Never Ending Movie Carnival
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Maa Behen review: Quirkily Funny and Provocatively Layered
‘Maa Behen’ Netflix’s dark comedy starring Madhuri Dixit Nene, Triptii Dimri and Dharna Durga in lead is a sinfully delightful quirky fun that later on rises beyond what it seems to be in Suresh Triveni’s directorial.
Maa Behen Plot
A beautiful and mysterious Rekha (Madhuri Dixit Nene) has had a history of tantalizing her neighbourhood. One night a shocking incident forces Jaya to call her two estranged daughters, Jaya (Triptii Dimri) a typical housewife and Sushma (Dharna Durga) a social media obsessed wannabe influencer to her place.
The mother and the daughters have to cover up a murder, the dead body is lying in Rekha’s kitchen. How the mother - daughter duo shed their differences and start working as a team to clear all evidence and dump the dead body in a nearby canal amidst the chaos created by conservative surroundings ruled by patriarchy and male machismo leading to weird, quirky and comical events finds the crux of this film.
OTT has emerged as a boon for actress Madhuri Dixit Nene who is more popular as a dance diva, ‘Maja Maa’, ‘Mrs Deshpande’ and now in this avatar as Rekha which very slightly reminded me of Monica Bellucci in Gluseppe Tornatore’s ‘Malena’(2000) in this quirkily funny and provocatively layered, coming of age comedy that has the undercurrent of women empowerment taking the centre stage later.
The Rekha (Madhuri Dixit Nene – excellent) portion which appears to be tantalizing has a meaning behind, opening with brief introduction of Triptii Dimri (brilliant) going for an IVF, her younger sister played by Dharna Durga (very good) making a reel with her jiju – brother – law played by Shardul Bhardwaj (makes an impact) and their mysterious Rekha entering her house, director Suresh Triveni maintains the comic quirkiness and holds the audience and later makes them think.
Interesting characters like Guptaji (Ravi Kishan – wonderful), Jaya’s friend and admirer played by Arunoday Singh (fine), Guptaji’s nagging wife played by Geetanjali Kulkarni – fabulous, and Paresh Rawal (fantastic) in a cameo, the apt milieu and music that has the local folk flavour adding to the momentum makes the audience invested throughout.
However, the accent is uneven, while Rekha’s past is explored nicely, the past and struggle of Jaya and Sushma is not exposed to that extent.
But, in spite of its flaws, ‘Maa Behen’ in the end emerges as a story of woman empowerment that questions the male machismo and patriarchy and indifference prevailing in the society going through all the comic quirks.
Going with a favourable three and a half stars out of five (3.5/5)
Produced under the banner of Abundantia Entertainment and Opening Image Films, ‘Maa Behen’ is streaming on Netflix from June 04, 2026.
A child born from life & fed by cinema. A filmi keeda from child & a film journalist for the last fifteen years. a father, seeker, foodie who loves crooning bollywood melodies twitter.com/cineblues More By vishal verma