Netflix series, “Mai: A Mother’s Rage” is a six-episode series directed by Anshai Lal and Atul Mongia. The series has been written by Amita Vyas, Tamal Sen, and Atul Mongia. Mai is about a transformation that happens deep inside the lamenting heart of an aggrieved mother. The feelings of sorrow and loss are weaved together to create a song of rage. It is about a journey that a mother undertakes to give justice to her daughter’s memories—a mother who had lost everything in the wreckage. The agony inside her had the potential to create ripples. She was a lone warrior who wouldn’t stop until she knew the truth and delivered justice.
“Mai” boasts of a highly measured and impactful performance by Sakshi Tanvar, who plays the protagonist, Sheel. She sets out on a mission to avenge the death of her daughter, Supriya. So let’s try to understand the intricacies of the conspiracy as it unfolds.
Major Spoilers Ahead
See More: ‘Mai’ Season 1: Review – Sakshi Tanwar’s Blistering Performance Carries This Series
Episode 1: Recap And Ending
It was a special day for Sheel and her family. It was Archit’s birthday, who was the son of Sheel’s brother-in-law. Supriya, Sheel’s daughter, arrived at the scene, but she seemed to be a little stressed. There was something going on in her mind that she was not telling anybody. She is asked to make Archit ready for the party. Sheel coincidentally reached the bedroom and saw Supriya slapping Archit. The mother tries to confront her daughter. She sensed that Supriya was not at peace. Supriya had a speech impediment and so conversed in sign language. She told her mother that something had happened. She was about to tell her when, all of a sudden, a truck hit her. Her body is thrown a few meters away. A petrified Sheel runs towards the blood-soaked body of her only daughter. Supriya couldn’t make it out alive.
The family was grief-stricken. They didn’t know how to cope with the loss. Sheel had become stoic from the outside, but internally she wasn’t able to accept the fact that all this was merely an accident. She asks her husband that when their daughter used to tell them everything, then why didn’t she tell them when she was not feeling well, and that too, for many days preceding her death.
The family filed a case against the truck driver, Madan Singh, and Sheel had to be the prime witness. It was a difficult position for her to be in, considering she was going to see the face of the person who was responsible for taking away her most precious possession. Sheel worked at Geeta Bhavan, an old age home, as a nurse. Kusum Vyas, mother of Jawahar Vyas, also used to stay there and was looked after by Sheel. Prashant, an assistant to Jawahar, extended his condolences to the grieving mother.
Sheel decides to go to the court and give her testimony. Two strange things happened that day. Firstly, an unknown person asked Sheel if she was alright, and apologized for her loss. Without saying his name, he goes away. Secondly, the truck driver comes face-to-face and tells Sheel to forgive him as he didn’t want to do it.
The words spoken by the truck driver sowed a seed of suspicion inside Sheel. She had a very strong hunch that the death of her daughter was a planned murder and not an accident. She went to the police station to have a word with Madan Singh. The police do not allow her to do so. Sheel finds his address, and that’s when another revelation is made. Madan’s son was being admitted to an expensive school by some unknown affluent people. On enquiring, she finds out that Jawahar Vyas was a trustee of the school and those affluent people were related to him.
She goes to meet Jawahar at his residence, convincing Prashant that she had an urgent issue pertaining to Geeta Bhavan that she had to bring to his notice. While waiting, she sees the same woman who was present earlier at the school and was getting Madan Singh’s son admitted to the school. Sheel suspects foul play. She knows that Jawahar Vyas was somehow involved in the death of her daughter. She knew that the murder of her daughter was a deliberate act and not an accident.
Sheel couldn’t stop herself and, riding on her instincts, went to Geeta Bhavan. She called Jawahar Vyas and told him that his mother’s health was in critical condition. Jawahar arrived at the scene and found her mother sleeping peacefully. That’s when Sheel asks him who killed her daughter and sedates him. But what she didn’t know was that Jawahar was a heart patient. A complication arises due to the sedative used, and Jawahar dies on the spot. Before dying, Jawahar blurted out the words that he was trying to save Supriya. With a dead body in her possession, Sheel had just transformed her loss into a catastrophe.
