Maa Behen Review: Madhuri at Full Throttle

Maa Behen | Director: Suresh Triveni | Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Tripti Dimri | Hindi | Netflix

Subtlety is not its strong suit and the director was clearly aiming for camp, yet it is a joy to watch Madhuri Dixit cut loose from the confines of superstardom in Netflix’s Maa Behen. She plays Rekha, a widow who refuses to let age define her. She lives alone in Adarsh Nagar, and has twoestrangeddaughters fromtwodifferent husbands. She wears sleeveless blouses, invites men over to play Teen Patti, and steals from her employer for her lover. ‘Witch’ is the most polite abuse hurled at her from her neighbours but there’s more, cen­tring on society’s anxiety of sexually active women.

Rekha is a woman of spirit, trying to make a go of a series of businesses, from a dabba drugs service to a cyber cafe spe­cialising in porn. But the Adarsh Nagar inhabitants insist on thinking she is at the helm of a den of vice. There is a moment in the film when Dixit (dressed to the nines) tells her similarly attired daughters, dancing with abandon on the street to stop. “What will people say?” she berates them in her perfect Bhojpuri accent. “Dance properly,” she adds as they resume dancing. Presumably that is the way they live their lives. It is delicious and delightful.