Maa (2025)

The film starts with Kali Puja in an ancestral mansion in fictional village of Chandrapur in West Bengal. A woman gives birth to a boy during the puja, before the midwife reveals that she is having twins. The Kali Puja is being led by a woman. As Joydev and his friends watch the proceedings, his friends say he should have been leading the puja because he is the son of the sarpanch. Joydev explains the priestess was chosen because the Goddess Kali came to her in a dream. It is announced that the woman's second child is a girl. The father, the scion of a zamindar family, takes his newborn daughter despite his wife's protests to the priestess leading the puja for a ritualistic sacrifice. The priestess takes the girl to an altar on a rock in front of a huge haunted tree behind the house. She prepares for the sacrifice with a huge sword, but suddenly stops and says the Goddess Kali cannot ask for a baby girl's sacrifice. Then Joydev sensing an opportunity, snatches the sword from the priestess and, declaring it as his right, sacrifices the girl.

40 years later, Ambika, her husband Shubankar, and their 12-year-old daughter Shweta live a content life in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is revealed that Shubankar is the son born 40 years ago, and he is contemplating when to reveal the truth of his family to his daughter. One day, Joydev (now an old man and also the village sarpanch) informs Shubankar that his father has died. Despite Shweta's pleading, Shubankar refuses to let his daughter accompany him, as she is stunned to learn she has a grandfather. Shubankar travels to Chandrapur to cremate his father and manage the family estate. He reveals to Joydev his desire to sell the property.

While returning to Kolkata by car, Shubankar dies under mysterious and supernatural circumstances as his car catches fire, seemingly caused by a splinter from the roots of a tree (the same haunted tree where his twin was sacrificed) near his ancestral palatial home, which became embedded in his shoe. Later, a grief-stricken Ambika and Shweta travel to Chandrapur to finalize the sale of the ancestral property. There, Shweta strikes up a friendship with Deepika, the daughter of their home's caretaker, and insists on visiting the haunted tree behind the house. Deepika initially refuses but then goes along, despite being warned by all not to go, as rumor has it that there is a demon (daitya) who resides on the tree. As Shweta approaches the tree, Ambika pulls her back, and then it is revealed that Deepika has had her first period. However, the mysterious disappearances of several village girls shortly after their first menstruation cycle, who are surprisingly returned unharmed, including Deepika, forces Ambika to stay back (she had initially planned to sell off the property and return to Kolkata at earliest) and investigate. She is helped by a police officer, Sarfaraz, who is unconvinced by the rumors of a demon and believes there is a different reason.

Ambika and Sarfaraz take the girls who disappeared to the doctor, who is surprised that no girl has been harmed and is shocked that all these girls no longer menstruate. Later, Ambika receives a manuscript belonging to Shubankar from the house's old servant (the father of the current caretaker who was there when Shubankar's twin sister was sacrificed). Upon reading the manuscript, she discovers that the village is haunted by an ancient curse tied to a demon daitya named Amsaja, and involved human sacrifices, the Kali Puja ritual, and the haunted tree, which is believed to hold the malevolent daitya. The daitya is actually after Shweta, as it intends to procreate through her. Ambika tries to flee with her daughter but is stopped by Amsaja, who uses the previously abducted girls to snatch Shweta. Ambika then takes the help of Sarfaraz, who realises that Joydev is committing the crimes. Joydev reveals that he is the human face of the demon Amsaja.

Ambika has a dream of Goddess Kali, and as a ritual, she decides to perform Kali Puja in the temple of her home, which is locked. The puja is only performed when a person in the village has a dream of Goddess Kali, only then the temple doors are unlocked. As the influence of the demon, now infested in Joydev's body, grows, Ambika channels the divine wrath of the Goddess Kali, undergoing a spiritual transformation and turning into a fierce matriarchal protector. Amsaja almost kills her, but she confronts the evil force in a final effort to save Shweta and the other missing girls, and eliminates him. However, it is revealed by an old priestess (the same one who had a dream of Goddess Kali 40 years ago) that Shweta is carrying the child of Amsaja and must be sacrificed to stop the birth. Ambika reluctantly proceeds to sacrifice her own daughter for the greater good, but just before she does so, she is stopped by the priestess, who says that Ambika has passed the test Goddess Kali put her through and that the demon child inside Shweta is no more.

During the end-credits scene, Vanraj, wearing his hoodie, baggy pants, and boots, is seen walking through the ash remains of the forest, seemingly absorbing whatever was left of Amsaja's powers.