Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The first few minutes of the 2026 film ‘Maa Behen’ feel like the creators are rage-baiting viewers: there’s a beautiful widowed mom (Madhuri Dixit) demonized as the neighborhood seductress, her elder daughter (Triptii Dimri) is doing some shady work behind her husband’s back, while the younger daughter (Dharna Durga) makes cringey videos with her brother-in-law on social media in pursuit of fame. The mom calls her daughters to help her deal with the death of a neighbor at their house under suspicious circumstances, a detail that was already given away in the trailer. But is there more to the film than meets the eye? Thankfully… yes!
Directed by Suresh Triveni (Tumhaari Sulu, Jalsa), ‘Maa Behen’ stars Madhuri Dixit as Rekha, the titular Maa, living in a conservative neighborhood where she is a constant source of malicious gossip for aging gracefully and wearing sleeveless blouses. Her daughters, Jaya (Triptii Dimri) and Sushma (Dharna Durga), are often judged just as harshly. The mild comedic irony that the mother and daughters are named after the famous Nirma ad won’t be lost on viewers.
Ravi Kishan plays Gupta Ji, the neighbor whom Rekha claims accidentally died in her house after he tried to misbehave with her, though her own daughters aren’t entirely convinced by her version of events. Older daughter Jaya believes they should report the matter to the police, while Sushma backs her mother and insists they should cover the whole thing up. But can the bickering ‘Maa Behen’ trio get rid of the body without raising suspicion, especially when Gupta Ji’s family lives right across the street and is busy preparing for his daughter Goldy’s (Rrama Sharma) wedding? As it is, the whole neighborhood scrutinizes and judges them constantly.
The plot thickens when Goldy receives a ransom call for her missing father, except nobody seems to know who placed it. The ‘Maa Behen’ trio quickly turns on one another, each suspecting the others of trying to make a quick buck, while simultaneously denying any involvement. On the other side, Gupta Aunty (Geetanjali Kulkarni) becomes convinced that Rekha and her daughters are plotting to ruin Goldy’s wedding. She makes her police officer brother Maheshwari (Arunoday Singh) go after the neighbours, but the love-struck cop is far more interested in impressing Jaya, his childhood crush.
The first half hour of ‘Maa Behen’ is challenging to watch, largely because the filmmakers deliberately disguise the story as a routine thriller about three women scrambling to cover up a murder. Madhuri Dixit is entertaining as Rekha, a hustling single mother who loves sensationalist news and was widowed at a young age. However, she occasionally falters in scenes that require greater emotional conviction. A sequence in which Rekha wails over the phone about a dead man lying in her hall is clearly intended to be comedic, but the performance feels more farcical and grating than genuinely funny.
Instead, ‘Maa Behen’ generates laughs through the constant squabbling between sisters Jaya and Sushma, as their childish pettiness and sibling rivalry is quite chuckle-worthy. As the story unfolds, however, the mother-daughter trio might gradually win viewers over, evolving into a compelling unit of women willing to stand by one another in the face of mounting chaos.
Triptii Dimri is engaging as the exhausted older sister, trapped in a patriarchal household where her days revolve around making an endless supply of rotis for an entitled father-in-law, husband, and three irritating brothers-in-law. Dharna Durga is quite a hoot as her half-sister Sushma, a social-media addict obsessed with chasing followers and viral fame, a clever meta joke in itself, since she is a popular influencer-turned-actor in real life.
For no real reason, ‘Maa Behen’ is shot through a gloomy visual filter, as though it were a hard-boiled crime thriller rather than a comedy about a dysfunctional family hiding a body. A splash of color and brightness would have better complemented the film’s lighter, more chaotic spirit. One of the film’s funniest visual gags depicts Rekha’s husband and mother-in-law dying in a freak accident, their outstretched hands mirroring Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’ painting.
Ravi Kishan, who spends much of the film as a lifeless corpse, finally gets a chance to shine in Maa Behen’s closing stretch, where the story evolves from a simple comedy about an accidental death into a sharp satire on how society judges independent women. Rekha, in particular, finds herself constantly scrutinized for refusing to live by the rules imposed on her.
Beneath its chaotic humor, ‘Maa Behen’ explores gossip, female agency, and mother-daughter bonds without becoming preachy or overbearing. Rekha, Jaya, and Sushma may be deeply flawed, but by the end, their greatest strength lies in having each other’s backs when it matters most.
Watch ‘Maa Behen’ on Netflix.
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