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EDITOR'S PICK
`Mai...`
- teaches you how to value elders (IANS Movie Review)
Rating:
***1/2
The mother is a figure that instantly evokes tender thoughts in each of us.
Getting singing diva Asha Bhosle to play the mother in Mai... was
itself a master-stroke. At 80, Ashaji, with all her years of experience as a
singer of unlimited range, brings those vocal emotions into visual terms.
Ashaji does tend to under-act or not act at all in the more dramatic moments.
But that inability to give a virtuoso performance in the high emotional moments
is a part of the singer-turned actor`s natural grace and appeal.
The film brings up a very vital domestic issue. Why does a parent become a
burden for the children after a certain age? Hence, when Mai`s son decided to go
abroad without the mother, the daughter has no choice but to take the mother
into her two-bedroom home. Then begins the taunts and the jibes. The resistance
to an old forgetful Alzeihmer`s-ridden matriarch in the house is well-crafted
into the fluid thought simplistic screenplay.
Mai`s son-in-law (Ram Kapoor) and his teenaged daughter put up a stout fight
against what they see as an invasion of their privacy. These scenes are done
with much inner conviction and a genuine emotional affinity to the virtues of
the joint-family system.
Put on the crossfire between her husband-daughter and her frail vulnerable
ailing mother, the daughter`s dilemma is vividly portrayed by Padmini Kolhapure.
Indeed, this is Ms.Kolhapure`s finest performance in a very long time. She
brings ample credibility to her part, as does the talented Ram Kapoor as her
husband. The fringe characters also benefit from a screenplay which seems to
know its heart better than its mind.
The scenes are suffused with a high emotional quotient but don`t always display
a high level of intellectual involvement in the way the crises grows in the
plot.
The characters, such as the Marathi maid servant and Padmini Kolhapure`s helpful
boss at her workplace, seem to be constructed from stereotypical role models and
are therefore more symbolical than substantial.
Nonetheless, the film`s emotional content sees it through. The central
mother-daughter relationship is played out at a controlled octave with both
Ashaji and Padmini pitching in heartfelt moments that suggest they empathise
fully with their characters` emotions.
The cinematography by Sachin Kumar Krishnan captures domestic details of the
middle-class household with some amount of understated radiance. Nitin Shankar`s
music, especially the lullaby sung by Ashaji, resonates across the plot.
Mai... often leaves us teary-eyed with its portrayal of a generation
that doesn`t know how to value its elders. The treatment of the theme is stiff
and prosaic at times. But Ashaji melts all our misgivings. Her innate warmth
connects well with the audience.
This is one mother we would all like to bring home.