Maa Behen may be packed with laughs, but beneath its humour lies a sharp commentary on consent, misogyny and the stigma faced by single mothers in society. The film, starring Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri and Dharna Durga, has struck a chord with audiences for blending important social issues with crowd-pleasing entertainment.
In an exclusive chat with us, actors Geetanjali Kulkarni, who plays the ever-curious Gupta Aunty, Arunoday Singh, the soft-spoken cop Maheshwari, and Shardul Bhardwaj, who plays Triptii’s husband, opened up on balancing comedy with meaningful storytelling, what went behind creating these unique characters and why it is important for any film set to be fun.
‘Tricky to tackle serious issues in comedy’
When asked how they feel about being part of a film that tackles such serious questions while delivering them through the comedy genre, Geetanjali said, “I feel comedy is the best way. People are bored with preaching. Whenever something meaningful has to be told, it has to be told in a lighter and entertaining way, which Maa Behen does. When I read the script first, I was really thrilled about it because the one liners are so hilarious, especially of my character. People are so tired with their lives, and they are going through such difficult time and you need to have empathy about them as entertainers and give them something so that they have energy for their life.”
Arunoday gave credit to the film’s writer Pooja Tolani and director Suresh Triveni for delivering a film that gets its messaging right while also excelling as entertainment. He said, “The job of cinema should be to make society look at it a little better and do things a little clearer in whatever genre it does that, and it is specially tricky to do in a comedy. Here Pooja Tolani and Suresh Triveni, the writer and director of the film, deserve a lot of credit. It is not hard to do, but it is hard to do well. The treatment and perception of women in Indian society has been of concern for years, so the fact that we are able to make a film that not only entertains, but also make people think seriously about this is a wonderful thing and I’m very proud to be a part of the film.”
Shardul, however, does not like restricting a film to a genre. He said, “I don’t know what is termed as serious, and what do we term as comedy. This is quite subjective. The genres are labelled by you people. If I do comedy thinking that it is comedy then maybe it won’t translate. I think the film is important, the genre happens to be there.”
‘Hyper masculinity is just ridiculous past a point’
In Maa Behen, Arunoday plays the role of a sweet and empathetic cop, a refreshing departure from the hyper-masculine, testosterone-fuelled depiction of police officers that has become common in Hindi films. When asked about the importance of a Maheshwari amid the Dabangg and Singham’s of the Hindi cinema, he said, “I loved it. That is part of the reason why I said yes, after I got selected through auditions and I got a chance to read the script. I loved how he was. Softness is not opposed to masculinity, they are not mutually exclusive. I do think that we have gotten too much of this hyper masculine… it is just ridiculous past a point. It is fun for a bit, but I think you need to portray various levels of masculinity and how men are. He was a real sweetheart, and I had a great time playing it.”
‘Represented maximum women of India’
Geetanjali spoke about Maa Behen’s final scene, where her character Gupta Aunty discovers that her husband Charitra Gupta (Ravi Kishan) had forced himself on Madhuri Dixit’s Rekha. While she is enraged by his actions, she is also unable to openly rebel against him.
Speaking about the scene, Geetanjali admitted that it reflects the reality faced by many women. She said, “I think the last scene represented maximum women of India and all over the world. It showed how they succumb to whatever their family goes through or what their husband do. I personally felt empathetic to that character because most women go through this. Though she understands what these Maa Behen are going through, but she doesn’t have the power to go out of her way and help them. Maximum what she can do is try to control her family and that’s the reality. This is not an ideal condition. I will never say that, but at the same time, this is the reality that we should understand.”
Geetanjali also shared details about how she developed the character of Gupta Aunty. She said, “I got this character when we were doing the look test, so I created this character who was limping and wears glasses, and I went and met Suresh Sir, and talked to him in the tone. He was so supportive, he said fantastic, and we will go with this. I love that atmosphere onset because everybody was in it, and everybody was putting in so much effort. There were so many problems when we were shooting, there was constant rain, there were quite a bit of problems, but the spirit was great on the set.”
‘If a set is dark and depressing, you’re on a wrong set’
Arunoday Singh also spoke about the difference in atmosphere on sets when actors are shooting a serious film versus a comedy. He said, “When you are on a set, that is serious, dark, depressing — I think you are on the wrong set. You are supposed to be professionally serious and be focused on the job, but it is a great job so we all are having fun. I have never been on a set that had a dark atmosphere and not thought that something is very wrong here. A set and the crew is meant to be a fun thing. Whatever genre work that you are doing that is only supposed to be visible while you are acting, it’s a depressing story, we are not depressed.”
Shardul on viral scene with Triptii
One of Maa Behen’s most talked-about scenes features Triptii’s Jaya repeatedly hitting her husband Manas (played by Shardul) with a slipper out of frustration over his ignorant and misogynistic behaviour. The scene had audiences laughing while also cheering for her and soon went viral on social media.
Shardul shared what went into shooting the sequence. He said, “We did a lot of workshop for that scene, and that scene was quite instrumental in also trying to find who Manas is. There was a great structure written by Pooja and we would workshop under the supervision of Suresh ji and Pooja. The way Triptii has done it, sometimes when you have a monologue, you keep speaking without reacting to the other person, but here the idea was to take from each other, which she does beautifully. I don’t think we did too many takes for it, but that was a scene we all were looking forward to it. I think it is just two people hearing and reacting to each other.”
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