Maa (2025)-- My Take On The Movie With Spoilers!
Plot: After her husband's death, Ambika travels to his ancestral village with her daughter, where she discovers an ancient evil that targets girls at puberty.
Quick Movie Review
From the universe of Shaitaan comes Maa. While in the former, we see parents fighting to save their daughter, in Maa, we see, well, only the Maa (mother) trying to save her daughter.
Maa is an ambitious movie that tries to interweave mythology and superstition into one narrative. However, the story is weak and confounded by what it is trying to say. Is it about an ancient ritual? Is the story about a curse passed down through generations? Is it about being the chosen one by Kali Maa?
It is all of the above, which is why the movie becomes more of a conundrum than an actual entertainer.
Of course, it is the actors who uplift the script and do a commendable job with it. You may not remember the story long after the movie is over, but you will remember how well everyone has acted.
And that is quite a win, isn't it?
MAA Movie Plot
The movie begins with a woman giving birth to twins. One is a boy and one a girl. The family is ecstatic about the boy child, but the mother is clearly worried for the girl child.
Later at night, she carries the girl child to a slab in the middle of the forest and is reminded of what must be done. We thankfully don't have to witness the sacrifice, but we do see the blood flowing into the underground, where there are several skeletons of presumably girl babies.
Cut to 40 years later, and we meet Kajol as Ambika, giving a lecture about the Demon Raktabeej whom Kali Maa vanquished.
Ambika is married to Shuvankar, who flirts with her at her workplace before they are joined by their daughter, Shweta.
On the way home, Shweta tells her parents that the school has assigned a project where she must write about her family home. Ambika and Shuvankar exchange uneasy glances, which leads their daughter to ask why she isn't even allowed to ask about her father's village.
Shuvankar may be the baby boy from the beginning of the movie, whose twin sister was sacrificed. He knows how girls are treated in his village, which is why he's reluctant to share anything with his daughter.
Shuvankar wants to sell his family home in Chandrapur after his father passes away. He decides to leave all by himself because he has kept a secret from his family regarding Shweta's existence.
When he travels to his village, he meets with Joydev, who is the sarpanch, and tells him of his plans. Joydev isn't too happy that he is selling his home, but doesn't say much.
When Shuvankar returns, he runs into some car trouble, and a nearby tree shoots out its roots to trap him. He is then burned alive.
Ambika and Shweta are devastated after his death, but find the strength to move on through cherished memories. They receive a call from Joydev, who invites them to Chandrapur so that they can complete the formalities to the sale of the house.
Ambika decides to travel with Shweta, who starts drawing weird images of trees with eyes. On the way, Ambika is distracted and almost hits a girl. They get out of the car and find that the girl is Deepika, the caretaker's daughter. They don't seem very pleased to see Shweta.
Ambika and Shweta settle at their new house in the village. While Ambika roams around, she finds a locked temple. Apparently, the temple doors will only open once the Goddess appears in someone's dreams.
Meanwhile, Shweta and Deepika go to the ruins to learn about the heritage of the village. The girls get separated in one instance, and we see the sacrificial slab still in place.
Ambika reaches the ruins when she can't find her daughter and scolds her for roaming about. The caretakers come to take Deepika away, too. When Ambika notices a drop of blood on Deepika's skirt, she congratulates the caretakers by saying that their daughter is now a grown-up. The parents, however, look spooked and worried.
Shweta asks Ambika what she meant by that, and she talks to her about menstruation and how, in many cultures, when a girl hits puberty, it is celebrated. She promises a celebration when Shweta starts her menstruation.
At night, the caretakers are in a state of panic, and while they are distracted, the vines and roots of a tree abduct Deepika and pull her into the woods.
With their daughter nowhere in sight, the parents raise an alarm and accuse Shweta of bringing problems into their household. Ambika stands up for her daughter and calls the police for help.
The police officer and Joydev arrive. Everyone knows it's the Demon who has taken the girl. But Ambika refuses to believe in superstitions and tells the police that Deepika has probably gone off on her own in the woods and that she will help in the search as well.
In the woods, Ambika goes off in a different direction while Joydev tries to convince the police officer of the Demon who abducts young girls.
Ambika thinks she sees Deepika near a tree, but then she disappears. She hears the wails of a baby, but again, there is nothing.
They all return home, unsuccessful in getting Deepika back. Shweta is worried about her new friend and asks about the superstition. Ambika decides to tell her the truth.
According to the Legend, after Kali Maa vanquished Raktabeej, she made sure that his blood did not fall anywhere. However, a single drop of blood landed on earth, the one place now known as Chandrapur. That drop of blood birthed a demon called Aamsaja, who wanted to build an army of demons.
In order to do that, he would abduct girls who entered puberty so that he could impregnate them.
