When promoting the first Indian Amazon Original film, the musical drama Maja Ma, starring Bollywood royalty Madhuri Dixit Nene, Prime Video took a novel tack. The bright music video was released by the streamer on Thursday, a day before the first trailer for the film was made available. In Maja Ma, Dixit Nene plays Pallavi, a middle-class mother whose carefully orchestrated family life begins to crumble in the days leading up to her son’s wedding. Anand Tiwari, who helmed the Prime Video original series Bandish Bandits, also helms this film.
In addition, he directed the Netflix love story Love Per Square Foot. In Maja Ma, Ritwik Bhowmik, who portrays Tejas, an “ordinary person” from small-town India, reteams with him after their time together in Bandish Bandits. Tejas is often fighting with his sister and seems to have resentment against his father, who isn’t as well educated as he is. Yet, he has nothing but love for his mom. There’s also the worry that he won’t hit it off with the bride’s family. Hers is the more prosperous family, which creates a social barrier between their families.
As stated in the promotional material, “marriages are between families” in India, not just the two people involved in the union. Things take a serious turn, however, when an unknown video of Pallavi becomes viral, derailing Tejas’ wedding plans. At this juncture, Pallavi decides to take matters into her own hands, proclaiming that she is more than a wife, mother, and daughter; that she has her own identity, and that she would stop at nothing to restore order to her wedding. Many aspects of Maja Ma give the impression that it was written with a worldwide readership in mind.
This is understandable given that this is Prime Video’s first original film set in India; the service has previously released several Indian films, but they were all purchases. Colourful, dramatic, and full of intricately choreographed musical moments, Maja Ma is everything Western fans expect from Bollywood films. Think of it as a more mainstream version of the Monsoon Wedding. Dixit Nene’s status as a major Bollywood celebrity helps. Dixit Nene, a dance legend of ’90s Bollywood, left India for the United States with her family and stayed there for several years before returning to India and resuming her acting career more than a decade ago.
In January of this year, she debuted in Netflix’s suspenseful original series The Fame Game. She may be most recognised outside of India for her role in the drama Devdas, which also featured Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and was nominated for a BAFTA. Also featured in Maja Ma are Barkha Singh, Srishti Shrivastava, Rajit Kapur, Simone Singh, Sheeba Chaddha, Malhar Thakar, and Ninad Kamat. On October 6, the movie will debut on Prime Video.