Mom is a far from perfect film, but it’s never boring. Sridevi’s terrific turn makes up for many of the script problems. I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five.

Sridevi has to do the heavy-lifting of the film, as actors Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna, Sajal Ali and Adnan Siddiqui are not left with enough in hand. It gets so busy keeping Sridevi at the centre-stage that this rape-and-revenge drama turns less impactful.

The emotional pull of the first half and Sridevi’s acting excellence notwithstanding, Mom in many ways is as dangerous as the loud, raucous, not-even-pretending-to-be-progressive-about-women commercial Bollywood of the 1970s and 80s.

MOM is a terribly long-drawn out film and even though horrendously cliched and predictable, but worth a watch for Sridevi, who is simply stupendous.

Flaws aside, Mom benefits from a good production value that makes it far superior to the Raveena Tandon starrer Maatr. The performances may not be topnotch but they are reasonably good. But ultimately it is a cliché driven film that fails to match its pre-release hype.