Episode 2: Recap And Ending
Supriya had been vocal about her stand on the medical scam that had happened in Lucknow. She used to do stand-up comedy and often used to take a dig at dirty politics and corruption in bureaucracy. One such show was attended by Jawahar and his partner Neelima. Neelima was the same person whom Sheel had seen in the school and later at Jawahar’s office. Nelima had warned Jawahar about Supriya and told him that there was a need to suppress any voices that went against them.
Sheel had put Jawahar’s body in an ambulance and was going to dispose of it when she received a video. The video was taken by Prashant, who had seen the CCTV footage of the crime scene. But Prashant didn’t tell anybody. He meets Sheel with his friend Shankar and tells her that he would dispose of Jawahar’s body only if Sheel promised to not ask any more questions about her daughter’s death. Prashant had got the job due to Sheel’s recommendations and felt indebted to her.
Sheel returns home after a long and dreadful night, and Prashant takes the body of Jawahar Vyas back to his home. He fabricates a story and tells it to Neelam and Raghu(the most loyal henchmen of Jawahar). He tells them that he found Jawahar shot and lying on Vishnu Goyal’s construction site. Vishnu Goyal was an industrialist in U.P., and Jawahar handled all his black money. Neelam suspects that it was the Special Police Forces (SPF) that was responsible for the murder.
Jawahar, at all times, had a crypto key with him, which was now missing. The crypto account held approximately two billion, but Neelam couldn’t access it without the key. Neelam launches a search mission to find the key. Goons entered Geeta Bhavan and mercilessly beat the workers there in order to get any information about the crypto key. Prashant gets to know through Sheel that she had seen one such key in Jawahar’s possession, but had disposed of it in the medical waste bin, which had already been taken by the trucks.
Raghu reminds Sheel to keep asking Kusum Vyas if she remembered anything from that night. It had happened in her room, and there was a possibility that she might have seen something.
Sheel, for the first time, meets S.P. Farooque Siddiqui, the same guy who had met her in court when she had gone to give her testimony. S.P. Siddiqui was handling Supriya’s case, and he said that he knew Supriya from beforehand. Seeking an opportunity, Sheel asks Farooque to help her meet Madan, the truck driver, as the last time she had gone, the police didn’t allow her inside.
Sheel met the truck driver, but he was too scared to speak and tell her anything. A dejected Sheel returns home. Yash, who was also in great distress, started going to houses to repair their electrical equipment just so that his mind wouldn’t ponder on the scarring areas.
Sheel, not finding any breakthrough, ends up threatening Prashant. She tells him that if he doesn’t help her in finding the truth, she would tell Raghu that it was Prashant who had come up with a plan and fabricated the whole story. She puts the ball in Prahasnt’s court and asks him to make a decision.
Episode 3: Recap And Ending
S.P. Farooque Siddiqui was not just a close friend of Supriya, but was dating her. He was married, but things were not going well between him and his wife. He was planning to file for divorce and had not kept his wife in the dark about the affair that he was having with Supriya. Prashant, with his companion Shankar, arrived unannounced at Sheel’s house. They threaten her and warn her about the consequences of revealing any information to Raghu. They tell her to forget everything about the crypto key and stop asking questions about the death of her daughter. Sheel tried going to the collection center where all the medical waste was brought for disposal, but wasn’t allowed to enter inside. At Jawahar’s funeral, S.P. Farooque Siddiqui threatens Neelam to tell him about the location of the cash and asks her to be a government witness. Sheel gets hold of Farooque, who offers to drop her off at home and also advises her to not get involved in the fiasco. He tells her that Supriya had broken up with him because he was married. There was family tension also brewing in Sheel’s household. Her brother-in-law, who was a famous doctor, and his wife were better off financially, and the decisions about the house were made by them. There were many points of disagreement and the rifts were broadening even more.
Prashant and Shankar reached their house to find that Raghu had broken into their property and was searching for the key. He had reasons to believe that Prashant might be behind the stolen crypto key. Sheel reaches the scene as soon as Raghu leaves. She tells Prashant that she could help him find the key only if he helped her. She told him that she was wrong in not trusting Prashant.
