Maa, A movie that surprised me.

You know, I wasn't much interested in this movie when I had heard about it, nor was I interested in the universe it is a part of, since I did not watch the movie that started it all, and as I understand, that movie was a Remake of a Gujarati film, Vash which got it's own OTT release delayed(allegedly) to boost Shaitan as a movie.

There was also a lot of controversy around the ending to that movie being changed heavily from a Darker one to a much more hopeful one.

And so... why would I be interested in a movie which for all I know seemed like another attempt by Bollywood to launch a potential Cinematic universe which is announced wayyy before it even properly gets some feet.

And given the sample size of the Spy universe that has Singham 3 in it and Brahmastra which while amazing in terms of CGI pretty much treated the audience like kids, I did not have very high hopes.

And I mean yes, the posters, were amazing, I mean just look at them...

And I thought of maybe checking out the trailers before I make a judgement but then I never got a chance, because once again, I had left my umbrella at the movies, and this seemed the only remotely interesting movie...

I mean yes, I could just go and get my umbrella, but as someone who makes sure he writes a blog post on every movie they see, I often... try not to go out of my comfort zone... when watching something, because that way it's less pressure...

But that leads to the risk of potentially closing my mind to the greater cinema Landscape...

So just in order to make sure I have good enough media literacy, I take every excuse to go watch an extra movie... just as a way to push me out of my comfort zone...

That and I have trouble going out without purpose, TMI? TMI.

But whatever may be the case, I am happy I saw this movie.

Because god, it deserves every bit of the praise it is getting, although, there is also some controversy around the use of AI in certain parts... but we will get to that.

The more interesting thing about this movie is the themes it chooses to tackle, it chooses, to tackle.

The movie revolves around a legend(if it is a true Legend or not after loads of research) in the Bengali Village named Chadarpur(a Town by the Name Chandrapur does exist in West Bengal).

This Legend is inspired from the Myth of Raktabeej who was Granted a boon by Lord Brahma that every Drop of his Blood that touches the ground will produce a new Demon, it is due to this boon that Raktabeej nearly brought all of heaven to their knees, as the more they attacked him, the more they had to deal with.

This was finally over when Maa Durga took her fierce form of Kaali and fought him, making sure to not let a single drop of his blood touch the ground, according to the movie by consuming it herself.

But one drop fell all the way from the Heavens to the Village of Chandarpur, this Demon could not on it's own grow in number, as his blood did not have the same boon.

In it's pursuit of making more of his kind he then turned his evil Gaze towards the girls and women of the nearby Village, but every time he tried, no one could carry his offspring.

This Demon was called Amsaja.

Now in my research, google AI connects him to the Demon Aeshma or Asmodeus, one of the Seven princes of Hell and a Fallen Angel, one who is depicted as the Demon of Lust, Wrath and Revenge, he is known for disrupting marriages and encouraging infidelity.

Now, I would rather not connect a movie about Indian Mythology to Christian Myths, mainly because it is so rare that Indian Myths are presented in a good way on the big screen whereas Christian Myths are a dime a dozen in movies.

And when they are presented on screen we get Adipurush.

Yes, this is he level of CGI in a live action movie.... I'll let you be the judge.

But regardless of all that, the connection of the name Amsaja to Asmodeus is very appropriate as Revenge and Lust are the main two concepts that Amsaja represents in this story.

In order to free the Village from the Reign of Amsaja one man prayed to Kaali and got a single drop of her blood in his eye, giving him the strength to defeat this Demon.

Sensing the Danger, the Cunning Demon retreats and bides his time, the one who was blessed was unable to find him, but because the Demon stopped attacking, the Village was lulled into a false sense of security, the Man grew up and had a daughter, the blessing passed on to her, and now, she could bear the Demon's off spring, after her first period the Demon took her to the nearby forest and violated her.

The blessed one was faced with a difficult choice, if the child is born, the Demon gets what he wants, so he did the unthinkable, and killed his own Daughter.

Since then, this village has had the Tradition of sacrificing the daughters of this Family on their first Kaali Pujo.

The husband of the main character of this movie, Ambika, Shuvankar, is believed to be of this family.

This, is an obvious parallel to many backwards Traditions that unfortunately still take place in many Villages across India, and many of these traditions are justified by the existence of such legends, so the people perpetuating this heinous act can hide their Misogyny behind a veil.

But obviously because this is a Horror movie, the Demon at least, is real.

But regardless of all that, the Demon is a perfect representation of this Misogyny in a sense, treating women as if their only role is to bear children, and the fear it generates amongst the villagers, especially when their girls get their first periods is very reminiscent of the real life treatment girls receive when they get their first periods.

