Aahana Swrup
The Hindi-language dark comedy film ‘Maa Behen’ revolves around a dysfunctional family made up of one mother, perpetually controversial in her small-town neighborhood, and her two daughters. Ever since Rekha came to Aadarsh Colony, her beauty and her sleeveless blouses have been the talk of the town, for all the wrong reasons. Numerous rumors surround the woman, from the nature of her husband’s and mother-in-law’s deaths to her various business ventures. One night, her daughters, Jaya and Sushma, receive a frantic call from their mother, who seems to be caught in an unimaginable crisis: there’s a dead body in her kitchen. As a result, despite the conflicts among these three women, they must come together to cover up a crime that threatens to ruin their already dodgy reputations forever. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Maa Behen Plot Synopsis
Rekha’s eldest daughter, Jaya, is a housewife, daughter-in-law, and sister-in-law, stuck in a thankless life. She has to sneak away to her IVF fertility appointments, all the while seriously suspecting her husband, Manas, of having an affair with her younger sister, Sushma. Nonetheless, after she receives a panic-stricken call from Rekha, she has no choice but to patch her sister in so the two can figure out what exactly is wrong with their mother. The duo could’ve never imagined the revelation that arrives: there’s a dead body in Rekha’s kitchen belonging to Mr. Gupta, her next-door neighbor. The next morning, both sisters arrive at their childhood home. The entire Aadarsh Colony has certain conceptions about the house and its matriarch. They deem Rekha to be a seductress and a witch who orchestrated the death of her husband and his mother to secure their inheritance for herself.
Naturally, if people come to learn about the fact that Gupta died in her house, they would eagerly jump to their own conclusions and refuse to listen to her account. At first, the mother of two insists that the neighbor knocked on her door late at night and attacked her once inside. As she tried to dodge his unwanted advances, a series of events led him to slip and crack his head open on the ground. However, as time goes on, a different version of events emerges. While the daughters help their mother with the dead body, Sushma discovers that Rekha had asked Gupta to come over for a game of cards. Thus, she concedes more of the truth. As it turns out, Rekha had stolen a substantial amount of cash from her place of work at Sanskaar Wine Shop.
Gupta, who looked over the ledger, sometimes noticed the discrepancies and was planning on telling the owner. For the same reason, she invited him over that night in hopes of coming to an understanding. Yet, after that, she sticks to the original story where Gupta attacked her and fell to his death. Apparently, the hit to the head hadn’t caused his death. The three women realize the same when what they had assumed to be the dead body begins to gain consciousness again. Even so, Rekha maintains her belief that the man cannot be allowed to leave. She assures her daughters that she intends to pay the wine shop back in a few days. Therefore, Rekha only needs Gupta to be unconscious and disappear over the next handful of hours to ensure he can’t snitch on her.
While Jaya is vehemently against the idea, she agrees when her mother offers to give her the money she needs for her secret IVF treatment. Her presence ends up helping out significantly, given her rapport with police inspector Maheshwari, who had always had a crush on her since school. It just so happens that he is also Gupta’s brother-in-law, who is being put on his case by Mrs. Gupta, who staunchly believes Rekha and her girls are behind her husband’s disappearance. She’s especially on edge because her daughter, Goldie, is set to be married in a matter of days. Therefore, things take a drastic turn when the Gupta household receives a ransom call, demanding 5 lakh rupees in exchange for their patriarch’s life. Meanwhile, in Kripa Niwas, friction arises between the sisters and their mother, as all three deny any connection to the ransom call.
Maa Behen Ending: Who is Behind the Ransom Call?
Initially, when Rekha calls up her daughters, she really does believe that Gupta has died in her house. However, she also knows that, given the nature of the incident, no one will be willing to believe her version of the events. For the same reason, her initial plan is to get rid of the dead body with the help of Jaya and Sushma before putting the entire incident behind them. Nonetheless, things go south when the trio realizes that Gupta isn’t actually dead. Now, Rekha is still eager to keep the man hidden until she can right the wrong that landed her in this trouble in the first place. As a result, the family decides to keep their neighbor passed out on cough syrup while hiding him away at their house.
