Netflix ‘Maa Behen’ EXCLUSIVE interview | Shardul Bhardwaj: ‘Women can also carry patriarchy; Art’s job is to raise questions…’

Netflix’s Maa Behen is indeed a chaotic crime-comedy where lies spiral out of control, suspicions run wild, and the dysfunctional mother-daughter trio must somehow survive their biggest kaand (scandal).  In an interview with Geetanjali Kulkarni (Gupta aunty), Shardul Bhardwaj (Manas) and Arunoday Singh ((Maheshwari) with Firstpost, the craftsmen talk about the preparation for the role and how arts job is to raise questions.

 Edited excerpts from the Interview:

How did you all prepare for your characters because it is a hilarious movie with a social message? And how did you all get the dialect?

 Geetanjali: Ganesh, our dialect coach tutored us for the dialect. Director Suresh Triveni and writer Pooja Tolani did the workshops with us. It was a very interesting space because I find workshops very exciting. The workshop happened at Suresh’s office and it was quite fun.

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Arunoday: Suresh is an excellent director, and he made sure that we did a lot of workshops like Geetanjali said. Ganesh is one of the nicest coaches that I have worked with. My English is very crisp, but my Hindi tends to suffer. And to be able to get the accent right, to a fair amount of work. Kudos to the entire team, and it just felt effortless after that.

Shardul: I mostly have scenes with Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri. Doing these workshops felt like going back to acting school. The main thing behind these workshops was to establish an interpersonal relationship between the three characters. Also, the scene which everybody is talking about. The scene between me and Triptii where she is seen beating me up with a chappal. Doing that scene multiple times helped me in finding my character, Manas. And the costume of my character was very important.

Geetanjali, the dialogues of the Maa Behen movie are hilarious. How much do you relate to these lines?

Geetanjali: I have seen a lot of aunties do these things, and I am also in the same age group now. The dialogues of the movie were very interesting and Pooja has written them very well. She was always there with me during the shooting and helping me out. I like to work on my dialect and I like one-liners a lot and I would like to credit Pooja for that.

Geetanjali Kulkarni in Netflix ‘Maa Behen’

What do you have to say about the social messaging of the film? A lot of women are considered characterless if they do not dress as per the environment around them. 

Arunoday: One of the reasons why I was attached to this movie was that I agree with the message. It is a very important and necessary message in these times. It was a joyful experience working on the set. It was a privilege.

Shardul: I’m not a big fan of messaging through cinema. Art’s job is to raise questions, not answer them. Maa Behen raises questions. Most importantly, it shows women can also carry patriarchy. That makes for an interesting watch. And a more realistic one. What I liked about the script was it was not giving me one message. It is opening up questions, which could be complicated.

Geetanjali: Every story is carrying some or the other mirror to the society.  Even if the story says that it does not want to show any mirror, or any politics, then also it is showing something and saying something. Maa Behen does it very beautifully. It’s layered, it’s complex, it’s questioning. Suresh and Pooja have done it in a beautiful way that it entertains also.

Shardul, everything that your character does come across as repulsive. Did you come across any person like that?

Shardul: You just need to work out of your house to see such characters (laughs).

What is your take on the way women’s roles are changing in cinema?

Geetanjali: It has to change because times are changing. We cannot ignore that in cinema also. Women are now voicing their demands. But I don’t think we are being able to do that fully. It will happen slowly and gradually.