Suresh Triveni’s latest film, Maa Behen, aspires to be both a crime thriller and a comedy, and in the process of balancing the two, ends up being neither. With a promising cast, the film does hit the familiar feminist ideological spots that it seems to aim for, but gets muddled up in trying to be more than that—a gripping comic thriller that its trailer initially promised. Starring Madhuri Dixit Nene, Triptii Dimri, and Dharna Durga, the plot follows a mother and her estranged daughters who come together to frantically cover up the death of a neighbour, played by Ravi Kishan, at their house.
With a rather loose plot, the film runs on an uneven pace with multiple arcs that don’t even contribute to the message or plot. The crime and the comedy go around in circles, and the result is a narrative that is not just absurd, but simply overcomplicated and difficult to connect with.
Even with such shortcomings, the film is not short of substance. For a mainstream Bollywood drama, it is significant that Maa Behen explores female sexuality and how single women are viewed in society. Madhuri Dixit Nene’s Rekha is a widow who, unlike the stereotypical image of a widowed mother usually portrayed in cinema, is infamous for being promiscuous. Along with being perceived as “characterless”, she is seen as a daayan or witch who hunts men. Her presence evokes horror in the colony—the fear of a single woman with agency; the dangers attached to a woman whose sexuality is not controlled by a man. The neighbourhood believes her to be contaminating the “moral purity” of the area. Although she is judged, scrutinised, and ostracised by the neighbours, Rekha exists on her terms with the transgressive symbol of the sleeveless blouse. With this portrayal, the film attempts to deconstruct how single women are often perceived in media and society.
While the script demanded exaggeration in acting , Triptii Dimri still delivers a natural performance that fits the character. Content creator Dharna Durga also emerges as a refreshing new face in her debut. Madhuri Dixit Nene, however, doesn’t fit the grammar of the film and appears to be forcing not just the accent, but the entire character of the mother.
Finally, instead of being the complicated blend of comedy with a backdrop of crime that aims to deliver a feminist message, Maa Behen would’ve done justice to its core feminist idea by sticking to this one layer. The film, in this case, would have been better.