Reader’s discretion advised. Some of the content in this review and the short film might be unsuitable for younger audience.
Synopsis
Mama’s Boys depicts a modern, naughty take on Mahabharata. The short film starts with Arjun bringing his newly wed wife Draupdi into the house for the first time. Subsequently, Kunti orders Pandavas to share Draupdi among them. Obviously, this puts Arjun in a fix. On one hand, he doesn’t want to ‘share’ his beautiful wife! On the other hand, he is a ‘mama’s boy’ and cannot refute Kunti’s order. Mama’s Boys explores an alternative re-imagination of he scenario from the perspective of Draupdi and the five brothers.
What works
Big budget and strong cast works for this short film. In comparison to new faces, it is proven that watching known faces is more soothing. Scientifically, this innate preference worked for us to progress by stronger social bindings, and to make friends (and enemies).
And this ingrained preference work in favor of Mama’s Boys. From Neena Gupta, Aditi Rao, Arunoday Singh to Razak Khan, the list continues. To tell you frankly, Mama’s Boys becomes borderline tolerable thanks to the star cast, otherwise this would have fallen flat on its face.
In particular, Aditi in the role of Draupdi has good facial expression and appears sensuous as required by the screenplay. Arjun played by Amol Parashar is also good.
What could have been better
Everything else! Just about everything could have been much better. Clearly, the team had no budget or talent constraints and they could have used such talent in much better story. To start with, the whole film does not flow coherently. Instead, it feels like collection of short incidents where you no longer even want to relate to the issue at hand.
Then comes the story. Delhi-Belly fame Akshat Verma has directed and written the short film. I liked that movie and the story Akshat presented, but that skill and the flow is completely amiss in Mama’s Boys. Consequently, the whole short film of 13 minutes (credits of 2 minutes extra) reduces to a random collection of sexual innuendoes.
Verdict
It is watchable thanks to the star cast, otherwise the short film offers nothing new or interesting.
AglaPlay Verdict: A run-of-the-mill production with nothing new or interesting. Okay to watch for star cast. AglaPlay Rating: 2.5/5 Language: Hindi Duration: ~13 minutes Writer: Akshat verma Director: Akshat verma Cast: Aditi Rao Hydari, Amol Parashar, Arunoday Singh, Jim Sarbh, Neena Gupta, Razak Khan, Vivaan Shah,& Others