What’s up! I’m Marlon, and this is Ulven Reviews: movies and series from all over the world.
Today let’s talk about the 2017 Indian Crime-Thriller Mom, starring Sridevi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and directed by Ravi Udyawar.
Devki (played by Sridevi) is constantly trying to win her stepdaughter, Aarya’s (played by Sajal Ali), affection. So she let her go to a party with friends from school.
At the party, Aarya rejects Mohit (played by Adarsh Gourav), a schoolmate that likes her. Seeing his humiliation, his thug friends decide to give her a lesson.
They kidnap her, gangr__e the s__t out of her, maul her, and leave her for dead in a ditch.
When the courts fail to hold anyone accountable, Devki hires a private detective (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) to help her make justice with her own hands.
I know… maybe this review would be more fit for around mother’s day, but it’s too late now. I’ve only thought of that when it was too late to change the schedule.
Anyway, Mom is an excellent movie that made me reflect a lot. Most of my reflections won’t be on the review, though, because I know that my line of thought is sabotaged by the YouTube Algorithm.
I’ll only recommend, once again, that you read Engels’ “The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State”. Like in the last review, the link for the English translation of this text will be available in the description box below.
Mom is one of those revenge thrillers like I Spit On Your Grave, but without the torture porn. So, despite not being a groundbreaking idea, I see it as smarter and more complex in many other aspects, like its portrayal of the courts.
The mother’s revenge plots go from simple to elaborate, sometimes even a little unrealistic over the top. But what I liked about them is that it never relies purely on indiscriminate violence. Even though I have nothing against indiscriminate violence, I love Only God Forgives, for example.
These revenge stories always have a cathartic feeling to me. It’s good to see somewhat of justice being served, a kind of justice we rarely see in real life, so let us enjoy it in a fictional piece of art.
I know some legalists might say: “Oh! But justice must be served legally by the courts”.
This naive thinking that the legal system can serve some justice can barely find any basis in reality. We are “born” believing in the institutions because the dominant ideology teaches us that through generations.
All of these institutions were created by a group of people, to benefit this same group, however, they made us believe it serves every person equally.
We can say that about the political, legal, press institutions, and many others. However, let’s focus on the legal system for this movie.
The first thing we have to take into consideration is how the laws are elaborated, we’ll talk about that when reviewing the German movie The Collini Case, probably next month.
For now, let’s think about the American Constitution. So well regarded by the American people but was written by enslavers of the African people and killers of the first nations.
Most of the amendments only exist on paper, not on the material realities of the working people of the United States, less yet if you are a person of color.
The same applies to newer laws, supreme court decisions, and so on. Because even in good faith, the agents dealing with the legal system are embedded with the dominant ideology, knowingly or not.
With all of that in mind, let’s look at what happened in courts in the movie. The identified r___ists are not convicted, despite a Supreme Court decision that a victim’s testimony should be enough for getting a conviction. The thing is, the testimony must be “of sterling quality”.
Who decides what’s sterling quality and what’s not? Probably a moralist judge drunk of an ideology that disadvantages women. In the case of the movie, her testimony was not credible enough because she drank at a party.
The whole system portrayed in the movie is protecting the men, shielding them, and almost pitying them. Even the detective that initially caught them is more preoccupied with being a legalist trying to find out who is carrying the revenge out than with making justice for a r___d teenager.
With a legal system that lets rapists go unpunished, and seeing them go on with their lives, what is the option for this mother, watching the daughter withering?! I guess most people would at least consider the same.
This movie can be really infuriating for a good portion, and I say that as a compliment. It’s a film that manipulates your emotions very well, making you angry, sad, satisfied, and it often makes you laugh, as well.
However, the thing I think was handled the best was the suspense, the expectation. The best example I can think of is when Devki is looking for Aarya. The audience already knows what is happening, but we can still feel Devki’s anguish and despair.
The conclusion of the movie was not my favorite thing in the world. I rather not reveal anything specific, only that it had its ups and downs for my taste, but with an end that left me somewhat pleased.
Now, let’s move on to the characters. I would love to say detective D. K. was my favorite, but it would only be my bias because he’s played by one of my favorite actors ever.
D.K. has a fundamental role in the film and also gives many glorious comic relief moments, but Devki is the best character without question. She’s very loving for both Piyu (played by Riva Arora) and Aarya.
We can also see how organized and methodic she was until everything happens, then her expression changed, and the routine she used to do with ease becomes more erratic.
It’s like Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels, however, Mom’s plot doesn’t revolve around that, it’s just one minor element of it.
Anand (played by Adnan Siddiqui) is the patriarch of the family. He’s a law-abiding citizen, he shows up when it is necessary but this is Devki’s quest, so I like that he didn’t interfere so much.
Mohit is just a little punk. Adarsh Gourav, the actor who plays him, already shows the quality performance that the whole world would watch in 2021 in White Tiger. I really like his performance.
Sridevi gave an outstanding performance, the best of the whole movie. I can’t wait to see her previous films, because, unfortunately, she died the year following the film.
Sajal Ali also gives a noticeable performance when she was on screen. After the crime, the character keeps much more to herself and doesn’t have much active participation in the rest of the film.
Have I ever said that Nawazuddin Siddiqui is one of my favorite actors of all time? He’s marvelous in Mom, as usual, but it’s not among my favorite performances from him, not because this one is particularly inferior, but because of how superior he was in Sacred Games and Raman Raghav 2.0, only to cite two.
Lastly, I would like to make an honorable mention to Tripti Dimri who gave one of my favorite performances ever in Bulbbul. In Mom, she only appears for some seconds and has one line, at the very beginning of the film. But there she was, and I loved to see her there.
Since I’ve already talked too much, let’s make things shorter. Visually, the movie is amazing and my favorite thing is the use of color. However, the score is not exactly the best, especially the happy songs, I really disliked it.
Mom is an outstanding film that achieved success in most of its aspects. The score and some of the more ludicrous elements of the plot were the lowlights. The acting and the emotions the movie was able to evoke were the high points. I’ll give Mom 9 Moons!
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Thanks for watching see you in the next video.
Dos Ratos 