Watch: KM Sarjun's short film Maa is a preachy, cautionary tale on teen pregnancy

From the makers of the controversial short film _Lakshmi_ , comes another production that is sure to rile up some conservatives en masse: Maa. Produced by Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Ondraga Entertainment, KM Sarjun’s new Tamil short film is a social drama about three hot-button taboo topics rolled up into one — pre-marital sex, teen pregnancy and abortion. Maa tells the tale of Ammu, a 15-year-old “padikara ponna” — a school-going girl from a typically conservative middle-class family — who discovers she is pregnant in the middle of a hockey match. After some warranted fear-induced deliberation, she confides in her mother, Sathya. The mother’s immediate reaction is, as expected, one of shock, disgust and anger. After the daughter persistently apologises for her ‘mistake’, the mother eventually accepts her. But, of course, they can’t share this highly sensitive information with the uptight father, who is (rather forcefully) antagonised as a traditionalist with pre-historic, pre-conceived notions on what constitutes womanly behaviour. So, the mother decides that abortion is the only way her daughter can move on and get her life back on track. And Ammu willfully concurs, gets one and moves on. [caption id=“attachment_4328997” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Kani Kusruti as Satya and Anikha as Ammu in a still from Maa[/caption] Sarjun’s film is an honest, thoughtful exploration of the issue of teen pregnancy. It reveals some vital issues relating to its nominally daring subject matter. The conversations between the mother and daughter leave you plenty to contemplate. When the mother says, “We shouldn’t bring a child into a world of fear and hate”, it questions society’s stigma of illegitimacy. It poses another interesting question: Can adolescents bring children into a world when they are still growing up themselves? However, while the problems created by teen pregnancy are indeed set forth in Maa, it suffers from an agonisingly forced editorialising of the subject. By repeatedly referring to the pregnancy as a “thappa” (mistake), Sarjun turns it into a didactic, cautionary tale. Rather than use it to promote discussion about safe sex, it becomes a lesson in morality. While teens are capable of making “thappa”, they’re also equally capable of making good decisions with the help of understaning parents. That should have been the lesson. When you’re making a film on teenage pregnancy, it is important to showcase the character’s experiences — confronting the various complicated dilemmas and emotions — without getting all ‘preachy’. Often, the best ones are those with a tinge of biting comedy that explores the awkwardness and challenges inherent in such a life-changing undertaking (Think the Oscar-winning Juno or the Chuck Lorre sitcom Mom). Maa would have been more compelling if it were just a story of the challenges faced by a pregnant, teenage girl living in a patriarchal society. But, Sarjun shifts perspectives so often that it feels more like the mother’s story, rather than the daughter’s. You also begin to grow weary of the repeated shots of the two parrots in the bird cage. Yes, we get it is symbolic of the enslaving and oppressive nature of patriarchy but it is a rather tired and trite metaphor. Maa is a modest triumph in storytelling that will surely provoke discussion of some emotional and moral issues related to teen pregnancy. Only, not the important ones. Watch the film below: