The new show on Amazon Prime Video has Mona Singh shed the dour persona she had been made to adopt in recent project. In Maa Ka Sum, she plays Vinita, a perky single mother to Agastya (Mihir Ahuja), a 19-year-old, who imagines himself a maths genius.
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When the show opens, he talks a heartbroken collegemate out of jumping to his death, by throwing algorithms to convince him there are more girls for him out there.
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Meanwhile, the stylish 40-something Vinita, a real estate broker, keeps meeting men she finds on a dating site, and is let down everytime. Each bad break-up adds one more cactus plant to her growing collection.
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The mother-son relationship is easy and friendly–borderline flirty. Without meaning to, she leans on the boy and he takes it upon himself to work on an algorithm that will help her find a perfect partner.
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A plot as slim as this could not sustain over eight episodes. So writers Ravinder Randhawa- Sumrit Shahi and director Nicholas Kharkongor, populate the series with other characters, like Agastya’s college gang and his on-off girlfriend, Annie (Celesti Bairagey), who finds him clingy.
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He develops a crush on new math professor, Ira (Angira Dhar), who doesn’t exactly discourage him
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Agastya’s algorithm fails to find the right man for Vinita, and when she is attracted to Abhimanyu (Ranveer Brar), he throws a right royal tantrum. He’d rather that she goes on dates with awful men the algorithm pulls out, than connect with a man who is just right for her. (Thought the usually attractive Brar is made to look like a creepy uncle).
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In the end, Maa Ka Sum falls between romcom and melodrama. It as much about Agastya growing up as Vinita maturing to act her age. It’s a pleasant enough watch but if someone wants a show in which a woman nearing middle age is seen as one with desires and to be more than just a mother, then this one’s a bit too flimsy and totally uneven.
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Maa Ka Sum
Directed by Nicholas Kharkongo
Cast: Mona Singh, Â Mihir Ahuja, Angira Dhar, Ranveer Brar and others
On Amazon Prime Video
Directed by Nicholas Kharkongo
Cast: Mona Singh, Â Mihir Ahuja, Angira Dhar, Ranveer Brar and others
On Amazon Prime Video
