Six moms and a common problem: being mothers of school-going children in present-day USA.

Amy (Mila Kunis) is a woman with a seemingly perfect life--a great marriage, a boy and a girl and a dog; a beautiful home. Now for the downside: she's over-worked, underpaid (by a 20 something boss Dale Kipler: Clark Duke), over committed to her family and exhausted to the point that she's about to snap. Moreover, she finds that her husband Mike (David Walton) is having a torrid online affair, and asks him to leave.

Fed up, she joins forces with two other over-stressed moms, Carla (Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell), and the three go on a quest to liberate themselves from conventional responsibilities, a wild un-mom like binge (yes, a bout of drinking too) of freedom, fun and self-indulgence. Soon, Amy finds her children and even her dog walking out on her, to stay with her separated husband, while she herself is sets-out on a collision course with the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Head Honchee Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate), and her clique of devoted ‘perfect’ moms.

Written by Jon(athan)  Lucas and Scott Moore (claim to fame being Hangover, among the highest grossing R rated comedies of all time), the Bad Mom has plenty of refreshingly new situations and a female vocabulary that might appear to be emanating from male larynxes. There’s an old Indian joke:

One woman to another—

“What do you think our husbands talk about when they are alone?”

“Well, I don’t know. I guess they talk about the same things that we women do.”

“Oh my God! Men are so dirty-minded, aren’t they?”

While there is no independent survey on record to confirm this theory, Bad Moms shows us that women can be raunchy and badass too, and badass here means literally that: bad ass.

Besides the above four female characters, there are Stacy and Vicky. Stacy (Jada Pinkett Smith) is a black, stay-at-home Mom who leads a miserable life and, in turn, tries to pull down everybody around. Vicky (Annie Mumolo), a plump, noddy sourpuss, is like Stacy, one of Gwendolyn’s bitches. None of them are layered or knotted people, almost uni-dimensional. That, however, is not such a great flaw, when you have six of them, available in six different flavours. Likewise the men. Loser Mike, upstart Dale, the sinewy almost fresh-from-the-funeral widower Jessie Harkness (Jay Hernandez), Kiki’s over-bearing husband Kent (Lyle Brocato), the cameo-ish Principal Burr (Wendell Pierce) and Amy’s two kids—Oona Laurence (13) and Emjay Anthony (12); they are all kind of stereo-types. For once, the ploy pulls it off. Oh how I wish it had not petered down to a good v/s evil election battle in the climax! Few build-ups can be less predictable.

It certainly helps when there are two of you writing, you’ve worked before as a duo, you’ve already directed a feature together and both form one-half of a two-piece jigsaw—Lucas has a knack for character development and Moore possesses an antenna for plot-structure sensibility. The two met as assistants to screen-writer Daniel Petrie Jr., and soon jelled. Jon said in a 2013 interview that there only six classic storylines, “Cinderella, Achilles, Faust, Romeo & Juliet, Orpheus and Road Trip.” So, is Bad Moms, the tale of six mothers, a good example of sixology or Mixology (not a word I coined; it’s a TV sitcom that Lucas and Moore wrote)? I’ll need to read the six time-tested bestsellers all over again, to arrive at any conclusion. You could give it a shot too, if it kindles your interest.

Mila Kunis, from a Ukranian émigré family, with looks that remind you of Angelina Jolie, impressed in Black Swan. Bad Moms is an altogether different ball game, and she is game here too. Kathryn (a popular face on TV shows like Parks and Recreation and Transparent; movie appearances include Wanderlust, Anchorman and Afternoon Delight) has a sculpted face, and is asked to play the worst of the bad moms, foul-mouthed and completely, but sweetly, immoral. Watch her deliver lines like, “I’d rather go to Afghanistan than to another kids’ baseball game,” and get wowed. Hahntastic.

Kristen Bell is the clueless good girl, with four small children, a dominating husband and fantasies of getting in a car accident just serious enough so she’ll get a few weeks of hospital rest. You feel for her submissive nature, but it is a graph that will lead to an applause point. Christina Applegate is among the highest stereo-typical vamps. As in the case of Kiki, the makers will bake your cake and then make you shake. Jada Pinkett Smith, Mrs. Will Smith, if you please, has been on the TV scene since 1991. Film forays include The Nutty Professor Bamboozled, Scream 2, Ali, Matrix Reloaded, Matrix Revolutions, Reign over Me, and The Women. A new side to her persona emerges in Bad Moms, sharp, evil and sadistic. Clark Duke is given one of the most hilarious punches. Asked about family, the ruthless slave-driver boss replies, “I love family. I even have it tattooed on my arm.” The word ‘family’, that is!

What really sets your laugh muscles in motion is the motor-mouth volley of the types of moms around, who support Gwendolyn, and who need to wooed away from her. It ends with “... the most difficult of them all—the black lesbian divorced mothers.”

In the end credits epilogue, the six lead actresses and their real-life mothers appear on screen and discuss aspects of their own motherhood, vis-à-vis their actress daughters. While the idea sounds inventive, it is not enough to stop you from heading towards the nearest exit.

By then, you would have had your eyes and ears’ fill of one liners, outrageous situations, and slice-of-life emotions, to walk out with a smile on your face.

India’s Central Board of Film Certification has made nine deletions/mutings in Bad Moms, although it has given it an A certificate, which means that it can be seen only Adults Only, persons above 18 years of age. The A is fine. Having restricted it to a certain age, the alterations seem juvenile.

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHBLbGvwO6I

Bad Mom, as it is titled in other countries

Brazil  Perfeita é a Mãe

French  Canada  Mères indignes

Chile  El club de las madres rebeldes

Spain  Malas madres

Croatia  Zloceste mame

Hungary  Rossz anyák

Lithuania  Blogos mamos

Poland   Zle mamuski

Portugal  Mães à Solta

Russia  Очень плохие мамочки

Slovenia  Poredne mame

Turkey  Eyvah Annem Dagitti

India (Hindi): Buree maen (This one is my own addition)