Maa Movie Review: Punjabi Mania present before you the full movie review of recently released Punjabi movie titled ‘Maa’.

Cast: Gippy Grewal, Divya Dutta, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Babbal Rai, Rana Ranbir, Prince Kanwaljit Singh, Raghveer Boli, Vadda Grewal, Aarushi Sharma, Ashish Duggal, Nirmal Rishi, Gurpreet Bhangu, Tarsem Paul, Parkash Gadhu, Rupinder Rupi.

Director: Baljit Singh Deo.

Producers: Ravneet Kaur Grewal and Gippy Grewal.

Music: Jay K and Desi Crew.

Genre: Drama, Family.

Running Time: 137 minutes (U/A certified).

Maa Movie Review

Most recently released Punjabi movie titled 'Maa' is chiefly a story of a superwoman single mother (Manjit Kaur played by the super talented Divya Dutta) who not only looks after her own family but also runs an oldage home to fullfill her late husband Pargat's (Gurpreet Ghuggi) wish.

Don't beg and eat, don't go near an enemy and don't talk to a dishonest person are three funademental lessons provided by the mother to her sons Jora (Gippy Grewal) and Taqdeer (Babbal Rai). Intentionally or unintentionally, both the sons erring on these principles result in the family facing severe ramifications.

In what isn't as straightforward as it looks, Maa's victory lies in the fact that it has been provided with a very layered script by Rana Ranbir, who also plays a vital character named Deena in the movie. As a result, Maa translates into a meritorious story of humanity, benevolence, family relations, animosity spanning across generations, revenge and karma.

Dutta, who catapults oodles of power in her titular character, emerges as the crowning point of the movie. Her confrontational scenes with relative-turned-wrongdoer Ujagar (Ashish Duggal) are the ones to watch out for in the movie. Dutta, who looks convincing whilst playing parts of both 15 years (approximately) younger and elder to her age in real life, registers a commendable performance upon her return to the Punjabi film industry after as many as 12 years.

Grewal, who has produced the movie along with wife Ravneet Kaur Grewal, looks in his archetype comfort zone even while not playing a typical lead role in the movie. Rai, who very interestingly plays a sprinter in the movie, continues to justify his underrated tag as an artist.

A special mention needs to be made of actor Raghveer Boli (Sohna). The consistency with which Boli has portrayed the character of a special child is worth the applause.

Having directed a movie after more than two years, Baljit Singh Deo is at his usual good both as a director and a DOP (alongside Sukh Kamboj). While the team could have done better than repeating a few locations from his last movie titled 'Daaka' (2019), Deo excels in shooting sequences on the athletic track. A segment of filmmaking which generally goes wrong in the Punjabi industry, Deo makes it a point to not treat the sequence lightly.

That being said, without wanting to reveal details, it is worth mentioning that Deo and Ranbir also go adrift with respect to planning and executing Rai's coming back on the track (literally). While this part can still be ignored for it doesn't affect the primary essence of the movie, there's another element which acts as a stumbling block for Maa.

On several occasions in the movie, the writing becomes preachy where hyperbolized emotions appear to be a bit disarranged. In what is a chink in the armour for the writer, such marginal instances in the screenplay and dialogues somehow end up diluting the overall impact of Maa.

A commonly used practice to increase the runtime of Punjabi films, it is also dispiriting to see songs being forcefully added to a movie of this level. Both the necessity and nature of such songs in Maa is questionable especially in a movie which is made by the aforementioned names.