Review: ‘Maa Ka Sum’ doesn’t add up

Maa Ka Sum sets out to explore love through logic. Directed by Nicholas Kharkongor and written by Ravinder Randhawa and Sumrit Shahi, the Prime Video series is about a 19-year-old mathematics prodigy trying to “solve” relationships and matchmaking through equations and algorithms.

Agastya (Mihir Ahuja) is on a mission to find the perfect partner for his single mother Vinita (Mona Singh). Their relationship is framed as unusually close, almost idealised, but quickly reveals a troubling co-dependence. Boundaries are virtually non-existent, with Agastya assuming the role of decision-maker in his mother’s romantic life, prioritising data and outcomes over her autonomy and feelings.

This dynamic could have been fertile ground for a layered drama, but the writing is simply too weak to support it. What unfolds across eight episodes is a drawn-out drama that rarely earns its emotional beats.

Scenes are over-written and repetitive. The show tells you what it’s about – constantly – without ever making you feel it. Lines like “Good data matched with good analysis always gets good results” are spoken as if they carry philosophical weight, but they land hollow.

Mihir Ahuja delivers a natural, easy-going performance, especially in his quieter moments with Mona Singh. There is a believable rhythm between the actors, though Singh often feels like she’s working overtime to sell Vinita’s “cool, chilled-out mom” persona.

As Agastya evolves from quirky to controlling, Ahuja commits to the arc, but the character becomes increasingly difficult to root for. Agastya’s arrogance tips into toxicity. The suggestion that Vinita is, at times, slightly intimidated by her son adds an unsettling undercurrent the show doesn’t fully interrogate.

The supporting characters don’t fare much better. Angira Dhar’s Ira is a maths professor whose academic background confusingly oscillates between elite institutions. This track raises more questions than it answers, particularly in how it navigates the blurred lines between student and teacher. Ranveer Brar appears as investment analyst Abhimanyu, Vinita’s potential match, whose presence doesn’t fit into Agastya’s “Project Mom”.

The staging is flat, with too many static, talk-heavy scenes that sap energy from what should be a lively premise. Even moments designed to be inventive, such as a surreal sequence at a concert, come off as indulgent rather than imaginative.

For a show built around the idea of equations governing love, it never makes mathematics engaging. Instead, maths is reduced to a functional tool, essentially a way to optimise a dating app’s success rate, side-lining wonder or intellectual intrigue.

Maa Ka Sum begins as a cutesy, almost saccharine dramedy before veering into darker territory touching on issues such as mental health and abandonment. These shifts feel abrupt and underdeveloped, as though the series is trying to mount seriousness on an already shaky foundation.

By the time the finale attempts to redeem Agastya through repentance and self-awareness, it feels too little, too late. This is a story that might have worked as a tightly written film, but across eight episodes, it just doesn’t add up.