Solid performances let down by a weak script Starring: Madhuri Dixit, Gajraj Rao, Ritwik Bhowmick, Barkha Singh, Sheeba Chaddha, Rajit Kap...
Solid performances let down by a weak script
Starring: Madhuri
Dixit, Gajraj Rao, Ritwik Bhowmick, Barkha Singh, Sheeba Chaddha, Rajit Kapoor,
Simone Singh, Ninad Kamat, and Srishti Srivastava
Rating: 2.5*
Streaming on: Amazon
Prime
When Madhuri
Dixit’s Pallavi is subjected to a lie detector test to confirm whether she is a
lesbian or not, she asks Rajit Kapoor’s Bob Hansraj a very pertinent question:
What do you mean by being lesbian? Later when her son asks her how she aced the
test she replies, “They asked all the wrong questions.” Well watching “Maja Ma”
has you feeling the same. A unique concept but executed rather clumsily for
this first-ever Amazon Original Indian film.
Life is perfect
for the Patel family in Ahmedabad. Pallavi (Madhuri) is the life and soul of
her community, the perfect housewife with a doting husband Manohar (Gajraj), a
straight social activist daughter Tara ( Srishti) who is hell-bent on giving
the LGBTQ+ community their rights, and a son Jas (Ritwik) who is living the American
dream, in love with a richy rich Indian-American girl Esha (Barkha Singh in
Manhattan. After passing the grilling tests his hoity-toity would-be in-laws Bob
(Rajit Kapoor) and Pam (Sheeba Chaddha) subject him to, the Hansrajs next decide
to come down to India to check out their would-be samdhans.
All hell breaks
loose when a video of Pallavi and Srishti having an argument over gender issues
and Madhuri blurting out impulsively that she’s a lesbian becomes viral and
that too in front of the entire locality and the visiting in-laws.
It’s not that lesbian
issues haven’t been addressed earlier by Bollywood. Unfortunately those films
end up being controversial and even banned (Fire) for being un-Indian. More
often than not it’s a means to titillate the audience (Girlfriend) or treated so
gingerly that the message gets lost (Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga).
The issue here is
not whether she is lesbian or not. It’s the way equations change. The community
ostracizes her just on the basis of a viral video. The family goes to extremes
- the daughter literally pounces on the mother eager for her to come out of her
closet. The husband looks lost. The son goes a step further and takes her to an
ojha to drive the “gayness” out of her. The in-laws threaten to call off the
marriage and force her to undergo a lie detector test. Yes, the same test to
check whether the son-in-law was pure and a virgin.
What galls are the
cliches and there are so many of them. Sheeba and Rajit are great actors but
that American accent of theirs? The characters of Bob and Pam are downright obnoxious
and insufferable but their phony accents take the cake as the worst ever in a
Hindi film! Madhuri’s own reaction to her 30-year-old secret tumbling out too
is rather muted and when the object of her affection (a gorgeous Simone Singh)
comes visiting she barely moves a facial muscle. Giving Simone cancer is another
done-to-death gimmick the director Anand Tiwari resorts to. The film winds up
without actually going deep enough to address the issues of gender orientation,
just skimming the surface as it were, to avoid upsetting the apple cart.
What elevates the
film are the solid performances. Madhuri is bewitching as the troubled housewife
handling her role with ease alongside showcasing her dancing prowess in the
many Garba sequences. Gajraj Rao is dependable as always. Ritwik is charming
with Barkha Singh lending sweet support.
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