'Maa' movie review: Kajol's dramatic deity act in loosely assembled horror film

Last month marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Jai Santoshi Maa (1975), a cultural phenomenon which turned theatres into temples. I am not joking.

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The film was such a craze that villagers reached their nearby towns in bullock carts, took off their slippers at the entrance of the cinema hall and possibly prostrated when Anita Guha, as the titular Santoshi Maa, appeared on screen. It wasn't a sleeper hit, the film managed to score big at the box office in a year of Sholay and Deewar. It even surpassed the latter in collections.

Everytime the glowing imagery of Kaali turned up in Maa, the Kajol-headliner supernatural-horror film, I couldn't help but think of some theatre where a viewer might be putting their popcorn aside to fold hands and seek blessings from the deity. It’s strange to feel both dread and divinity in such a quick succession. Fear gives in to reverence, a microcosm of how religion operates. There are some questionable plot developments, some VFX which screams VFX but who cares? It’s like PK turning the other cheek with Shiva’s sticker on it. Objectivity logs out when faith enters the chat.