Mai – Netflix on Friday 12:30 pm IST Streaming – Initially asking the same question through its title protagonist: “Who killed my daughter?” For a series that is meant to be about the mother (Witness Tanwar, what is the story from house to house) who are trying to find out who did this, it’s an easy way to reclaim what it is. But perhaps it should have served as a reminder to the makers of Mai. Side-tracked for the Netflix series – repeatedly – with half a dozen subplots. There a baby is left at birth. One policeman stuck in loveless marriage. Social problems for homosexuals. A brother- and brother-in-law who look down at their noses. A cross-state medical scandal, a special forces team is investigating. And an ex-escort with more energy than that knows what to do.
It’s a classic case of extra stuffing, and instead, a terrible decision for a six-episode series. The first project for Atul Mangia, the creator, showrunner, writer, and director of My Hall – a former casting director and acting workshop director for over a decade. Out of curiosity, Mangia surrounds herself with inexperience. He shared the responsibility of directing with Anshai Lal and shared the responsibility of screenplay with Tamal Sen and Amita Beas. Their only previous achievements were the Anushka Sharma directed film Philauri, the Bengali language Zee5 Original Kali and the Netflix series The Fame Game led by Madhuri Dixit Nen. The only difficult experience comes from Sudip Sharma, the executive producer and creator of Underworld, but Netflix is not mentioning his name anywhere in its marketing because it either does not want to invite any rival platform or maybe the truth is that Sharma was rarely involved.
The consequent effect of all these unnecessary plots – many of which are tangible – is that it pulls Mike away from what is supposed to happen. Not that it’s much better in that section when it’s in its lane. My end comes with a completely incredible transformation of a 47-year-old housewife (Tanwar) into an ice-cold operator, who is thinking two steps ahead of everyone else. He repeatedly discovers the original information only through luck, mostly by staying in the right place at the right time. If your hero has a chance to get super, then you are going to get the eyelids if not a direct smile. He also survives through Plot Armor or across the six-episode Mai due to the incompetence of others. It doesn’t reflect well on him, or those who are more experienced than him.
In the end, Mai is another mistake from Netflix India – which is what we now expect from it.
From Mai to Outer Range, the 40 largest OTTs are released in April
Sheel Chowdhury (Tanwar) is an ordinary Indian middle-aged housewife. She takes care of her house, her brother-in-law’s house and the old age home she works in. But no one gives credit to Shil for what he does. More importantly, he doesn’t really know what’s going on in all of these places. When he begins to discover after killing his millennial daughter Supriya Chowdhury (from Wamika Gabby, Godha and Eclipse) – oh, Netflix won’t let me tell you how, even though it literally happens in My Trailer. Strange move, but anyway. The nurse-housewife soon becomes a kind of detective, following the people around her hometown Lucknow, trying to gather who was behind her daughter’s fate. As it turns out, organized crime is involved.
At the center of this is Neelam (Raima Sen, known as Raima Dev Verma), a former sex worker-turned-wife who is in charge of the aforementioned medical scandal after an important incident. A special police force from Uttar Pradesh – led by SP Farooq Siddiqui (Ankur Ratan) – is trying to stop him from doing business. Neelam’s underling Prashant (from Ananta Bidhat, MX player’s Pati Patni or Oh) is already trying to climb the ladder of organized crime, with the help of Shankar (Vaibhav Raj Gupta, from Gullak) who is more than his right hand man. In the midst of all this, Mayo Sheel’s husband Yashpal tries to make room for “Yash” Chowdhury (Vivek Mushran, from Bhut Marji), who is mourning like himself, going back to his past to do electrical repairs.
But there is no ebb in any of it. This is mainly because my character lacks moments. For the first time, Sheel truly reflects on her daughter’s loss – it just doesn’t come out of nowhere and wasn’t made in any real way, but it doesn’t connect with you at all because we weren’t given a chance to know Supriya, and what we’ve been told about her is hers. Is not well reflected in. And although Tanwar is polite as a humble and humble mother, I have never been sold to the ruthless and deceitful in her turn. Dev Verma’s Neelam has not added anything to the new Indian Netflix series, as the character is very thinly written. Mae sets herself up nicely centering the narrative on two women in a male-dominated world, but then it weakens them both through their writing.
My, Anatomy of a Scandal, Better Call Saul Season 6 and more on Netflix in April
Wamika Gabby as Supriya Chowdhury in My Web Series
Photo Credit: Chandni Gazaria / Netflix
Without it, my boat is not the only oppressed part of the society. Supriya Gabbi, the only silent character in the Netflix series, is played by a speaking actor. (She is also killed in the beginning, although she receives a sympathetic-induced flashback scene at the beginning of each episode.) . The saving grace is the aforementioned gay Henkmann – not to distinguish the text, but simply because it is not problematic to change. Most Indian writers haven’t really gained momentum on how you should portray your minority, though for Mai, it seems like a big question when all adults are viewed through the lens of morality.
Yet the Netflix series can be broken by nothing more than the practicality and logistics of a 47-year-old housewife that Sheel does here. His first offense seems incredible in itself – how he transports an adult body – further proving that we are shown at a later stage. But the way he gets off the hook to destroy the evidence. A junior offender decides to help him because he got him a job with the man who is now dead. What are you waiting for? But Mangia & Co. does not stop there. In the fourth episode of Mai, Sheel pulls an object out of her purse and hides the big bad thing in broad daylight in a crude attempt to poison her. Is this a joke? And in the final of My Season, Sheel’s big plan succeeds by coincidence, with the help of a deaf chemist and ridiculous surveillance.
In fact, this increase in stupidity is probably my strongest suit. The deeper it pushes the run, the more foolish and indescribable the decision. In the last episode, the twins of a dead character appear as new villains, highlighting the existing villains. And there’s an incredibly stupid thing in the sixth and final episode – for a character – that I could only laugh at. But more desperately, Mai just pulls. It doesn’t really involve you; I waited to be dragged into its world, but it didn’t happen. With less focus or goal, the Netflix series gets out of control, and loses all steam as it ends. It’s too busy elsewhere – again, Netflix won’t let me talk about it – when it should have focused on what’s in front of it.
If anyone could remind the makers of what the series is called.
Mai was released on Netflix in India and around the world on Friday 15th April.