Maa Behen

The call comes in the middle of the night: a mother, two estranged daughters, and a dead body on the kitchen floor. From that setup the film runs as a dark comedy, which means the horror of the situation and the pettiness of the family get roughly equal airtime, old grievances resurfacing while there is quite literally a corpse to deal with. The premise is a pressure cooker with a punchline, and the laughs come from people who cannot stop being themselves at the worst possible moment.

This is for viewers who like their humor black and their family dramas barbed — the sort who enjoy watching relatives negotiate a crisis while relitigating a decade of resentment. Expect tight, contained storytelling across a couple of hours, with swerves from farce to something unexpectedly tender. Anyone who wants comedy gentle will be caught off guard, but if a well-sharpened story about mothers, daughters and very bad decisions sounds appealing, this one is a treat.