Maa

मार्च, 2024 में आई अजय देवगन, आर. माधवन वाली फिल्म ’शैतान’ में एक अजनबी शख्स एक किशोरी को अपने वश में कर लेता है और उस लड़की का पिता उस शैतान से भिड़ कर अपनी और दूसरी बच्चियों को बचाता है। यह फिल्म ’मां’ भी उसी पटरी पर है। इसमें भी एक शैतान जवान होती बच्चियों को उठा लेता है। पर जब वह काजोल की बेटी को उठाता है तो वह उससे भिड़ जाती है। ज़ाहिर है कि मां की शक्ति के सामने शैतान को हार माननी ही पड़ती है। ‘शैतान’ जहां गुजराती फिल्म ’वश’ का रीमेक थी और उसमें रामगोपाल वर्मा की ’कौन’ का टच था वहीं ’मां’ में काली और रक्तबीज की पौराणिक कहानी, बलि की कुप्रथा, कन्या शिशु हत्या, शापित हवेली के साथ-साथ 2024 में आज ही के दिन यानी 27 जून को रिलीज़ हुई ’कल्कि’ का भी ज़रा-सा टच है। उसमें भी शैतान को अपनी नस्ल बढाने के लिए एक ताकतवर कोख चाहिए और इस फिल्म का शैतान भी वही तलाश रहा है।

Draped in myth, dread, ghosts, and matriarchal rage, Maa isn’t your typical “mom fights for child” drama. It’s Kali Puja meets folk horror, with just enough gore and generational trauma. It sort of makes you question whether moving back to your ancestral village is ever a good idea. Maa movie throws itself headfirst into this jungle of ritual and revenge, with Kajol leading like a woman who’s read one too many ancient scriptures. Let’s dive deeper into the Maa movie, its story and ending, both of which are explained here, the cast, and more. On the surface, the Maa movie begins like a dark fable, twin births, secret killings, bad omens, and temples that only open when the Doddess visits you in dreams. But what it slowly morphs into is a full-blown indictment of patriarchal traditions dressed up as divine will. Through the story of Shweta and her mother Ambika (Kajol), the film lures us into Chandrapur’s cursed soil, where young girls go missing, demonic trees thirst for blood, and the real monsters are men disguised as protectors. Kajol’s character, equal parts devoted mother and accidental final girl, must go toe-to-toe with ancient evil, aided only by visions and old manuscripts.

Kajol stars in Maa, a 2025 Bollywood horror film that blends mythological themes with supernatural suspense, directed by Vishal Furia. Set in the eerie village of Chanderpur, the film follows a mother’s fierce battle against ancient evil to protect her daughter. Featuring standout performances and visual effects, Maa continues the Shaitaan cinematic universe while offering a fresh take on Indian horror. Despite powerful moments, it struggles to sustain emotional impact. Perfect for fans of Indian mythology, psychological thrillers, and dark family dramas, Maa is a bold but uneven entry in Bollywood’s evolving horror genre. For decades, Indian filmmakers have treated the theme of “Maa” with the reverence usually reserved for temple bells and home-cooked dal. The maternal muse has inspired more scripts than there are grains of sand on Juhu beach—an exaggeration, perhaps, but only just. In a culture where mothers are venerated both on-screen and off—be they divine deities or domestic dynamos—it’s no wonder filmmakers can’t seem to get enough of her.

It takes off with the right atmospherics for horror with masks, frenzied dancing, a sprawling haveli and monstrous trees. Topped with the chilling sacrifice of a newborn female infant. Written by Ajit Jagtap, Aamil Keeyan Khan and Saiwyn Quadras, director Vishal Furia sets the supernatural horror in Chandrapur, a village in Bengal. And packs it with actors who are snug in a Bengali setting. Ambika (Kajol) and Shuvankar (Indraneil Sengupta) have studiously avoided visiting or even mentioning the horrific secrets of his birthplace to 12-year-old daughter Shweta (Kherin Sharma). But when Shuvankar gets a call that his father has passed away, he has to revisit the eerie family home. With it, the horrors are unleashed. Beginning with Shuvankar’s unnatural death. And, a few months later, Ambika and Shweta being forced to drive down to dispose of the property. Trees with faces, trees with octopus-like limbs that reach out, strangle and suspend victims in mid-air.

The film begins with a flashback of Shuvankar’s birth in Chandrapur during a Durga Puja. While everyone is happy about the news of the birth of a son, the tone changes when it’s revealed that a twin daughter is born. Due to the traditional practices of the family and a belief that girls of the bloodline bring ill fate to the world, the daughter is sacrificed in front of a tree. The tree is believed to have been possessed by a very old and powerful demon. Years later, Kajol as Ambika explains a mythological story depicted in a painting about Goddess Kali and her battle with the demon Raktabeeja (Bloodseed). She reveals to the kids in her daughter Shweta’s class how gods had to seek help from Goddess Parvati, who took the avatar of Kali and helped take down the demon to reign over Heaven once again. Inspired by the mythological stories and more history of her dad, Shuvankar’s home town, Shweta wishes to visit their native home for summer vacation, but both parents refuse to take her there. They later discuss how important it is for them to share the truth with her about Chandrapur and why they decided to keep her away from the place.

Coming-of-age enthusiasts used to accuse Imtiaz Ali of telling one story over and over again. Lapsed horror enthusiasts like myself might accuse director Vishal Furia of being in the same boat. His latest, Maa (“mother”), is supposed to share a universe with Vikas Bahl’s Shaitaan (2024), but it’s actually Furia’s Chhorii 2 (which released in April) on a backpacking trip across West Bengal. Both movies feature a single mom from a city having to defy the demonic forces of an ancestral village to protect her girl-child. The daughter’s sacrifice (and first period) holds the key to uncurse the place. If the supernatural offender was a Tumbbad-coded prehistoric creature in Chhori 2, Maa’s baddie is a needy tree monster who looks a lot like Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. I could swear that the haunted Banyan tree in Maa — beset with the cries of slaughtered babies — is the one from last month’s The Bhootnii. The visual effects are better, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing anymore. Maa stars Kajol as the titular parent who must transform into Goddess Kali to defeat the sinister descendant of the Raktabija. It takes two hours to set up this face-off, becoming yet another notch in the belt of a film industry that keeps staging supernatural tales about feminism and empowerment (the Hindi titles have exhausted all variations of “woman,” “mother,” “daughter” and “girl”) to offset the performative ironies of the natural world — in this case, a country notoriously unsafe for the female form. Maa overcompensates to a point where it’s hard to tell fantasy from reality.