Film: Maatr
Cast: Raveena Tandon, Madhur Mittal, Divya Jagdale, Shailender Goyal, Anurag Arora, Saheem Khan and Rushad Rana
Director: Ashtar Sayed
What it's about:
Raveena Tandon's Maatr is a fictional rape revenge drama about a mother Vidya Chauhan (Raveena Tandon) and her teenage daughter who are brutally gang-raped by a group of men high on money and political clout. The daughter is subsequently murdered. After being abandoned by her husband, and harassed by her in-laws, Raveena's character goes on a path of vengeance. What happens next, forms the crux of the plot.
What's hot
It's a performance driven film. Raveena Tandon is brilliant as the grieving, vulnerable, broken mother initially, and later as the cold-hearted killer. This is her most hard-hitting performance to date. Playing a loathsome villain, Madhur Mittal, is terrific as the bad guy. In fact, his realistic performance is one of the major reasons the film works. Other characters including inspector Jayant Shroff (Anurag Arora), Vidya's friend Ritu (Divya Jagdale) are also first rate. What we also appreciated was the way the fight sequences like her fist fights were shot. They look rather messy, which gives the film a realistic feel.
What's not
Logic and common sense unfortunately has no place in this revenge drama saga. And this becomes even more apparent as she gets closer to her goal - making the guilty pay for their actions. The climax is straight out of the 80s. The editing needed to be tighter.
What to do
Despite its flaws, Maatr deserves to be seen, so that the common man can feel vindicated onscreen (in his struggle for justice) as the odds are against him in real life.
Rating: **1/2 (2.5 stars)
