Maha review: Hansika Motwani and Simbu feature in a haphazardly-written film

1/5

Plot: A mother seeks answers after losing her child to a psycho killer's murder spree.

Review: Perhaps the best thing about Maha is that it tries to be serious. There’s Hansika Motwani. There's Simbu, in a cameo role. There's child artiste Manasvi. Yet, the film ends up being nothing. If done right, Maha could have been Sridevi's Mom, but UR Jameel instead gives us a mess of a film. As yet another mother seeks justice for her daughter by taking the law into her own hands, one was expecting a predictable slow burn in which an ordinary woman transforms into a vengeful machine, eventually identifying the culprit among a slew of red herrings. Maha is anything but that...

Maha doesn’t buy the police theory and goes in search of the men, who killed her daughter. Her life is flipped upside down now. We are introduced to different characters. The camera does not show the moral dilemma that she is going through. There are too many characters and subplots, and not all of them get enough time to justify their existence. Hansika doesn't do a convincing portrayal of a grieving mother who swiftly transforms from being meek to merciless after the tragic incident. She is blank in the emotional scenes and definitely needs to reinvent herself as an actor. 

The screenplay is more of a hotchpotch of situations, the execution lacklustre. The generic writing bears a large portion of the blame. It's as if the crew set out to make a film without ever fully developing anything. Expectedly, the results are unimpressive. Hansika gets embroiled in a situation as you would expect a hero to be. However, the film cannot decide if it wants to be a murder mystery or a drama with profoundly dramatic characters. Consequently, it fails to meet either mark. 

Emotions are half-baked and one never gets to invest in the personal lives of the characters. The script deals with themes of obsession, psychopath and the consequences of one’s action, but when you think you have figured out the twist, the carpet is pulled under your feet to unfold another twist. The backstory involving Simbu required emotional depth, which was zilch. The first hour rolls about aimlessly. So as the second hour. The bad guys are flat and indistinguishable and would have been awful cartoons, were it not for all the blood and violent scenes.

Verdict: The ending of the film might frustrate the viewer as it offers no catharsis. The story equally leaves you untouched because it does not care to rise above stereotypes.