i've exported a (bevel text) .obj from maya, and loaded it with a file sop, and when i render, the model comes out really strange, not deformed or anything, more like as if its been smoothed.
Sometimes the normals are flipped so append a Facet SOP & turn on “Orient Polygons” & “Post Compute Normals”. Since you have bevels, you also will want to turn on “Cusp Polygons” & adjust the Cusp Angle.
If you want to maintain the normals as they were in Maya without recalculating them in Houdini (which could lead to different results), use the Primitive SOP and do a “Reverse” in the Vertex option of the “Face/Hull” tab.