Expectations

Raveena Tandon debuted with Salman Khan in the early 90's era and was part of many big commercial films. Her dance numbers are still popular among today's youth. She shifted her base from commercial films and started focusing more on the hard-hitting films, which eventually fetched her a National award. The lady is in the news for her beauty and association with various television shows.

She returns back with a bang in the form of an action thriller film 'Maatr'.  The trailer looks promising, but lacks highly on the star value. Thus, the expectations are high only for all those who like Raveena and want to see her back into such type of films.

Story

'Maatr' is a story about a teacher Vidya Chauhn(Raveena Tandon) and her teenage daughter Tia (Alisha Khan), who are ganged raped by Apurva Malik (Madhur Mittal) and his friends. After the incident, Tia and Vidya are thrown on the road, where Tia is found dead. Vidya survives, but is physically as well as mentally shattered. Vidya's husband Ravi (Rushad Rana) blames her for this incident. Vidya and her best friend Ritu (Divya Jagdale) decides to seek justice and approached Inspector Jayant Shroff (Anurag Arora), but fails miserably as Apurva is the son of the Chief Minister. Vidya decides to take the law in her own hands, so that she could give justice to Tia.

The 'Glitz' Factor

One can see mild resembles with a few other films based on this theme, but still has its own merits to cherish. What makes 'Maatr' different than others is its crisp story telling followed by some hard-hitting scenes. The whole rape part is haunting, disturbing and is shown without titillating the audience. There are many scenes in the movie which will keep you involved with the film.

The thriller part is well supported by the crisp editing and screenplay. Keeping some logical issues aside, the movie on its own is engaging as well as interesting, just like the vengeance based films from the 80's and the 90's era. It's just that it has been shot and placed in a very sleek manner.

The cinematography is good and does full justice to the feel of the film. The action sequences are gory and might be hard for the weak hearted to digest.The background score is fantastic.

Director Ashtar Sayed narrated a vengeance based story in total hard-hitting format. The styling and the treatment remind you of the Korean based vengeance films. He narrates the film in a sleek and realistic manner.

Raveena Tandon looks smashing and does her part with total grace. Madhur Mittal will make you hate him for a long time. Divya Jagdale, Anurag Arora and Rushad Rana lend good support.

The 'Non-Glitz' Factor

At some places you do feel that the writers should have added some breathing space in order to justify the screen happenings. The screenplay, especially in the pre interval phase wanders around for a while.

Some scenes are abruptly placed. But the major negative point with ‘Maatr’ is that everything is shown in an easy manner and the crimes are conducted in a casual format. The jack of justification dilutes the flow and the impact of the film as there are plenty of loop holes in these scenes. The music is not required in such films. Though, there is only one background song, but its placement fails to gel with the flow of the film.

The vengeance track is totally filmy and works in the escapist cinema format. The logic is highly missing in key scenes failing to which the impact of the film gets diluted. If only, director Ashtr Sayed would have shown a couple of more scenes where the vengeance track looks bit realistic.

Final 'Glitz'

'Maatr' is a tale of a wounded mother narrated in a stylish manner catering to all those who love escapist cinema.