Mai, starring the queen of the Indian Soap Opera golden era, Sakshi Tanwar, is a revenge story of a mother who is on the quest of searching the murderers of her daughter. She will do anything that it takes, be it getting vicious and brutally killing people.

With this very simple plot, the makers weave an intriguing series using multiple layered characters and a very tight screenplay. The focus is clear, to show a mother who has turned desperate and is ready to get all down and dirty for the sake of justice.

Sakshi plays the role of this mother very aptly. Her transition from a strict yet loving and innocent mother is quick and impactful. Her performance is bang on. She perfectly carries a puzzled, furious yet very innocent look on her face and even in the dialogues. Apart from Sakshi, even the others in the star cast perform excellently. Raima Sen, Anant Sharma, Prashant Narayanan and others do justice to their roles.

On the technical front, the cinematography is nice and the editing is decent as well. The film is set in the backdrop of Lucknow. The raw and rustic aesthetics of the city are captured very well. What I liked the most about this series is how the makers have created a dark and depressing atmosphere in the backdrop of Lucknow which is usually shown so bright and lively in movies and series. Apart from this, the production design around the medical space is commendable.

On the downside, a lot of things are written very conveniently. For example, the character of Jawahar Vyas’s brother pops up from nowhere. Similarly, a lot of things are made convenient for the sake of reaching the end objective. Another big setback is that the series is left on a pointless cliff-hanger only for the sake of Netflix’s lust for renewing every series for multiple seasons.

On the whole, Mai is very well made and must-watch for many reasons. After Patal Lok, Clean Slate Filmz has another one in the same ‘Dark-Murder-Mystery’ genre set up in a tier 2 town. And just like Patal Lok, it hits all the right cords with Mai too!

You can watch the trailer here: