Mom
Mom is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film written by Girish Kohli and directed by Ravi Udyawar. Sridevi plays a vigilante in the film who sets out to get revenge on her stepdaughter after she was sex assaulted at a party.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna, and Pakistani actors Sajal Aly and Adnan Siddiqui appear together in the film. The music of the film was composed and produced by A. R. Rahman.
Mom was released on 7 July 2017 in four languages. It was a global blockbuster, grossing ₹175.7 crore (US$21 million) worldwide. Critics gave the movie high marks, and Sridevi received widespread praise for her “powerhouse” performance. It was her 300th (and final) major film appearance before her death on 24 February 2018.
Mom received two awards at the 65th National Film Awards: Best Actress (Sridevi, the first posthumous award in that category) and Best Background Score (Rahman). At the 63rd Filmfare Awards, the movie received six nominations, including Best Actress for Sridevi, Best Actress (Critics), and Best Supporting Actor for Siddiqui.
Plot
Devki Sabarwal is a vivacious biology teacher who is popular with her students. However, her stepdaughter Arya rebuffs her attempts to build a relationship despite Devki’s persistence and warmth, as she still misses her biological mother. One day in class, a student Mohit Chadda sends Arya an inappropriate video; Devki throws his phone out the window.
When Arya is invited to a Valentine’s Day party at Zodiac Farms, Devki and Arya’s father Anand reluctantly allow her to go. Arya rejects the advances of Mohit and his cousin, Charles Deewan, at the party. Angered by the public rejection, Charles, Mohit, their criminal friend Joginder “Jagan” Singh, and farmhouse security guard Baburam Yadav ambush and kidnap Arya when she leaves the party.
They brutally gang rape and strangle her, then dump her in a roadside ditch, leaving her for dead. Arya is found barely alive by a man walking his dog the next morning, and brought to a hospital; Devki and Anand are shattered. She sustains severe internal injuries but recovers over the course of the subsequent month and identifies her attackers.
Inspector Mathew Francis quickly rounds up the perpetrators; however, the case falls apart when Arya is found to have consumed alcohol at the party, raising the possibility that her memory is unreliable. In addition, the tardily-collected semen samples are too weak to match those of her attackers.
The four men are acquitted due to a lack of evidence. Arya, in shock and broken by the verdict, withdraws and tears away from Devki. The family’s lawyer suggests appealing to a higher court, but Devki has lost her faith in the legal system.
Devki remembers a shady detective, Dayashankar Kapoor (“DK”), whom she had met at the police station on the night of the crime.
DK, who has a daughter of his own, recognizes her suffering and agrees to assist her in seeking vengeance for Arya’s ordeal. Devki recruits some of her former students to attack Baburam, seducing and drugging him. He awakens four days later, still drunk and remembering nothing, and discovers that he has been castrated.
He dies in an accident while in shock. Devki then breaks into Charles’ home and mixes crushed apple seeds, a source of cyanide, into his powdered nutritional supplement. Devki, tipped off by DK, plants apple seeds and other evidence at Mohit’s house when Charles is in the hospital, but she doesn’t take off her glasses. Mathew quickly arrests Mohit and he is charged with murder since Charles is dying.
As Devki eliminates each of Arya’s attackers, their stories appear on the news, which Arya sees. She is extremely grateful and begins to believe that a vigilante, possibly her father, is working. Mathew also suspects Anand, since he had attacked Mohit in court; he has Anand tailed but learns nothing.
Mathew begins to suspect Devki after discovering her glasses in Mohit’s apartment. He warns Devki that the fourth man, Jagan, is a hardened criminal and going after him will endanger her family. Jagan visits Mohit, who is being physically abused by another inmate in prison and insists he was framed. After that, Charles pays Jagan a visit and tells him “Mom” just before passing away, revealing that Devki is to blame.
Jagan goes after DK and learns that Devki and her family are on holiday at a snow cottage in Kufri. He kills DK and tracks down Devki. Mathew later finds a hidden camera in DK’s glasses and hurries to save Devki.
Jagan cuts the power to the cottage and shoots Anand. He corners Arya but has a scuffle with Devki while Arya flees outside. Jagan chases her, and Devki tries to save her stepdaughter. Mathew confronts Jagan just as he is about to kill Devki. In a standoff, Devki and Mathew point their guns at Jagan; Matthew tries to dissuade Devki by telling her that Anand is alive, and she will go to jail if she shoots Jagan.
