Mai on Netflix is a pertinent revenge thriller that lacks impactful storytelling

Starring Sakshi Tanwar in a never seen before avatar, Mai is a story about revenge that's worth telling but it's riddled with many weak spots.

Whether it is Disney+ Hotstar's Aarya or the recently released Mai on Netflix, the attraction towards the trope aka 'a working mother rising up to the most difficult of challenges and seeking out revenge and justice' is inevitable as it portrays mothers rather women in the light of multitaskers who can fight gangsters or mobs too if the need arises. But Mai: A Mother's Rage goes beyond the typical storyline of an uprising of a woman in unforeseen circumstances. It portrays a lower-middle-class, simple woman who just wants to know the truth about her mute daughter's death caused by an accident and her resilience for the truth entangles her in a web of chaos and revenge.

Sheel (Sakshi Tanwar) is a simple lower-middle-class woman who once wanted to be a doctor but is a nurse at an old-age home, living with her husband Yash (Vivek Mushran), who runs a pharmacy store right opposite his brother's clinic, and her mute daughter Supriya (Wamiqa Gabbi) who is a young doctor and a stand-up comedian. Set in the small town of Lucknow, UP, this family of three is made to be dependent and indebted to the prosperous doctor “bhaisaab” and his wife. But things start to unravel when Supriya is run over by a truck on the side of the road in front of Sheel's eyes. Consumed by grief, Sheel, while acting as the woman belonging to a patriarchal society who is expected to make and serve tea to the guests at her own daughter's funeral, cannot ignore the discrepancies in her daughter's so-called accident. In an attempt to join the dots, Sheel goes out to seek the truth, landing her right in the middle of a huge medical scam.

The brilliance of this six-episodic series lies in the tonality that is rotted in the real world and paints a new light on an already existing trope. Nowhere does the show, which is rarely thrilling but effective, portray Sheel as a vigilante seeking revenge, rather, she is a very real grieving mother who wants to know exactly what happened with her daughter. Her inexperienced yet resilient attitude binds you and brings forth the excitement, whether it's the scene where she scales a wall, puts a foot through a rod, kidnaps someone, breaks into a medical waste factory, is traveling through an auto, or accidentally poisons someone. Everything that takes place isn't pre-planned and hence, more often than not, she gets caught in the act. But it's her simplicity and realness that helps her get away with everything.

But keeping in touch with too much reality can also be monotonous and borderline boring and after all Mai is a thrilling revenge-seeking drama. Maybe that's what Atul Mongia and Anshai Lal as creators also believe, hence the twists of a twin brother, a massive shootout, the search for a crypto key, the police force's mission, and the internal battle in the mob to take over control, altogether branches out the show into various unnecessary spheres. Too many themes, overcrowdedness, and diving into the backstory of each character make the design flow flawed, and also the sequences lack imagination.

But the diverse cast of the show who are committed to their respective characters save the show from its own flaws. Sakshi Tanwar, with a background in TV, is the most believable domestic face but it's her effortless acting that works towards making Sheel a human rather than a boss lady. Anant Vidhaat, Vaibhav Raj Gupta, Raima Sen, and Ankur Ratan's characters are all coming from tainted pasts that can easily invoke sympathy but it's their impactful acting that drives towards understanding their characters. Vivek Mushran's silent acting shows a father's grieving his daughter and his estrangement from his wife causes trouble in his marriage and family. Seema Pahwa's role though seemed quite unnecessary and rather interjectory.

Above the surface, the show is a revenge thriller that explores a mother's rage and focuses on the length even a simple mother who is not coming from a background of violence can go. But in the subtext of it all, it's a story that explores the contrasting nature of grief, seeking closure, dissent, and the consequences of it in the modern-day, making it a pertinent story even if not the most compelling one.

Mai is currently streaming on Netflix!

Also Read: The queen of Indian television, Sakshi Tanwar has taken over the OTT space with Netflix’s Mai and the janta has only good things to say!

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