Madhuri’s mix of silly, starry-eyed, sly and sentimental doesn’t miss a single beat.
A flawless Triptii Dimri steals the show in a role, finally worthy of her talent, applauds Sukanya Verma.
Key Points
- Director Suresh Triveni’s Maa Behen is a subversive feminist comedy that critiques societal double standards and moral policing against women.
- Madhuri Dixit delivers a refreshing performance, shedding her typical heroine persona, while Triptii Dimri steals the show with a powerful portrayal of a fed-up housewife.
- Despite some tonal shifts and an unwieldy plot, the film’s core message about women’s autonomy and challenging patriarchal views remains strong.
A woman’s sexy attire is a sure shot sign of her depravity in the eyes of a propriety-obsessed society. Director Suresh Triveni’s subversive feminism in Maa Behen turns societal gaze on its head to chronicle a deceptively spoofy comedy.
Written by Triveni and Pooja Tolani, Maa Behen sets itself up like a tease whose layered commentary is less about showing its true colours and more of the ones watching it.
The title itself is a pun alluding to an offensive slur as well as the relationship between the protagonists at the centre of its chaos — a duality that comes forth as daredevil women take on double standards-reeking soldiers of moral authority.
Subversive Humour and Societal Critique
Like his previous film Tumhari Sulu, the filmmaker employs wit to make his point about women getting the short end of the stick. Except the tone of Maa Behen‘s humour is a lot less cheerful despite the silliness in sight.
In his caricaturish scheme of things, ungainly visuals of snoring ladies, farting fellas and bare bodied triplets occupy the frames as intently as Rekha’s trickery, Jaya’s annoyance and Sushma’s sass.
Artfully named after the stars of a popular detergent jingle and the stereotypes of domesticity it perpetuates in mainstream consciousness, Maa Behen bends the roles and packs a punch, rather punchline, with Hema — the fourth endorser of the pivotal washing powder.
Set inside a curious small-town Bihar neighbourhood called Adarsh Colony as if to mock the lack of ideals pervading the space, the action kickstarts with the locality’s most scandalous resident Rekha (Madhuri Dixit) panicking over a dead body crisis in her crumbly but large house situated right opposite the departed soul’s residence.
SOS calls to daughters Jaya (Triptii Dimri) and Sushma (Dharna Durga) result in their hurried arrival and hysterical response to the corpse (Ravi Kishen) while a hunt to find the deceased Guptaji becomes top priority in his household, otherwise preoccupied with his golden-toothed daughter Goldie’s (Rrama) wedding preparations.
As the grumpy missus of a bigot, Geetanjali Kulkarni is a quite a hoot as she sees through as much as she is aligned with in their shared patriarchal worldview.
Chaos, Satire, and Stellar Performances
Meanwhile, the woes of sneaking a bulky body while grappling with their prickly equation, pesky neighbours, creaky doors and a good-for-nothing son-in-law (a hilariously sleazy Shardul Bhardwaj) overstaying his welcome to wolfing down exotic chicken delicacies fuel Maa Behen‘s chaotic momentum.
But the source of its satire is Sansani news anchor Shrivardhan Trivedi spilling off his television of sensationalism in the similarly modelled Khalbali for filmi purposes.
As the unofficial sutradhar of the story, his exaggerations mean to provide mirth but belie the witch hunting that women are subjected to when not conforming to prescribed standards of dressing and conduct. It’s always his word above hers if she works in a wine shop, wears sleeveless blouses, remarries and, worst of all, chooses to be happy.
Triveni-Tolani have some solid aces under their sleeve, revealed over the course of Maa Behen‘s many tonal shifts that take some time to get used to. From jarring to sneaky to heartfelt to parody again, the endgame in the fluctuating tempo ensures none of the flippant scenery and racy innuendoes are for idiosyncratic purposes.
There are times when the farce feels excessive and stumbles under the strain of an unwieldy plot and calculated gaudiness. But the three women at the forefront remain unfazed and root for solidarity in all its bonkers, dysfunctional avatars.
Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri’s Impact
Madhuri Dixit’s performance is refreshingly free of her heroine-coded persona. The changing graph of her delivery as she recaps the same episode with fresh information strives to add as well as end the confusion surrounding ‘Mard Maar‘ Rekha with every passing version. And Madhuri’s mix of silly, starry-eyed, sly and sentimental doesn’t miss a single beat.
Social media star Dharna Durga, playing a fictional version of her viral reel-consumed content creator, has a dynamic presence and holds her own as Madhuri’s youngest beti. But her limitations show in arenas outside performative comedy.
But it is a flawless Triptii Dimri stealing the show in a role, finally worthy of her talent, that is a slow burn account of a volcano on the verge of explosion. When her fully fed-up housewife finally blows her fuse, the upshot is a ballistic mother-daughter kitchen meltdown sequence followed by an outburst of a monologue directed at her slacker spouse.
Witch, warrior or woman, it’s the realisation within to strip off all the labels and live life on her terms — in the clothes she chooses — is what this Maa Behen really wants.
Maa Behen streams on Netflix.