Jagan angrily describes how Devki finished off the other attackers, which Arya overhears. Mathew gives Devki his gun and tells her to kill Jagan because he knows that if he finds Jagan alive, he will come after her again. Devki hesitates, but when an overwhelmed Arya calls her “Mom” for the first time, she shoots Jagan dead. Devki and Arya give each other a tender, tearful embrace.
Cast
Credit -(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mom_(film)#Cast)
- Sridevi as Devki Sabarwal
Sridevi - Akshaye Khanna as Inspector Mathew Francis
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Detective Dayashankar Kapoor (“DK”)
- Sajal Aly as Arya Sabarwal
- Adnan Siddiqui as Anand Sabarwal
- Pitobash Tripathy as Guard Baburam Pandey
- Abhimanyu Singh as Joginder “Jagan” Singh
- Rajshri Deshpande as Kohinoor Kapoor, DK’s wife
- R. Madhavan as Puneet Sabarwal
- Adarsh Gourav as Mohit Chadha
- Vikas Verma as Charles Deewan
- Riva Arora as Priya “Piyu” Sabarwal, Devki & Anand’s daughter and Arya’s half-sister[citation needed]
- Vara Raturi as Sapna, Arya’s best friend
- Ivan Sylvester Rodrigues as Arya’s school principal
- Tripti Dimri as Swati, Arya’s and Mohit’s classmate
Our General Review
My Thoughts on Mom: Sridevi’s Heartbreak and Fire
I just finished watching Mom again, and I’m sitting here, heart heavy, mind buzzing. It’s a 2017 Hindi film, Sridevi’s last big role, and it’s the kind of movie that grabs you by the soul and doesn’t let go. Directed by Ravi Udyawar, it’s about a mother, Devki, played by Sridevi, who goes to unthinkable lengths after her stepdaughter, Arya, is brutalized, and the system fails them. I’m not just reviewing a movie here—I’m wrestling with what it stirred in me, what it says about love, rage, and justice. Why does it hit so hard? And why do I feel both moved and unsettled?
The Story: A Mother’s Breaking Point
The film starts quietly. Devki’s a biology teacher in Delhi, trying to be a mom to Arya (Sajal Ali), her teenage stepdaughter who keeps her at arm’s length, calling her “ma’am” instead of “Mom.” That distance hurts—you can see it in Devki’s eyes. Then, everything shatters. Arya goes to a party, and four men gang-rape her, leaving her for dead in a ditch. I had to pause the movie there, my stomach in knots.
The courtroom scenes that follow, where the culprits walk free because of technicalities and privilege, made me want to scream. So when Devki decides to take matters into her own hands, hunting down each of those men, I was cheering, but also… scared. Scared for her, for what she was becoming.
It’s a story about a mother’s love, sure, but it’s also about what happens when the world betrays you. I kept asking myself: what would I do if someone I loved was hurt like that? Could I stay calm, or would I burn it all down like Devki? The film doesn’t make it easy—it shows her vengeance as both righteous and messy, and I’m still not sure how I feel about that.
Sridevi: She Broke My Heart
Sridevi. God, where do I start? She’s Devki, and she’s everything. In the early scenes, she’s so gentle, almost fragile, trying to win Arya’s trust with small gestures—a packed lunch, a hopeful smile. But when Arya’s attacked, Sridevi lets you see Devki unravel. There’s this moment in the hospital, when she sees Arya hooked up to machines, and her sobs—they’re not loud, but they’re so raw I felt them in my chest. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve replayed that scene, just to feel it again.
Then there’s the shift, when Devki becomes this quiet avenger. Sridevi doesn’t overdo it—she’s not some action hero. She’s a mom who’s learned to set traps, poison drinks, and wield a wrench, all with this terrifying calm. Her eyes do so much—grief, fury, love, all at once. There’s a scene where she talks about Draupadi from the Mahabharata, and her voice is soft but loaded, like she’s channeling something ancient. I got chills.
But here’s where I’m torn: sometimes, the movie feels like it’s built around her, like every scene is screaming, “Look at Sridevi!” And she delivers, no question. But did the story need to lean so hard on her magic? Could it have trusted the other characters more? I don’t know. All I know is she made me believe Devki was real, and that’s enough to forgive a lot.
