Mom is a 2017 Hindi-language crime thriller film, directed by Ravi Udyawar. It stars Sridevi as the titular character, and Pakistani actress Sajal Ali as Arya the stepdaughter and victim of the crime. The film also stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna and Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui in supporting roles.
Devki is a lively biology teacher devoted to her family. She struggles to earn the acceptance of her teenage stepdaughter, Arya, who refuses to acknowledge Devki as her mother and only coldly refers to her as "ma'am" since she is also her student. Although Arya has since accepted Devki's daughter from her first marriage as her sister, she has not yet let go of her deceased biological mother. One night after attending a house party with some friends, Arya is found bloody and beaten in a ditch, having been gang-raped and left for dead. Once she recovers enough to identify the perpetrators, a lengthy court battle ensues that ends with all four men being acquitted. Devastated that the system has failed to bring them justice, Arya becomes further traumatised and withdraws from her family, especially her stepmother. Devki seeks help from DK, a private detective, to take revenge against the men who assaulted Arya.
It is at this point that discussing the tropes found within this work will essentially spoil the events of this movie, especially about Devki's systematic revenge on each rapist. It is advised that you only press on if you had already watched this movie.
Provides examples of:
- Arc Words: "Call your mom" becomes an important phrase. Arya's rapists taunt her to "call [her] mom", which makes her unwilling to connect with her stepmother after the assault. Near the climax, this phrase helps Jagan figure out the identity of the person who's out for their blood.
- Asshole Victim: All four men had it coming.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: Discussed. DK reminds Devki that what she's doing is technically wrong, then Devki shoots back by saying "doing nothing is worse" and asks him if he's willing to choose between doing what is wrong and very wrong.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Downplayed. Arya is a sympathetic portrayal where her coldness towards her stepmother is explained by the fact that she still dearly misses her biological mother. Despite that, she does act somewhat cordial towards Devki, even if she refuses to refer to her as "Mom." She gets better by the end.
- Close on Title: The title of the movie, Mom, only shows up just before the credits roll and after Arya finally says it to Devki as both a Title Drop and her finally considering Devki as part of the family.
- Crippling Castration: The security guard who helped the men carry Arya into their car and joined in on the rape ends up castrated by Devki's former students, who are transgender, by luring him in his drunken stupor. He goes missing for four days, but ends up dead anyway when he comes home to find that his manhood is gone, upsetting him so much that he thrashes around the bathroom until he slips and hits his head on the tap, killing him.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Charles dying instantly from being poisoned with cyanide from apple seeds would've been a very by-the-book death, so the doctors are shocked to find that he managed to survive the poison, although he is totally paralysed and in visible agony. This gives Devki the chance to visit him, telling him that he will be reminded of the consequences for hurting her daughter for the rest of his life. When Charles reveals to Jagan that Arya's mom was the one who poisoned him, he dies from exerting himself, drooling from the mouth.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mohit rapes his classmate Arya just to get back at her for rejecting his advances and getting the teacher (Devki) to throw his phone out the window.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Arya overhears Jagan's cowardly pleas that it was Devki who was responsible for the deaths of the other men and framing Mohit for a murder. Knowing the extent of what Devki will go through for her daughter, even though she is not her blood, Arya finally calls her "Mom" for the first time, giving Devki the strength to shoot Jagan dead. The mother and daughter share an embrace in the snow, and exchange their "I love you's" to each other as the film fades to black.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Jagan is seen tending to his bedridden father before getting arrested, and is shown to be capable of actual human emotions (demonstrated by his tearful visit to Charles in hospital), making it all the more unsettling that he is the mastermind behind Arya's gang rape and attempted murder, as well as being considered the most dangerous out of the four according to police.
- Fate Worse than Death: Charles is poisoned by having his protein supplements spiked with crushed apple seeds, which contain cyanide. And yes, the effects of the poison cause his body to seize and contort, paralysing him in a very uncomfortable position. Unfortunately, he does not die instantly and lives long enough for Devki to twist the knife further by reminding him that he will have to remember that day for the rest of his life, just like Arya had to live with what they did to her.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Devki plants slices of apples and their seeds in the sink, as well as leaving a trace of the cyanide that was made from said seeds in the kitchen of Mohit's apartment. To take it further, Devki searches for recipes to make cyanide out of apple seeds while the time on his laptop was altered to make it look like he had been looking it up while he was at home. Along with the discovery that he has possession of marijuana for recreational use, Mohit was promptly arrested.
- Go Out with a Smile: DK is shot by Jagan, after offending him too many times. His smug expression before collapsing suggests that he managed to get the last word in, dying with dignity but not without cracking one last joke at the thug's expense.