Eventually, this becomes a problem when Goldie from the Gupta household receives a surprising ransom call. Once the mother and her daughters learn about the apparent demand for 5 lakh, they’re quick to suspect one another of treachery. Each of them believes that one or the other is trying to exploit the situation and emerge richer on the other side. However, in practice, the call makes everything infinitely worse for them. Before, they could’ve passed Gupta’s absence as a mysterious disappearance. After the call, it becomes a kidnapping, for which they could be framed in the aftermath. Yet the truth remains that no one among Rekha, Jaya or Sushma made the call. Instead, the call, surprisingly enough, had come from inside the house.
In the aftermath, once the trio manages to get out of the slinky situation, they return to a version of their normal lives. During this time, as they’re watching TV together, they stumble upon a reality singing competition show where Goldie is a contestant. While sharing her story, she reveals that she ran away from home to escape an unwanted marriage, with 5 lakh in savings she had managed to squirrel away. Nevertheless, while the judges and audiences buy this tale, Rekha and her daughters know better. They realize that Goldie, better known as Hema, saw her father’s disappearance as an opportunity and faked the ransom call to secure the money she needed to run away from home. In the end, the three women are only amused by this power move and have no intentions of getting the ambitious young women in trouble for it.
Does Rekha Lose Her House? What Happens to Gupta?
Initially, Rekha and her daughters’ plan to keep Gupta hidden in the house seems viable enough to work. Yet, things begin to go south when Manas shows up and decides to stick around. Furthermore, a late-night rendezvous that reveals secrets between the mother and her kids adds more drama. At the end of this confrontation, Sushma almost tries to release Gupta in the middle of the night. Eventually, this ends with a violent confrontation wherein Jaya ends up throwing a coconut at the neighbor’s head in self-defense. If the previous head injury hadn’t killed him, this one seems to have done the job. At least, that’s what the trio assumes until the next morning, when Gupta manages to escape the house and stumble his way back home.
Still, instead of immediately reporting them to the authorities, Gupta plays a different game. As it turns out, he has an ulterior motive he has been trying to achieve all along. He is after the house, Kripa Niwas. He has long loathed the widow’s ownership over the property and her inclusion in Aadarsh Colony. In fact, years ago, he tried to drive her out. Back then, Rekha had started her own business and was running a cybercafé out of the house. However, rumors began spreading that the business was only successful because she allowed pornographic films to be viewed on her systems. Eventually, the rumor gained so much traction and attracted such a vehement backlash from the neighborhood that men, armed with rods and righteous anger, stormed Kripa Niwas.
During the attack, Rekha managed to lock herself in a room with her two young daughters and waited out the storm that ransacked the house outside. In the aftermath, the cybercafé was shut down, and a message was delivered: if the mother steps out of line, there’s no one around to save her or her family. Now, Gupta levies the same threat against her. He warns her that if she doesn’t hand the property over to him, he will talk and ensure the neighborhood rallies against her once again. This time, the charges against her would be much more severe, leading to a bigger outcry and definitive legal consequences. At first, Rekha believes she has been backed into a corner from which she cannot escape.
Nonetheless, the mother refuses to give up the house and rob her daughters of their inheritance. In turn, the sisters refuse to let her take the fall and face criminal charges. Thus, Jaya comes up with a plan. While the rest of the Gupta family is out to attend to Goldie’s wedding matters, they invite the patriarch over under the guise of meeting his demands. Notably, they greet him at the door wearing nightgowns, giving off the impression that they’re willing to do sexual favors for him. Gupta embraces this turn of events and intimidates the three women, ordering them around, compelling them to dance, and offering them a massage. Unbeknownst to him, Sushma’s phone is recording the entire incident. In the aftermath, they threaten to release this footage and ruin his reputation unless he leaves them alone. As a result, Rekha gets to stand up to her oppressor and keep the house.
