Mai: Why I Couldn’t Accept The Cold, Blood Thirsty Mom

I binged watched Mai on Netflix due to the pre-release hype. The story centres on a grieving mother, Sheel Chaudhary (Sakshi Tanwar), who suddenly finds out that there’s more than meets the eye as far as her daughter Supriya’s (Wamiqa Gabbi) death.

The more she unearths, the deeper she gets tangled in a mess, not of her making. What follows is a revenge binge that takes Sheel face-to-face into the centre of this dark storm.

As for the rest of the cast, there’s Anant Vidhaat, good as the ambitious, untrustworthy henchman, Prashant. Vaibhav Raj Gupta is equally believable as his gay lover and partner in crime, Shankar. Prakash Narayanan acts well as the ruthless, unhinged Mohandas. Raima Sen is saddled with a scratchy role, and she seemed uncomfortable in it. Ankur Ratan, as SPF officer Farooque Siddiqui, his performance is average. Vivek Mushran is Yash, Sheel’s husband, he doesn’t have much to do in the whole series except do random repair works. Overall, I do accept Sakshi Tanwar is the best of them all, her cool, calm and collected bearing, which often gives way to restrained fear in the face of horrific danger, is portrayed superbly by the accomplished actress.

But the series didn’t work for me, here’s why:

Mai Review: The character is half baked

I couldn’t digest the fact that a docile middle-aged woman who couldn’t utter a word when her husband gave up her son to his childless brother could transform to such an extent. The meek Sheel doesn’t have the word ‘no’ in her lexicon. I couldn’t figure out what was preoccupying her mind that she doesn’t even notice when her daughter was having an affair with a married man, but the father knows. Mai ends up with a thoroughly unconvincing transformation of a 47-year-old housewife into an ice-cold operator who's thinking two steps ahead of everyone. There are so many unanswered questions that her character seems half baked.

Avenging mom need not be on a killing spree

Yes, I agree Sheel needs to avenge her daughter’s murder but had she just killed the one person responsible I would have accepted it. But because of one misjudgment on her part, she is seen planning and killing one person after another without remorse. An avenging mom is ruthless but this meek woman who is also a mom becomes a killing machine is indigestible.

Sheel is unbelievable

And I am not saying that as a compliment. Sheel repeatedly discovers key information simply through luck, mostly by being at the right place at the right time. She uncovers notorious mafia secrets, easily infiltrates the den of the most brutal villains, scales walls, stages several stunning murders, and whatnot. And it’s not even that she has a secret past where she was an undercover agent or some such fantastical reality. But, no she is shown as your regular middle-aged wife and mother, who has barely stepped out from the limited confines of her regular, middle-class life. This is what makes the plot of Mai far-fetched, contrived and too good to be believable.

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Story of three women

The series is basically a story of three women trying to take on a man’s world. Sheel is trying to take revenge for her daughter’s murder. Neelam (Raima Sen) is trying to become the head of an underworld mafia and Supriya, whose murder sparks the events in the series is trying to uncover the medical scam by the mafia. But sadly are all unsuccessful in their attempt. Oops did I give the plot away!! No, not really.

All of the above served to make Mai a half-baked and not-so-satisfying watch for me. While you might get pulled into Sheel’s world and even root for her, the story and characterisation left me unimpressed.

The views expressed are the author's own.