- Good Stepmother: Devki is a great example who is willing to avenge her stepdaughter's honour, even if she is not her blood. Arya returns the favour in kind by calling her "Mom" once she finds out.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Babu Ran Yadav's castration is first implied by his horrified reaction when he goes to take a leak, with the extent of it being left up to interpretation. The news report later, likewise, is ambiguous about it.
- Groin Attack:
- The guard, Babu Ram Yadav, suffers Crippling Castration courtesy of Devki's loyal former students.
- Earlier, Arya attempted to incapacitate one of her attackers by doing this, but she is outnumbered.
- Joggers Find Death: Downplayed. Arya's body, who by this point was revealed to be half-dead, is discovered by a man walking his dog and promptly calls for emergency. She's immediately hospitalised.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The men are punished related to their crime against Arya.
- The security guard is either castrated or emasculated for his part, and dies an undignified death with his face down on running water after falling on a faucet.
- Charles, a vain Handsome Lech who is obsessed with bodybuilding and had unsuccessfully tried to give Arya alcohol that had been drugged, has his protein powder poisoned with cyanide, twisting his body in a terrible fashion that stays that way until finally succumbing to the poison...days later.
- Mohit is arrested after Devki plants some evidence to make it look like he poisoned his own cousin. The plot was kickstarted when Mohit sent Arya a pornographic video, and later raped her for being publicly shut down by her at the party. Later in prison, he has gotten a taste of his own medicine.
- Jagan's death seems to be the least climactic since he only gets shot repeatedly by Devki, but he no less deserves it. Arya finally calling out to Devki with "Mom" gave Devki the courage to end him, and he dies by the hands of his victim's mother.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Devki's classic method to avenge her daughter by doing evil things to much more evil people, with greater emphasis on permanent damage instead of simply killing them, save for the final target.
- Prison Rape: Mohit was in the embrace of another man and is seen walking gingerly when he is summoned for a visitor. Also counts as Karmic Rape.
- Rape and Revenge: The entire movie runs on this after the court acquits Arya's rapists, on the basis that her statement was unreliable because she had consumed alcohol, as well as the semen samples not matching with the perpetrators due to the length of time before she was hospitalized. Naturally, this enrages her father, but her stepmother is the one who is more willing to deal with the criminals without the help of the legal system.
- Rape Discretion Shot: Arya's assault is only shown up to her being tied up and hit in the face to silence her. The actual deed is (thankfully) not shown, as it cuts to the car speeding silently into the night, with the driver later offering his turn while another takes the wheel. It's all backed by a very eerie electronic sound that makes the scene just as visceral despite not seeing any of it.
- Schlubby, Scummy Security Guard: Babu Ram Yadav. When the three are trying to force Arya into the van, the scene is framed to make it look like he's trying to save her, only for it to turn out that he's going to be one of Arya's would-be rapists.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: DK is the only character in the entire film who provides a bit humour and levity in an otherwise very dark and gritty film, but is completely absent in the climax where their last target, Jagan, is at large and is coming for Devki. This is because Jagan shoots him in his office once he figures out DK and Devki's plan to take him out. It is also genuinely heartbreaking since his family is later called to the scene, with his daughter crying out for him.
- Shower of Angst: Arya, the rape still fresh in her memory weeks later, goes to shower with her clothes on, scratching herself until she bleeds. It's not pretty.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: For all the brutality and trauma the main characters are subjected to, the film concludes on a triumphant note with Devki killing the last of Arya's rapists, and Arya accepting Devki as her mother for good measure.
- To Be Lawful or Good: Inspector Matthew, after spending the entire movie being a By-the-Book Cop, is dealt with this dilemma when Devki worries that Arya's rape and the ensuing fallout from trying to bring Jagan to justice will happen again to others if she lets him live. In the end, he chooses the latter.
- Undignified Death: Babu Ram, the security guard, gets himself killed when he slips and falls onto a faucet after panicking from the discovery that he has been castrated, all the while his wife is admonishing him for being a drunk and missing for days.
- Villains Want Mercy: When Jagan sees that Inspector Matthew and Devki have him surrounded with both guns pointed at him, he pathetically pleads to be arrested instead and promises to change.
- You're Not My Mother: One of the main conflicts of the story is Arya not willing to consider Devki as her mother by calling her "ma'am" instead, which sticks even after she becomes the victim of a horrible crime and refuses to talk to her. Finding out that her stepmother had been seeking revenge on her rapists this whole time is what finally breaks her of this habit.
