Motherhood not all warm and fuzzy: Bollywood actor's play spotlights messier side

Image source, Aadyam Theatre Image caption, Belly of the Beast is adapted from the 2021 book by Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin (second from left) By Geeta Pandey BBC Correspondent, Delhi Published 9 July 2026 The birth of a baby is celebrated as a moment of joy. But motherhood is not always warm and fuzzy. It can also be messy and untidy. That's what Bollywood actor Kalki Koechlin and well-known theatre director Sheena Khalid have tried to tackle in their new play Belly of the Beast. Adapted from Kalki's 2021 book, The Elephant in the Womb, which she wrote just months after giving birth, the play takes an unflinching look at motherhood and the myriad emotions mothers go through. It tells stories of five women at different stages of motherhood - from pregnancy and labour to raising young children as the new mums come to terms with bodily changes, and struggle though sleepless nights while attempting to deal with work demands. Along the way, it also tackles darker aspects - abortions, miscarriages and postpartum depression. In India, where marriage and motherhood are regarded as the ultimate goal and a sacred duty for most women, a play talking about the discomforts of a mother comes as a refreshing change. "Women are rarely allowed to express the dark feelings - the difficulties they face, the hormonal changes they go through, the loss of identity or postpartum depression," Kalki told the BBC. "The conversation in India is all about the gift of motherhood and how beautiful motherhood is and how blessed we are to be mothers. But that life-giving process is so transformational that there is a certain part of you that's also grieving and losing identity, that's losing who you were before," she said. Image source, Aadyam Theatre Image caption, The play is the story of a majority of Indian women for whom childcare is primarily their responsibility As a society, Kalki says, we take mothers for granted and raising children is a thankless job. "If we were to say how exhausting and mind-numbing it can be, then mothers might quit and then society would collapse. So, there is this tendency to walk on eggshells around these issues." At its recent premier in Delhi, the cast and crew received a standing ovation once the curtains came down. Despite the grim issues it tackled, the two-hour-10-minute play was appreciated for its pace and humour. "We are talking about some very heavy things such as miscarriages and there are moments where we're talking about personal experiences," says Khalid. "We felt there needed to be a sense of relief and levity for the audience. So, we can ease in and out of it. Otherwise, it's a lot." Her book, Kalki says, was born out of her personal experience of pregnancy and parenting and was written in the middle of the Covid lockdown. "I was going through postpartum [depression]. We were quite isolated, I couldn't meet other mothers, there was no community around me. That was a tough time. But it was very cathartic for me to write the b