I will also say, that I do understand what they were going for, but... the director does understand that girls cannot get pregnant during their period right? Like after their first period they can't until the cycle once again reaches the Ovulation phase.

So like... I understand that for the tension and themes of the movie, it is important that the Demon capture them as soon as they have their first period, because that is a sure sign they have attained puberty, but realistically speaking the Demon is an idiot, or the writers are.

Anyways, the first half of the movie does an amazing job setting up this horror in the background, and how it affects the Village residents, especially the girls, how they keep disappearing and reappearing after four days, and how it began precisely after the death of Shuvankar's father, which prompted him to return to the village, and giving the Demon a Chance to kill him.

His last wish was to sell his ancestral home so he would have no ties left to the village, the fact that he had a daughter is known to no one there, except for his father(eventually) and the Sarpanch of the village; Joydev, who claims to have been told by the father.

Joydev is pretty much the only one who supports the grieving family throughout the first half of the movie(we will get to why not in the second half later), everyone else in the village, including their house-help has been cursing this family for having a daughter and not sacrificing her.

They were unable to sell the house because everyone believes it to be cursed.

And there is an outcast old woman who is seen multiple times stalking the Ambika and her child.

When the investigation into the disappearance of the daughter of the House-Help who had become friends with Ambika's Daughter begins, Joydev claims that all of this was done by the same old woman, not helping the fact is that none of the girls claim to remember anything of the time while they were kidnapped.

The only thing common in all of them, is that all of their periods have stopped.

It is in this tumultuous time that Ambika's daughter gets her first period, and she sees a vision of Kaali having read the prophecy of the end of the Demon.

The tradition of the Village is that when this happens and only when this happens, the Kaali Mandir is openned, and at the same time Deepika, the daughter of the House-help, returns.

It seems everything will soon return to normal, except for the fact that no one knows who's been doing the kidnappings and Deepika is acting strange, she tries to sneak Shweta(Ambika's daughter) out with her but his stopped by her grandfather, it is then that she reveals her demonic form and kills him.

Sneaking out, Shweta is almost captured, but saved by the Old Woman, Ambika however, misreads this and sees her as a threat, and so decides to leave without praying to Kaali.

This goes horribly wrong as their car is attacked by all the possessed girls

It is at this point, right before the interval that a secondary villain is revealed for this story and the Possessed girl hand Shweta to Joydev.

Ambika sees the Old Woman nearby right before she faints from head trauma and Blood loss.

Now, up until this point, I was a little afraid that this movie could become a little... generic? And also the existence of the monster could inadvertently end up giving some level of justification to the Misogyny of the Villagers.

But this one change saved this movie.

The Old Woman Nurses Ambika to health and clarifies that from the beginning she has been trying to save her daughter, and we learn that since the Kaali Mandir isn't opened unless someone gets a vision and it was last opened forty years ago, the person get that vision, was this woman.

And it was her job to kill her own child after the Kaali Pujo, but she refused, it was at this point that Joydev took the weapon and killed the girl child, he then used this to boost himself to Sarpanch, and further violated this old Woman.

Amsaja, angry of being robed of another chance attacks Joydev but seeing his use, decides to make him his servant and human form and it is revealed that the two essentially share a body.

It now falls on Ambika to do the Kaali Pujo and bring back her daughter.

The battle is fierce, during which Ambika is actually killed and brought back to life by Kaali but in the end she is able to end this demon, causing the entire forest to wither and die.

But unfortunately it seems she was too late, and Shweta is pregnant with Amsaja's child...

Again... menstrual cycle... but okay...

And based on a misreading of the prophecy of Amsaja's death, the same misreading that made the first warrior kill his own daughter and perpetuated years of female infanticide in this village, it is believed that Ambika must take her daughters life...

Now there I was in the theatre thinking what will actually happen, and then all the girl children who were killed have their souls taken to heaven... and Shweta need not die because... reasons...

What really bothered me in the theatre was the line spoken by the old woman "Teri Beti Nirdosh hai." "Your daughter is innocent..." Which I mean... why was that ever in question???

Like I cannot be the only one that felt that this statement was a little... victim blamey... but regard less it can also be read as "Kaali will not ask for the life of an innocent..." But seriously...

So all in all, I did enjoy the movie, the CGI could have been better than Pogo TV, and the AI was... fine... overall what really carries this movie is Ambika played by Kajol and her fierce love towards her daughter and intense, palpable anger towards anyone who would even dare look at her wrong.

I get the themes it was going for, but... I feel it stumbled, which is a shame because it could have been great...but you get what you get I guess...