Jawahar used to transfer funds from one location to another, via a human courier system known as “Angadia.” Black money was secretly laundered and taken to a desired location by these men hired to serve as carriers. Neelam wanted to fix a meeting with Jayesh Desai, a money-laundering mastermind from Surat who, after Jawahar’s death, was the focal point of all the black money.
Raghu discloses to Neelam that Jawaghar first had a heart attack and then, later, was shot. SPF had planted an informer named Suraj amidst the people who were working for Jawahar and now Neelam. The SPF wanted to conduct a crackdown on the whole money laundering network, but their plans are spoiled as Raghu catches hold of the informer and kills him. Prashant decides that he cannot see the empire which should have been rightly his, going to somebody else. He contacts Sheel and asks her to come with him and Shankar to the waste disposal site and find the crypto key.
Sheel confides in Kalpana, a fellow nurse, who had been in prison for killing her husband. She had been tortured by her husband for years and abused by him. Sheel tells her that Supriya had been killed, and she was not able to do anything.
Prashant, Shankar, and Sheel go inside the waste disposal site and start opening each and every waste bag to find the key. Seeing such a huge number of waste bags, the morale of the boys goes down. But with them was a mother who was not ready to give up. She was ready to go to any extent to find out how her daughter was killed. Sheel finds the crypto key, but before handing over the key to Prahant, she asks him to tell her why her daughter was murdered. Just then, Keshav arrives on the scene unannounced. All three of them are taken aback as Keshav was close to Neelam, and seeing them together he would definitely infer what they were upto. Shankar tells Keshav that Sheel has murdered Jawahar and now has the crypto key. Sheel, in her defense, tells him that it was actually Prashant and Shankar who had shot Jawahar and that she was just being framed. All hell breaks loose, and a scuffle takes place. Sheel beats Keshav with a stick, making him unconscious. She intimidates Prashant by telling him that she had made a copy of the CCTV footage, which showed that he was involved in the plan. She tells him that she had already sent it to 3 people before coming, and if she didn’t make it out alive, then it would be sent to Raghu. Prashant had no option but to let her go.
Episode 4: Recap And Ending
The 4th episode of “Mai” opened with Supriya and Sheel having a conversation. Sheel told Supriya that somebody had left 10 lakh rupees in Geeta Bhavan, and she was skeptical about taking it. Supriya convinces her mother to take it and use it for the welfare of the old age home. She tells Sheel that a lot of people she knew were donating the bribes they got to keep their mouths shut about the scam. At this point of time, it becomes clear that it was Supriya herself who had dropped the money, and that is why she was adamant about seeing it getting used for the welfare of society.
An injured Keshav is brought by Sheel to an empty house. The house belonged to Mr. Anand, who was living in Geeta Bhavan under the care of Sheel. His plea for euthanasia from the authorities was rejected, and that is why he was kept under supervision. Prashant and Shankar tie Keshav up and take the crypto key from Sheel. Shankar is of the opinion that they should give the crypto key to Vishnu Goyal and, in return, take over the money laundering business. But Prashant realizes that they cannot give the crypto on the same day as Keshav disappeared, as it would raise suspicion.
Sheel gets a duplicate key made for Mr. Anand’s house and decides to ask Keshav a few questions in the absence of Prashant, who had still not given any information pertaining to the death of Supriya.
Once again, a relentless Sheel asked Keshav the same question: what had happened to her daughter? Instead of answering her, Keshav started threatening her. In his anger, he went on abusing Supriya and started making vulgar comments about her. A mother, who had lost her daughter only a few days back, was still sheltering a flame of vengeance inside her. She throws boiling hot water on Keshav. She couldn’t control her rage. Agonizing in pain, Keshav wriggled desperately. Geeta Bhavan also had pathology with the same name. Supriya used to work there. Sheel goes to Geeta Pathology and gets hold of the CCTV footage.
Keshav and Neelam had visited Supriya one night. Sheel gets reassured that Neelam had a role to play in her daughter’s death, and in her mind, she was responsible for it. She decides to replace Neelam’s inhaler, which she used on a regular basis, with the one in which she had put a poisonous sedative. She decided to go to the post-funeral ceremony of Jawahar Vyas. She had planned that she would replace her inhaler but she couldn’t do it. Raghu intervened and spoiled her plan, though he didn’t notice what she was upto. He came and told that her husband had come to take her. A ceremony for Supriya was to be performed by Yash and Sheel. Yash’s brother had decided to conduct the ceremony in their house, as he wanted the grieving parents to not get stressed out because of it. In all this chaos, Sheel had forgotten to attend the ceremony. Yash was angry, and he had every right to be, but he wasn’t aware of what Sheel was planning to do.