Why Did Gupta Come to Rekha’s House That Night?
The events of the night that trapped Gupta in Rekha’s house remain a point of intrigue for much of the film. In the beginning, the latter claims her neighbor came to her door of his own volition. Later, it’s revealed that she invited him over with a specific purpose in mind. However, the full truth only unravels much later, when the mother sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night for a clandestine meeting. The daughters, who both follow, sono learn that Rekha is meeting Chandru Dwivedi, her long-time lover and Sushma’s biological father. As it turns out, he is the real reason she stole the money from the wine shop in the first place.
Chandru is an army official who has been coming in and out of Rekha’s life for a long time. Now, he claims to have returned for the better. He wants to retire and open a security agency to start a new life with Rekha and become a part of his daughter’s life. This is also why he was in need of the 5 lakhs that he had his lover steal from her place of work. Or at least, this is the truth that Rekha believes. In reality, she was being conned by Chandru, who is actually a wanted man. He has a habit of getting arrested by the authorities every few months, resulting in his periodic absence from her life. Even now, his original plan was to take the money from her and skip town.
Things took a turn when he accidentally left half of the cash behind. By then, Rekha knew that her lover would be returning to meet her again and collect the rest of the money. For the same reason, she invited Gupta over, imagining that Chandru could talk things out with him. However, when the latter remained a no-show, leaving Rekha in a vulnerable position against her neighbor. That night, once Gupta was inside the house, he attempted to force himself on the widow and rape her. Yet, in the skirmish that followed, he ended up taking a fall, which Rekha hoped would kill him, but ultimately didn’t. Even then, she doesn’t think to suspect Chandru of foul play. Unfortunately, he eventually shows his true colors, threatens her daughters, takes the rest of the money, and leaves her to her own devices.
Are the Rumors About Rekha and Her Daughters’ Scandals True?
Throughout the film, the narrative provides various stories and rumors about the residents of Kripa Niwas and their alleged scandals. Rekha, the center of the story, is a controversial figure in Aadarsh Niwas from the beginning. No one can believe her husband has landed someone as beautiful as her. The fact that she gave birth seven months after the marriage attracted further scrutiny. As such, rumors ran rampant that she intentionally used her beauty and sexual appeal to mess with the rest of the neighborhood. Notably, everyone believed that she constantly tried to entrap the innocent and pious Charitra Kumar Gupta in her web. Such gossip continued to spread when her husband and mother-in-law died, and she gave birth to Sushma, long after becoming a widow.
A certain story also follows Sushma around. Back when she was a teenager, a video of her and her boyfriend kissing for 5 minutes was uploaded. Everyone accused her of convincing her boyfriend to make the video and later upload it in pursuit of online virality. On the other hand, Jaya always wanted to stay distinct from these scandals that followed her family. However, many believe that she seduced Manas, who initially came to Aadarsh Colony in pursuit of an arranged marriage with Jaya’s best friend, Rati. Notably, all these rumors have one thing in common. They center around a scandal where the women are portrayed as seductresses and manipulators, while the men are portrayed as innocent victims of their feminine charms. Moreover, these rumors fail to mention the very real harassment that Rekha and her daughters suffered at the hands of the Aadarsh Colony.
Day in and day out, people would graffiti insults and catcalls all over the boundary walls of Kripa Niwas. They socially ostracized the mother while objectifying her in the same breath. The men in the neighborhood leered at her, while the women shook their heads in disapproval and suspicion. Moreover, everyone consistently ignored the version of the truth that Rekha and her daughters shared. Sushma’s boyfriend uploaded the video, but she still got the slack for it. Jaya was cornered by Manas, whom she ultimately decided to marry to save her reputation. Likewise, Rekha faced the ridicule, objectification, vilification, and harassment of the neighborhood for simply daring to be herself, sleeveless blouses and all. In the end, the validity of the rumors about the mother and the sisters depends entirely on who the audience chooses to believe and who to condemn.
