Crass, cringe-inducing and downright sordid, this Raveena Tandon rape-and-revenge thriller makes you ask just one question — who writes this stuff?

Ultimately, Raveena alone couldn’t save a thin storyline, and Maatr is just another run-of-the-mill revenge saga.

Raveena Tandon pumps in so much life into the film that it is her performance that steals the show.

In a performance marked by amazing maturity and restraint, the actress conveys the dark, brooding and internal process of recuperating from grief and finding closure.

It’s obvious she feels strongly about Maatr’s theme and her sturdy ambition is the only thing that holds your interest even when the film does not.

Subtleties and nuances are obviously beyond Maatr. It deals solely in broad strokes. No matter how much slack you are willing to cut this film, it will still need some more in order to have its glaring gaps glossed over. It’s never easy to disguise a garbage dump.

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?

Raveena Tandon, in her first full-fledged movie role in six years, is the other saving grace. She is hardly known for her acting prowess, but makes a sincere attempt in “Maatr” to depict the agony of a mother in the throes of guilt and grief.

Maatr despite the gravity of the theme is a subpar drama. The film would have been more effective if the mawkish, flashback-heavy songs were skipped. Maatr is a missed opportunity to make a powerful statement against India’s poor track record in dispensing justice and tackling violence against women. Revenge is a dish best served cold; in Maatr it’s crass and oddly flat too.

Maatr doesn’t wow you because of the story’s repetitive nature. Thanks to Raveena Tandon’s balanced act, the film makes up for an average watch.

MAATR starring Raveena Tandon just pretends to make a social statement about rape and revenge and in reality struggles even to be a routine escapist film that does nothing significant for anyone involved. MAATR (motherhood) is Maatr (just) an addition to the list of Bollywood run of the mill badla saga – See more at: http://www.glamsham.com/movies/reviews/maatr-movie-review.asp#sthash.M2tyXNs0.dpuf

Maatr is a predictable revenge story that completely ignores the trauma and social stigma that is usually attached to rape victims regardless of their social class. The subject is handled so ham-handedly, you cringe at the mistakes and wish they’d stop making rape an easy subject.

The film has its fair share of drawbacks and rides mostly on the performances of its lead cast especially Raveena Tandon and Madhur Mittal’s. Despite being a bumpy ride, film somehow sails through as it gives the culprits involved the poetic justice and you as a viewer and part of Vidya
s journey, a satisfaction. Watch it for its performances and the story.

Maatr is a raw and powerful tale that is crisply told albeit a tad fictionalised.

Maatr is watchable solely for Raveena Tandon’s shining performance as a wronged woman who doesn’t mind staining her hands with the blood of her perpetrators who inflicted her with a life-scarring incident. It scores high on intention but unfortunately falls short of being a hard-hitting film.