Neelam took Prashant and Shankar into her custody. She suspected they had a hand in the disappearance of the crypto key, which they did, but she was just speculating as of now. They are beaten, and they plead for mercy. Prashant tells her that he was as loyal as anybody and would never do anything like that with Jawahar Vyas.
Sheel finds out that Yash had been spending a lot of time with a lady, where he used to go for repair work. He had found a companion who knew how to speak German like him. Yash was haunted by his thoughts when he was alone. To keep himself occupied, he often used to visit the lady’s house. Sheel was well aware of the rift that was growing between them. Even though they lived together, they had stopped having conversations altogether.
Neelam meets Jayesh Desai, who tells her that due to the increased risk, he would have to increase his commission, as he was handling the money laundering couriers for her. The SPF had rigged the place and were listening to every detail. Neelam threatens Jayesh Desai to stick to the same commission rates as she knew that he was a homosexual. The SPF kills Jayesh Desai in an encounter, and Sheel devises a plan to kill Neelam. She gives him a call from Keshav’s number, and traps her inside a room and fills it with poisonous gas. In the scuffle, even Sheel inhales some gas. Neelam is saved by Raghu who arrives just at the right time. Sheel is somehow saved by Kalpana, but her plan to kill Neelam fails yet again.
Prashant and Shankar both lay in Neelam’s captivity. Prashant thought that he would never become the heir of the empire, and would die like a drudge only.
Episode 5: Recap And Ending
Farooque still blamed himself for the death of Supriya. He felt he was not available when she needed him. In the 5th episode of “Mai,” there is a new twist in the events. Jawahar’s twin brother, Mohandas, returned to India from China. He had come to avenge the death of his beloved brother. He comes to Geeta Bhavan to visit his mother. For a moment, Sheel gets shocked, as she thought that Jawahar was still alive, but to her relief, it was her twin brother, who didn’t know anything about Sheel’s involvement.
Sheel knows that she has to act quickly now. She goes to Prashant’s residence and tries to find the crypto key. She accidentally finds a set of pictures that reveal that Prashant and Shankar were not just friends. They were in a homosexual relationship.
Prashant tells Neelam that Santosh Rawal was the second in command after Jayesh Desai. He tells Neelam that he knows where the human couriers are hidden and that he could handle it for Neelam. But Neelam still didn’t believe Prashant and continued to keep him in captivity. Sheel finds the crypto key that was hidden inside a bike in Mr. Anand’s house, where Keshav was held in captivity.
Mohandas had a suspicion that Neelam had killed his brother. Sheel knew that. To strengthen his belief, she takes the risk of going to Neelam’s house and keeps the crypto key in her cupboard. Mohandas came there in search of evidence and found the key. He believed that Neelam was the one who had killed his brother for money.
In the meantime, Prashant convinces Neelam to let him transfer the money securely to Surat. For that time, Shankar was held in captivity, just to ensure that Prashant does backstab them. When Sheel went to Neelam’s house to plant the crypto key, she helped Shankar to escape.
Sheel started injecting sedatives into Keshav so that he stayed unconscious and did not create any hassle. She was moving out of the house where Keshav was held as a hostage, and she saw Farooque Siddiqui entering the premises. Keshav’s mobile was last active in that location, and Farroque had come looking for him. She got paranoid as there was a possibility that Farooque might come to know about everything. She brutally puts a nail inside her foot, just to distract Farooque and stop him from entering the house. Sheel was successful in her attempt. After that incident she moved Keshav to a cold storage adjacent to Geeta Bhavan.
Mohandas reaches Raghu’s house and tells him about the developments. He tells him that Neelam has betrayed his brother. He threatens Raghu to not put the lives of his family members in peril and to hand over Neelam to him. Raghu calls Neelam and blames her for killing Jawahar Vyas. But Neelam argues that she was framed. Goyals’ men approach Neelam and ask her to come with them. Just then, SPF arrived at the scene and killed all those present there. They arrest Neelam and ask her to be the state witness. In return, Neelam wanted a safe passage to a non-extradition country with Keshav, her lover. The judge gave the SPF a time period of 2 days to find Keshav and present Neelam’s recorded testimony.