Shuvankar may have been one of the descendants of Aamsaja, which is why the entire family is targeted by the Demon. This is why the girl child was immediately sacrificed instead of growing up to bear Demon children.
Ambika then tells her how, when Shweta was born, Shuvankar immediately exchanged babies with a nearby patient so that his family thought he had a son instead of a daughter that needed to be sacrificed
Shweta is afraid, but Ambika promises to protect her. Deepika soon returns after her encounter with Aamsaja. She is quieter than before, and the police decide to investigate all the girls who mysteriously disappeared but returned.
The doctor examines them and tells them that the curious part of this whole thing is that all the girls couldn't remember where they had been or who they had met, and surprisingly, didn't get their periods when they came back.
Since Ambika has instilled herself in the investigation, she is shocked as well.
That night, Shweta complains of stomach aches. Ambika looks her over and deduces that her daughter has started her menstruation, too. While she is out to get some relief, Deepika is seen interacting with her grandfather. She sits on a swing and then swings right at him, killing him. She then heads upstairs to see Shweta.
Deepika calls Shweta to come play with her, and she gets out of bed. There is a bloodstain on the sheets, implying that Shweta has indeed hit puberty. She leads Shweta outside, and we see Deepika in her ghost-like state more than once.
Shweta and Deepika head to the woods, where they are joined by the other girls, all of them appearing to be demon-like.
Ambika discovers her daughter's disappearance and rushes to the woods, while behind he,r the other people in the house find the dead old man.
Ambika reaches the ruins and sees her daughter all tied up in vines and roots. As she is being dragged away, an old woman appears to take hold of Shweta. Ambika snatches her daughter back, and they get into a car.
As they drive off, Shweta complains of period cramps. Just then, Ambika spots the Demon girls rushing behind them. They climb on the car and try to get to Shweta. Ambika manages to brake abruptly, which causes some of the girls to fall off.
Just when Ambika thinks they are safe, the car is suddenly lifted and thrown back down. Ambika and Shweta lose consciousness. When Ambika awakens, she finds Joydev holding Shweta triumphantly, revealing his evil side.
The villagers inform the police about the disappearances along with the sarpanch. The policeman suspects Joydev because he kept trying to convince him of the Demon, and he could be responsible for these strange events.
The old woman reveals herself to be the woman from the beginning who was shunned because she refused to kill her baby. Joydev had taunted her for being weak even as she argued that Kali Maa would never ask for a sacrifice. Joydev had killed the baby and then raped the old woman.
The policeman finds Joydev and confronts him, who reveals his demonic persona, and using the vines, kills the officer.
Ambika has a dream where she sees her late husband and then a silhouette of Kali Maa. She goes to the people in the household and tells them to open the temple.
Prayers are offered, and the old woman tells Ambika that Shweta will most likely be impregnated by Aamsaja and that she needs to put her faith in Kali Maa to save her
Ambika, after offering prayers to the Goddess, goes to the woods and is accosted by the demonic girls. However, the villagers are still praying, and this causes the girls to suddenly collapse. Aamsaja possesses Joydev, and he attacks Ambika, contorting her body until she loses consciousness.
MAA Ending Explained
Just as Joydev begins to celebrate, Kali Maa resurrects Ambika, who now has the strength to take down Joydev. After a lot of slamming him about, eventually, she plunges her hand into his chest and snatches out his heart.
Joydev is dead, and Ambika brings back her daughter to her house.
However, the old woman tells Ambika that Shweta is carrying the seed of the Demon and must be sacrificed. Ambika is stunned but decides to do the needful rather than bring a demon into this world.
Just as she is about to bring down her knife, the other girls in ghost form stop her. The old woman then says that the ritual was wrong and that Kali Maa would never order the sacrifice of a girl. She also tells her that Kali Maa has reversed the impregnation and that her daughter is free from the curse.
Ambika is happy that she and her daughter are safe.
In the mid-credits scene, we see a man in a hoodie walk through the forest, seemingly absorbing the evil energy. He says that evil can not die until humans exist.
He's supposed to be Vanraj from Shaitaan, but we never see his face.
The movie ends.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE MOVIE
Was that man really Vanraj from Shaitaan? If so, he can speak, and from what we remember in Shaitaan, in the last scene, his tongue was severed. The man we see in MAA can talk.
Is it possible that the events of this movie occur before Shaitaan? Is this the evil power he absorbed to enthrall the girls in Shaitaan?
It would have been interesting if we could actually see R. Madhavan in Maa, but perhaps the actor was unavailable to shoot a minor scene.
Maa is a decent horror film. However, much of the story appears to be going haphazardly, and the scenes do not seem to connect as seamlessly. Kajol has to do the heavy lifting here as Ambika, and she is the only saving grace of the movie.
Fans of Stranger Things will notice similarities in the action sequences. Is that really the ancient evil or Vecna?
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