Mom Movie Review: Mom is a powerful film that reflects the horrors of the society that we live in today and how the world still remains unsafe for women. The film shocks and impacts you deep within. Watch it.

Mom Review {3.5/5} & Review Rating

It’s always said that ‘Since God cannot be everywhere, He created Mother’. MOM is a heart wrenching story, which mirrors the power of a mother in lieu of the aforementioned adage. The film starts off with school teacher Devki (Sridevi) punishing one of her students in school named Mohit for sending a lewd message to her daughter Arya (Sajal Ali), who also studies in the same class. Despite Sridevi’s love and affection towards Arya, Arya can’t get over the fact that she is her step-mom. There’s a constant brewing tension between them. One night, when Arya goes for a Valentine’s day party with her friends at a far off cottage, Mohit and his accomplices seize the opportunity to get even with her and land up brutally raping her and dumping her in a gutter. What happens after that are a series of court sessions, which ultimately end up declaring the ‘powerful’ Mohit and his partners as innocent and they walk away scot-free. Seeing justice slipping out of her hands, Devki approaches a small time detective Dayashankar Kapoor aka DK (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) to help her. Just as Devki starts ‘punishing’ the culprits, she comes under the radar of the razor sharp police officer Mathew Francis (Akshaye Khanna). What is the reason for Arya to hate Devki so much, does Devki succeed in her plan of exposing the culprits or does she get caught by Inspector Mathew Francis while doing so, what happens of the culprits ultimately and does Arya finally get justice, is what forms the rest of the story.

No sooner MOM’s trailer got released, it immediately caught everyone’s attention with Sridevi’s daunting question “Agar aapko galat aur bohot galat mein se chun na ho, toh aap kya chunenge?" Thanks to Sridevi’s screen persona, the film’s trailer set the path for the film. The film is a hard-hitting tale narrated by debutante director Ravi Udyawar. What makes MOM different from other films in similar genre is the treatment and presentation. Since the film touches upon a very topical issue, it is definitely bound to find high resonance amongst the audiences.

Even though the film has an extremely gripping screenplay (Girish Kohli), it could have been tighter and far more engaging, especially in the second half. Despite the presence of moments of sheer brilliance in the film, the writer fails to sustain the same till the end. The film’s story (Ravi Udyawar, Girish Kohli, Kona Venkat) is about today’s reality and has been written in a convincing manner.

After having carved a niche for himself as an artist, illustrator, graphic designer and an ad filmmaker, Ravi Udyawar makes an astounding debut as a director with MOM. Ravi truly wins the hearts of everyone with the emotional connect that he brings in the film. The film’s first half is shot very well building an excellent set up and well-detailed and etched out characterisation. The first half also mirrors the reason for the brewing tension between Sridevi and her daughter. The film however begins to dip and stretches in the second half, especially during the pre-climax. By the time the film reaches the climax, the so far built up fizz starts fading away. Had the film been shorter in length, it would've been far more effective. Amongst all the highpoints of the film, do not miss the film’s climax and the scene in the film is when Sridevi breaks down when she sees her daughter in the hospital. This scene will definitely give you goose bumps.

Speaking of Sridevi, with MOM, she touches the 300^th film mark of her career. Sridevi is the lifeline of MOM, as the film rests on her strong shoulders. The magic, the aura and the magnetic charisma, for which Sridevi was always known is in full display in MOM. The way Sridevi operates and takes out one accused after another with the help of Nawazuddin Siddiqui is interestingly shown. With MOM, Sridevi, yet again, proves that she still is one of the best leading actresses in Bollywood. On the other hand, there’s Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who can rightly be called as a ‘performance chameleon’. The effortlessness with which he slips into his character in MOM is truly outstanding. MOM sees an elevation of his career graph with his exceptional performance. His looks and performance in the film is simply beyond words. Seeing him and Sridevi on the big screen together is nothing short of sheer bliss. Then, there’s the suave Akshaye Khanna, who is in top form in MOM. It’s great to see him in a strong role after a long time. Besides them, there are some really good performances from Adnan Siddiqui and Sajal Ali. MOM, as a whole, comes across as a blazing powerhouse of some great performances, which also includes the actors playing the four culprits.

The film’s music (A. R. Rahman) is decent, though the song towards the end was unnecessary. On the other hand, the film’s background score (A. R. Rahman, Qutub E Kripa) is very good and creates good tension in the narrative. It’s the background score, which elevates the films’ narrative by notches.

The film has exceptional cinematography (Anay Goswamy), whereas the film’s editing (Monisha R. Baldawa) is just about decent. The film could have been trimmed for stronger impact. The action scenes in the film have also been executed very well.

On the whole, MOM is a powerful film that reflects the horrors of the society that we live in today and how the world still remains unsafe for women. The film shocks and impacts you deep within. Watch it for it’s hard hitting content and Sridevi's brilliant performance.