Prashant and Mohandas meet Vishnu Goyal, who orders them to kill Neelam. Raghu had seen a torn piece of a shoe in the railway yard, and he suspected that it belonged to Sheel. He had his doubts that she was the one who was framing everybody and was responsible for the murder of Jawahar Vyas. He goes directly to the shop owned by Yash. He finds Sheel wearing the same pair of shoes. He beats Yash, who falls unconscious to the ground. He starts pummeling Sheel, who somehow manages to spray a liquid in his eyes. Before he could regain control, Sheel knocked him over. The loyalist lay flat on the ground as he couldn’t overpower the wrath of a grieving mother.
‘Mai’ Season 1: Ending Explained – Who Killed Supriya? What Was Prashant Hiding?
Prashant and Mohandas met with people who provided them with ammunition. They were planning an attack on the safe house where Neelam was kept. Goyal, through his contacts, had bought the judge who had given them the location. They attack the safe house in full force, and Farooque loses many of his trusted officers. Neelam is shot too, but the injury is not lethal. She survives. Shankar was heavily injured, and Sheel was called in to cure him. She tells them that she was not capable of treating such a grave injury and that it needed to be shown to a surgeon. His leg needed to be amputated. But they didn’t have the option of going to a hospital. Mohandas takes the mantle and does the needful.
Sheel visits Farooque in the hospital. She tells him that the scam money was donated by Supriya and also shows him the clip where Neelam and Keshav had come to give money to Supriya to stay quiet. She asks him if he was sure that Neelam had killed her daughter, as all the evidence pointed towards her. An agitated Farroque goes directly to the place where Neelam was kept. He asks her why she visited Geeta Pathology to give money to Supriya. Neelam tells him to find Keshav, and then only she will tell him anything. The SPF official gave the wrong location to the judge as they knew that once again, he would compromise their safety and tell Mohandas.
Sheel dropped Keshav to a nearby area and switched his mobile on. The SPF tracked him. They took him to Neelam, and Sheel got the location of the safe house. She went to a medical store that was the nearest to the safehouse. She told the shop owner to get her a list of medicines. As soon as the chemist went inside, she removed all the inhalers from his stock and replaced it with the one she had brought in her bag.
Neelam meets Keshav and starts giving her testimony to the officials. She feels the need to use the inhaler. A police officer goes to the nearby store and brings one. As soon as Neelam inhales, she starts feeling suffocated. She dies instantly without completing her testimony.
Vishnu Goyal handed over the full responsibility of laundering his money and taking care of his business to Prashant. He got what he had always aspired for. Keshav enters Sheel’s house and tries to kill her, but instead, she stabs him to death.
Sheel didn’t know where to dispose of Keshav’s body, so she tried contacting Prashant. Unable to reach him, she decides to go to his home itself. To her astonishment, she finds him going inside his room with Madan Singh’s (the truck driver who had killed Supriya) wife. She overhears the conversation and gets to know that the innocent-looking Prashant, who had pretended all this while to be on her side, was the one who had given the orders to kill her daughter. Jawahar Vyas never wanted to kill Supriya. He was of the opinion that the issue could be resolved by talking to her. But Prashant took things in his hands, and somewhere he wanted to come into the good books of Vishnu Goyal also.
Sheel is dismayed and dumbfounded. She doesn’t know how to react or what to do. She hides under the stairs and starts connecting the dots. It had been Prashant all along. He had indeed played his moves strategically. But call it fate, destiny, or the yearning of a mother who had lost everything in this battle, the truth was revealed to her.
With “Mai” Season 1 ending on a cliffhanger, there would definitely be a “Mai” Season 2, where a lamenting mother would sing a song that would reign havoc on the entire city of Lucknow. With the secret now revealed, it would be interesting to see how the makers weave the narrative and create that suspense and thrill once again.
“Mai: A Mother’s Rage” is a six-episode crime drama series directed by Anshai Lal and Atul Mongia.
