Substance abuse or drug abuse is something which doesn’t just affect the person addicted to it but almost everyone who is close to them. Popular Bollywood screenwriter-lyricist Niranjan Iyengar, chose this sensitive subject to make a foray into direction. Maa, Iyengar’s debut short film portrays the struggle of a mother as she takes a life-changing decision for her son who is addicted to drugs.
A screenshot from Maa
The 13-minute-long film stars veteran actor Neena Kulkarni, Dino Morea and Vivaan Shah. The film dives straightaway into the issue at hand, as a worried mother (played by Kulkarni) immediately heads out of the house after a phone call. An independent, career-oriented woman, the mother has just retired and her conversation with her elder son Rishabh (Morea) lays bare their dynamics. He blames her for neglecting them as kids as well as for his younger brother Rohan’s (Shah) condition.
Keeping in mind Rohan’s miserable condition, she decides to take a tough decision — ‘a choice between what is right and what is necessary’. Despite Rishabh’s opposition, she goes ahead for the sake of her son’s life. But good intentions don’t always necessarily yield positive results.
The last one-and-a-half minute of the film can easily be termed as the most powerful scene of the entire film as the mother sits alone on the dining table, crying whilst trying to recollect herself as the camera slowly zooms out.
Iyengar leaves the audience with thought-provoking lines: “Are results the only way to define the right or wrong of a decision?”
Watch the movie here:
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