carrying the movie as it should be. However, considering the work Ronit Roy has been doing, why would he be cast as a Sarpanch? Indeed, it is easy to figure out what his role will entail and what he will eventually bring to the table.

However, the film's central topic is that the suspense is so readily spoon-fed that the element of surprise is nowhere to be found. Yes, the battle between good and evil has been portrayed in numerous movies in which people act as the catalyst.

But how come no woman ever fought back in a family where a female child was killed because they thought that's what Mahakali wanted? I believe the movie boldly exposes the unpleasant truth that men have harbored animosity towards women since their birth and frequently fail to appreciate their value, even if such ideas may come to mind.

In one of the scenes, a guy intervenes and declares that it is his responsibility because women are useless when a woman declines to murder an infant girl. Indeed, that's the case, as men have no compassion for women, and once their wants are fulfilled, they should be cut to pieces. Since the crime against women won't cease anytime soon, it's a never-ending debate.

In summary, the film addresses female infanticide but with a mythological context, as shown by Furia in his films, from "Lapachhapi" to Chhorii 2. The film, however, attempts to combine all aspects, but everything, from the narrative to the offensive CGI, is against it.

Additionally, I thought the performers were hesitant to use their imaginations to create terrible events and respond appropriately. But if a tree attempts to imitate Vecna by having a beak, it is really more of a prompt for ChatGPT that fails to create the appearance of a demon in reality.

Although music is absent from such films, one is shown right before the climax, making it superfluous. The song would have made a bit more sense if it had just been playing in the background.

Due to the simple act of getting the plot, which had so much potential, onto the screen, Maa's journey is absurd. When on her own adventure, Kajol is, frankly, the movie's redeeming feature. She doesn't go overboard for no reason, and her performance is nuanced.

Let's not get into the other members of the ensemble because the same cannot be said of them.

This horror has been a horror because it hasn't been horrible enough to make you want to hide your face behind your hands while watching the films or sit on the edge of your seat.

The jury's decision:

While the roots of maa may be in the soil of horror and mythology, the result is more of a paper-mâché prop with wilting scares than a frightening tree of terror. The movie loses itself in its own fog, stumbling its divine versus daitya duel with lackluster CGI and tepid scares, despite Kajol's realistic performance.

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