An ordinary mom turned avenging angel. That is the story of "Mai" in short.
Sakshi Tanwar plays Sheel, an ordinary doctor mom, whose daughter (Supriya - Wamiqa Gabbi) is run over by a truck in front of her own eyes. The rest of Season 1 is spent in Sheel getting deeper and deeper into the mystery behind Supriya's death, finding that it was a murder, and then avenging it.
Sheel works in an old age home with medical facilities in Lucknow. Her husband Yash (Vivek Mushran) is an engineer, but is stuck running their pharmacy shop and doing electrical odd jobs in his spare time. Their daughter, Supriya, is a mute doctor who also is a stand-up comedian. She is run over on the date of her younger cousin brother's birthday.
The truck driver who runs over Supriya apologizes to Sheel. While apologizing, he says "I didn't want to do it!" This sets Supriya thinking and she follows the trail. The trail leads to a murky world of medical scams, ruthless characters, and the SPF (Special Police Force) of UP.
The cast of characters includes Jawahar (Prashant Narayanan), Jawahar’s lover Neelam (Raima Sen) and Jawahar’s band of goons. Two of them, Prashant (Anant Vidhaat) and Shankar (Vaibhav Raj Gupta), deal with Sheel the most. First they treat her with kid gloves out of sympathy. Then they find out how ruthless she can be on her path of vengeance.
There's a whole bunch of characters - including the always reliable Akash Khurana (Goel) as the higher level crime boss, Seema Pahwa as a woman who has killed her abusive husband and owes Sheel a debt of gratitude, and Farooque (Ankur Ratan) of the SPF who had a personal interest in Supriya.
But none of them are developed beyond a point. Only Sheel as the main protagonist and Prashant are very well etched. Even Shankar, loyal to Prashant, is shown properly.
Raima Sen as a typical gangster's moll is wasted. So is Seema Pahwa, who still manages to showcase her brilliance by the emotions in her eyes. Vivek Mushran never manages to rise above the mundane. Wamiqa Gabbi is good in her role, even with the mute limitation.
The use of colors is brilliant. It adds to the whole atmosphere.
This is almost family friendly. Just a few scenes here and there - 13+ can see it methinks. Has a A certificate.
In spite of its limitations, the series is worth watching for Sheel (Sakshi Tanwar). The emotions that she shows are just amazing. So is her single minded determination. How she uses her medical knowledge to take revenge is mind boggling at times.
Hell hath no fury like a mother on the warpath - see it just for her.
