When there is a movie made on the emerging rape cases and a woman is single handedly fighting against the whole system, the impact double-folds! Maatr is a similar film, which is about a mother who wants justice and can go to any extent in executing the criminals. Directed by Ashtar Sayed, Maatr features the comeback of Raveena Tandon as a vengeful mother. The story is about an idealistic school teacher Vidya Chauhan (Raveena Tandon) who resides in Delhi. She is the mother of Tia (Alisha Khan) and has a rather disturbed personal life with her husband, but she manages to handle everything with a smile. On a fateful day, Vidya and her daughter are allegedly abducted and gang raped by the minister’s son (Madhur Mittal) along with his uncle and a few friends who were soaked in the haze of drunks and drugs. Vidya is taken to the hospital and the moment she recovers, she gets hit by an appalling reality that Tia is no more. Dejected by the loose police and the society, she takes the system in her hands and swears to take revenge from the rapists. Vidya’s one and only support is her friend Ritu (Divya Jagdale) One by one, Vidya plans to hunt down the killers very tactfully. Whether she gets successful in completing her vengeance, forms the rest of the story. True that, there’ve been a number of movies on the rape victim and activists, but the crude and bloody truth showed in Maatr is a gruesome and it will shock you. Maatr is entirely on the shoulders of Raveena Tandon, and probably because of her long gap from acting career, her acting couldn’t justify Vidya’s role. Also, the most confusing part of the film was the role of Vidya’s husband, which wasn’t explained the way it should. The murders planned by Vidya will roll over your mind because they are very illogical and unreal. You can easily decipher the climax as it is more in the lines of the thriller movies made during the 80’s. All in all, Raveena’s “vengeful and hurt” mother character was underplayed because of thoughtless execution. If you are really looking forward to seeing Raveena on the big screen, do visit the film, otherwise just sit on your couches and watch some other similar Bollywood thrillers.

When a top politician refers to Raveena Tandon’s character and says, “Aurat hai... kya kar legi (She’s a woman... what can she do?),” we know he will soon have to eat his words. After all, Maatr is one of those films that wants to cash in on the robust trend of ‘women-oriented’ films in Bollywood. But mere dialogues can’t save a weak story, and that becomes evident within minutes. On a thematic level, it’s understandable. Society is taking time to wake up to the idea of gender equality. Playing to popular imagination, director Ashtar Sayed chooses Delhi as the backdrop and shows the politician-criminal-police nexus, much like Pink.  But while Pink focused mostly on victim shaming, Maatr -- which means mother in Hindi -- is the story of a vengeful mother. The unidirectional approach works in the beginning when we see Raveena gearing up to unleash her anger on her perpetrators like the heroines of Dushman, Pratighat and Anjaam, but the idea begins to lose steam soon enough. However, barring some emotionally charged scenes featuring Raveena, Maatr appears repetitive; we have seen this story several times before. Also, the criminals are cringe-worthy only because of the nature of the crime, but not because of great writing. Unlike some of the finest films made, nobody in the film cares to go further into the mind of the criminal. Ultimately, Raveena alone couldn’t save a thin storyline, and Maatr is just another run-of-the-mill revenge saga.

This rape-and-revenge thriller plays it strictly by the numbers: the heinous crime (involving the gang rape of a mother and daughter), the aftermath (involving unhelpful officers of the law) , the wounded woman picking up the cudgels and going after the perpetrators. The roll-out is as formulaic as they come, and sometimes that can be okay too, but a film like this needs to be deeply sensitive and alert to lift the sordidness of the material. Maatr fails on this score from the first frame, with its improbable plot-points, and relentless crassness: I cringed from beginning to end. In fact, much of it is jaw-droppingly horrifying. A cop, observing the scene of the crime says: ‘PM desh ko shape karne ki baat kar rahe hain, aur yeh rape ki baat kar rahi hai’. Seriously? Who writes these lines? There’ve been countless films made on this theme, which tie in standard strands of police procedural — crime thriller — rape-revenge fantasy, and we’ve come away from them disturbed, in the right way, to see how naked power and aggression can slam the victims to the ground, their legitimate pain never being acknowledged or addressed. And that extends to the leading lady, a Bollywood veteran, a woman with privilege, and a likeable actor who has a respectable CV: Tandon’s ‘zakhmi aurat’ is the result of good intentions marred by thoughtless execution.

Delhi, where this film is based is often referred to as the rape capital of India. And the film’s sole intention is to serve as a wake-up call for the atrocities against women. So you applaud the intention. However, the film itself is over-dramatized account of the heinous crime and what follows. Obviously the idea is to get people out of their slumber but to achieve better results, the screenplay and characterization needed to be sharper. Instead it plays out like a drill. Mother is hospitalized. Her insensitive husband, mourns the loss of his daughter, but wants to divorce her. An artist friend, Ritu(Divya Jagdale) provides succour. And the police are stereotypes, who mouth ridiculous lines like, ``PM desh ko shape karne ki baat kar rahe hain, aur yeh rape ki baat kar rahi hai.’’ Raveena is sincere as the victim who sullies her hands to get justice. But, the amount of bloodshed, leaves you asking, what is worse. Are the images of rape gorier, or is the bloodshed of the perpetrators of the crime, grosser?