“Art is meant to be debated…” precisely why more than rave reviews, acclaimed filmmaker Suresh Triveni is enjoying the chatter around his latest Netflix film Maa Behen. As the Madhuri Dixit and Tripti Dimri-starrer emerged number two on Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English Film list, trending in 15 countries, even Triveni wondered if it was his algorithm that showed every other feed to be of his film. But soon he realised the buzz around the dark comedy was real.Indeed, he admits, that making a satire is not easy and there is a danger of people laughing at what is meant to be meaningful and the other way around. But he and his co-writer Pooja Tolani ensured that they didn’t sound silly, “at least in matters which matter.” Actually, nothing in the film is random as he puts it, “There isn’t a single thing that the team didn’t think it through.” If the audacity of the title makes you chuckle as well think, Triveni reveals, “Be it Tumhari Sulu or Jalsa or Subedaar and now Maa Behen, titles come to me first.” Since his writing process began with the very first scene where a mother calls her daughters in the middle of night, Maa Behen fit organically. Yes, for sure it has underlying connotations and he is tickled pink that viewers got the subtext of not just the title but a host of minor details. Whether audiences have become more discerning, he can’t say. But yes, he adds, “Audiences today have great clarity of what they want to see and what does not fit their mojo. So, makers must know who their audiences are.”Of course, with Maa Behen, Triveni was looking at the widest possible reach. Perhaps, in that context a theatrical outing rather than dropping the film directly on Netflix would have made more sense. He argues, “Post Covid, we are living in a cusp. We are figuring out, for no one knows what would work in cinema halls. If I would have made Tumhari Sulu today, I would have struggled to release it theatrically. With Maa Behen all I wanted was to mount the film as big as I could.” Undeniably, with Madhuri Dixit on board he couldn’t have got bigger. Casting Madhuri and Tripti Dimri was indeed a winning combination. He reveals how he always had Madhuri on his mind for the part of Rekha. But as grapevine goes, he was always told that Madhuri would never say yes to playing a mother. Only he thought to himself, “If it has to be a no, it better come from the Madhuri Dixit.”To his surprise and pleasure, the beautiful and talented actress readily agreed. With a trump card, ‘I have Madhuri’ casting others was easy… Getting Ravi Kishan, who plays a body for the longest time in the film, too was not tough either. “Ravi understood what we were trying to say,” he says.Today as Triveni is toying with a sequel, you bet he would go with the same set of talented actors. Interestingly, though he conceived Maa Behen pre-Covid, it became a ‘panj varshiya yojna,’ since lot of small town films were happening at that time and he didn’t know how to place it visually. Today, he can gloat, “I knew we were taking a deliberate approach, be it visually or in terms of narration. But not as a gimmick, everything had a reason. For instance in the flashback rumour scenes, things are exaggerated. Rekha’s saree remains the same for rumours don’t have details.”Today, he is overwhelmed that people are watching it multiple times. His cinematic repartee to all those who crib, ‘why Hindi cinema is not trying fresher things?’ is paying rich dividends. And for the maker in him the joy of cinema is, “exactly this moment when your phone rings, feedback comes and people resonate… that’s why we do what we do.” Exceptionally well at that…quote“As a maker I sometimes wonder why we have to be under so much scrutiny…but then that is the joy of filmmaking. Cinema is the most accessible art and these days judgement is before argument. At some point you have to learn to handle criticism.”