aja Ma, released recently on Amazon Prime, has garnered a lot of publicity because it starred yesteryears’ extremely talented and beautiful actress, Madhuri Dixit as a middle-class housewife (Pallavi Patel). Residing in Ahmedabad, she has been married for three decades to Manohar (Gajraj Rao). She has two children, Tejas and Tara. Tejas works in the US and wants to marry a wealthy NRI girl, whose parents are paranoid - especially the father. He makes Tejas go through a lie detector test to ensure that he is marrying his daughter for love and not for her status or wealth.

The NRI couple, Rajit Kapur as Bob Hansraj and Sheeba Chadha as his wife, Pam, as well as their daughter plan to meet Tejas’s parents in Ahmedabad. He is obviously extremely jittery about the whole thing but his mother, the perfect housewife and mother, consoles him and reassures him that everything will go smoothly. Rajit has a roving eye and is quite smitten with Pallavi when he meets her. His daughter notices this but Pam pretends to ignore it.

The Hansrajs are very conscious of their wealth and status. Bob also nurtures political ambitions so this alliance is obviously very important for him. Although, he would have preferred somebody from the same status or background for his daughter but considering that Tejas cleared the much feared lie detector test and his daughter is obviously extremely happy with him, he agrees to meet his parents.

Madhuri performs well and looks absolutely beautiful in the tasteful sarees and ethnic jewellery. Her daughter, Tara is pursuing a PhD in gender studies and is a very headstrong woman, unlike her mother who is always ready to compromise. Everything is going smoothly until a leaked video surfaces at the Navratri celebrations, which threatens to destroy the Patels and especially Pallavi’s pristine reputation. The Hansrajs are appalled and when the video goes viral, everybody in the neighbourhood starts avoiding the family like the plague.

Bob threatens to call off the engagement until Pallavi agrees to sit through a lie detector test. His daughter, Tejas’s love interest is appalled at the suggestion and reassures her that she will speak to her father and she should not be pressured into going through this ordeal. Madhuri, though taken aback at the suggestion agrees to do whatever it takes to make sure that her son’s engagement proceeds as planned.

The plot rests on a weak premise and the film fails to leave an impact even though the supporting cast is strong. The director has tried to inject humour to make this a feel-good light entertainer but, somehow, the attempt has backfired. Costumes, dances and beautiful locales do help but cannot salvage a film because a strong plot is needed to make a film work.

The plot rests on a weak premise and although the supporting cast is also quite strong, the film fails to leave an impact. The director has tried to inject humour to make this a feel-good light entertainer but somehow, the attempt at humour also backfires. Costumes, dances and beautiful locales do help but cannot salvage a film because a strong plot is needed to make a film work.

Madhuri and Gajraj make a sincere effort to save the film and the Hansrajs’ over the top antics and idiosyncrasies are included to bring a certain element of freshness to the plot. Both are pretending to be somebody they are not and when Madhuri goes through the lie detector test, a lot of uncomfortable truths come to the surface that threaten to destroy their apparently perfect relationship. Pam breaks down and confronts Bob with quite a few home truths which she has been turning a blind eye to all these years. That scene has been handled extremely well and the dual or double standards when it comes to men and women have been highlighted well. Apparently, the rules are different for men and women; while the males enjoy full autonomy to do whatever they like, women are suppressed and forced to put on an act so as not to disturb the harmony and peace in the house.

They lose their identities as women when they become wives and mothers. Their questionable sexual orientation or unconventional outlook on life places a big question mark on their relationship with their spouses. This film also drives home the fact that spouses should be friends and while women tend to know everything about their husbands, the males do not feel the need to reciprocate or build a relationship based on friendship, trust and honesty with their spouses.

This film attempts to raise many pertinent issues. Watch it for Madhuri’s acting, beauty and costumes and for the strong supporting cast trying their best to breathe some life into the project. But a movie needs a strong plot to save the day and keep the audience riveted, which this film unfortunately lacks.

If you are a Madhuri fan and want to see her shaking a leg, go for it.

The writer is an educationist and can be reached at gaiteeara@hotmail.com