Rating : ⭐⭐⭐1/2
Genre: Crime Comedy, Drama
Year: 2026
Running time: 2 hours 7 minutes
Director: Suresh Triveni
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri, Dharna Durga, Ravi Kishan, Arunoday Singh, Geetanjali Kulkarni
Kid rating: PG
Maa Behen is meant to be a provocative title. But the film is actually very different from what the title suggests, because it’s almost a feminist film. . . and a murder mystery, family drama, comedy, and feminist commentary all rolled into a story about three women: a mother and her two daughters.
Rekha (Dixit), the mother is single and lives by herself, her husband having died. The elder daughter, Jaya, played by Triptii Dimri, is married and lives with her in-laws. The younger daughter, Sushma, is unmarried, potentially involved with Jaya’s husband, and is also trying to become an influencer.
The mother calls both her daughters in a panic because she has become involved in a crime related to her neighbor’s disappearance. The neighbor – Guptaji (Ravi Kishan)- a nosy, puritanical, orthodox kind of man has gone missing, and the mother thinks she might have caused his disappearance.
Both daughters rush home, and discover that things are even worse than implied. Now they have to figure out how to get out of the precarious situation.
The premise and character delineation is well done – but the acting is superb. Madhuri Dixit, as the mother, is very good. She is a decent actress, though she does overdo it slightly at times. Triptii Dimri, who plays Jaya, is excellent—we’ve seen her before in Bulbbul, where she was also very strong.The third lead actor, Sushma (Durga), is outstanding—truly par excellence. I would watch a film just because she is in it. She is that good.
The director keeps the film fairly fast-paced, but the characters and story arcs still make sense. We can see where the story is going—not in a predictable way, but in a way that feels logical, without any major plot holes.
But what was a little different from this murder mystery is how the film tries to show how three women—and women in general—are scrutinized, blamed, and controlled by society. Rekha, the mother, is a single woman living alone and is almost given witch-like attributes in a sarcastic, slightly spoofed tone.
Guptaji, the missing neighbor and head of the household next door, has always been critical of Rekha and her lifestyle. She is a free-spirited person, which is not deemed acceptable by the conservative neighborhood. Because she is single and pretty, Gupta and his wife (the fantastic Geetanjali Kulkarni) cast aspersions on her character.
Jaya is married into a joint family but is fed up with her lying and rather incompetent husband. Sushma, whom Jaya suspects of having an affair with her husband, shows independence of thought, although I’m less convinced by her character arc.
Overall, Maa Behen, is a good film, even if it is a bit chaotic. The music is fine—not too prominent—but overall, it’s definitely a worthwhile watch.
Kidwise: Mature themes and some violence.