The Others: Who Stood Out, Who Faded
The cast around Sridevi is strong, though some left me wanting more. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays DK, this oddball detective who helps Devki track the culprits. He’s hilarious in a dark way—his fake teeth and stammer made me laugh when I didn’t think I could. But he’s also kind of a mystery. Why does he help her? Loyalty? Money? I wish I knew him better. Akshaye Khanna, as the cop Mathew, is sharp and suspicious, tailing Devki like a bloodhound. He’s great, but I kept waiting for him to do more, to challenge her in a bigger way.
Sajal Ali, as Arya, broke my heart too. She’s so young, so vulnerable, and after the assault, you see her shut down, pushing everyone away. Her scenes with Sridevi are electric—there’s this moment near the end, when Arya finally calls Devki “Mom,” and I was a mess, tears streaming. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that Arya’s story got sidelined. It’s Devki’s movie, I get it, but I wanted to know more about Arya’s healing, her fight. Did the film do her justice, or was she just there to spark Devki’s fire? That question nags at me.
The Look and Feel: Beauty in the Pain
The movie looks stunning, I’ll give it that. The way it’s shot—dark, moody, with Delhi’s streets feeling alive and threatening—it pulls you in. There’s this one shot, early on, of a car winding through the city at night, and it’s so ominous I held my breath. A.R. Rahman’s music is another gut-punch. It’s not loud or showy, but it’s always there, like Devki’s heartbeat, guiding you through her pain and rage. I caught myself humming one of the themes later, and it brought me right back to her story.
Still, the film drags sometimes. The second half gets a bit wild, with twists that made me raise an eyebrow—like, how does a teacher pull off that? The ending, too, felt big and dramatic, almost too much, like it wanted to be a Bollywood blockbuster instead of the quiet, raw story it started as. I wonder if the director, new to this, got caught between telling a real story and making a crowd-pleaser. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it left me wishing for a tighter grip.
What It’s Saying: Justice, Vengeance, and Me
Mom hits you with big questions, and I’m still untangling them. It’s about how the system fails women—those courtroom scenes, where Arya’s trauma is brushed off because she had a drink, felt too real. It reminded me of stories we’ve all heard, cases that make your blood boil. The film doesn’t shy away from showing how ugly that betrayal is, and I respect that.
But then there’s Devki’s revenge. The movie calls it a choice between “wrong and very wrong,” and I felt that. I was rooting for her, but part of me was uneasy—when she takes a life, is she justified, or is she lost? I kept thinking about what justice really means. Does Mom want me to cheer for her, or to question her? Maybe both. It doesn’t give easy answers, and I like that, even if it leaves me restless.
There’s also this thread about mothers—how they’re expected to be soft, selfless, but Devki’s anything but. She’s fierce, messy, human. As someone who’s seen how far moms will go for their kids, that hit home. But I wonder if the film could’ve dug deeper into the bigger picture—why these men did what they did, how society lets them. It’s so focused on Devki that it misses a chance to say more.
Why It Stays With Me
Watching Mom now, knowing it was Sridevi’s last big film, feels different. She passed away in 2018, and this was her 300th movie—a milestone. There’s a weight to it, like she poured everything into Devki. Knowing she left behind her own daughters makes scenes like Arya calling her “Mom” almost too much to bear. It’s not just a movie anymore; it’s a goodbye to someone who made me feel so much through a screen.
The film did well—made a ton of money, got awards, even got noticed at the Golden Globes. But honestly, that’s not why I care. It’s the way it made me feel—angry, sad, inspired, confused. It’s Sridevi’s face when she cries, the way Arya’s voice cracks, the silence after a kill. It’s not perfect. Some parts feel rushed or overdone, and I wish it trusted its quieter moments more. But it’s real, in the way it shows love and pain and the blurry line between right and wrong.
Would I Tell You to Watch It?
Yeah, I would. Watch it for Sridevi—she’s a force, and this is her at her best. Watch it for the way it makes you think about justice and what you’d do for someone you love. But go in knowing it’s heavy, and it won’t answer all your questions. I’m still sitting here, wondering if Devki found peace, if Arya did, if I would’ve done the same. Maybe that’s the point—it sticks with you, like a bruise you keep touching.
People Review (Taken Form Google)
