This one is purely for the audiences – most of whom will watch a barely funny star-studded vehicle no matter what.

But perhaps, just perhaps, you shouldn’t subject your mum to this as a Mother’s Day treat. She deserves better.

It’s one thing to have protagonists with low IQ and make something funny, humane or entertaining out of it. It is another to show stupid people doing stupid things. Mother’s Day, which belongs to the latter section of films, shouldn’t have existed, just like the stupid, commercially manufactured annual event it derives its name from.

The only thing that makes Mother’s Day stand out for me is the presence of a salwar-kameez and sari-clad Indian woman, who plays Mandvi’s lively mum. She’s also written very broadly, but at least she’s there, right in the midst of a flick with so many A-list white gals.
Yay for ‘desis’ in Amrika.

Structurally it does not do justice to its multiple vignettes in limited runtime, and despite a good performance by Jennifer Aniston, there isn’t enough in the film to redeem its trite depiction of suburban America.

There’s not much script to propel this wannabe comedic drama. Even so, it’s all quite neatly laid out and tied in to produce a feel-good effect. This movie is meant to be about mothers but most of the narrative revolves around representations of women as wives, ex-wives, lovers, daughters and just peripherally deals with them as mothers. As such, this tribute turns out to be just a little too shallow!

All said and done, the two strongest points of this film would basically be Julia Roberts and a bit of slapstick humour.

Mother’s Day should’ve been the film to watch on Mother’s Day come May 8th. But it’s really hard to recommend a film born out of suburban American formula to an Indian audience. Apart from the pretty faces and the challenges of raising kids, there’s nothing really that would connect with any of us.