Bollywood Rewind | Mother India: Where being a girl is equated with sacrifices

In this weekly column, we revisit gems from the golden years of Hindi cinema. This week, we revisit the 1957 launch Mother India.
A number of movies outline the course of cinema, and affect generations of filmmakers, actors, and the viewers. Not many movies get this distinction, however Mehboob Khan’s 1957 movie Mother India is maybe one movie that indubitably makes the lower.
Starring Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar in key roles, Mother India is among the many movies made virtually 64 years in the past that continues to be applauded for its themes. While lots of these themes have different interpretation in 2021, the core story of Mother India continues to be one thing that may work even these days.
Mother India continues to be celebrated for its central theme.
Mother India is the story of Radha (Nargis) who’s a newly-wed bride within the village. She begins working along with her husband within the fields because the household is weighed by native moneylender’s debilitating debt The mortgage doesn’t appear to finish and Radha goes from an lively younger lady to a drained previous girl in her bid to repay it. Even although these round her – her husband (Raaj Kumar), mother-in-law, two of her youngsters go away her aspect, Radha nonetheless has to hold on and fear in regards to the subsequent meal for her two remaining sons – Birju (Sunil Dutt) and Ramu (Rajendra Kumar).
In one of many scenes of the movie, Radha’s youngsters are dying of starvation and he or she has to strategy the evil moneylender for assist. Sukhilala expects her to commerce her physique for some meals and as she contemplates her situation, Radha has an epiphany. Looking on the statue of a god, Radha refuses to compromise on her integrity. This is a defining scene for the movie as this level on, she is equated to being a deity.
The title Mother India may be interpreted in some ways. At the time, Mehboob Khan’s alternative of title drew in some controversy as a guide by the identical identify had create fairly a furore. The guide by Katherine Mayo was seen as vilification of Indian tradition and values and lots of feared if Khan was making a movie based mostly on the guide. His alternative got here from the conviction that from this level on, Mother India could be remembered as an emblem of sacrifice, love and devotion and never what Mayo had written.

Translated as Bharat Mata, one interpretation of this title equates moms to being goddesses. While some would possibly say that this places ladies up on a pedestal, however hardly helps their trigger. Treating them as goddesses offers males a possibility to get away from coping with them as folks.
The title additionally suggests {that a} mom who brings life on Earth is a god-like determine however she is infrequently handled like a human who has the choice of constructing errors. Like within the movie, Radha has to take duty of her family, her youngsters and the unending debt. When Birju makes a mistake, it’s Radha who’s answerable to the village people. It places ladies in a field the place they’re anticipated to earn that god-like respect from the society solely after they contribute an offspring.
Traditionally, Indians have all the time handled their land as ‘dharti mata’ and right here in lies one other interpretation of the title. The personification of ‘dharti mata’ comes within the image when Radha and her sons deliver the village’s farms again to life simply by sheer labour.

After the current medal wins on the Tokyo Olympics, it was generally seen that feminine sportspeople have been addressed as ‘Bharat ki beti’. Mother India’s title has the same drawback as right here too, ladies’s accomplishments, sacrifices are revered solely after they’re examined by way of their relationships, not as a person.
While Mother India dilly-dallies between feminism and patriarchy, the movie can’t let go off its archaic roots, which have been most likely up to date on the time. The battle with Birju in direction of the tip solely comes into place as a result of the lady he plans to kidnap is sacred for the village – “beti gaaon ki izzat hai”. This patriarchal setup offers method to some of the surprising climaxes of all time that has since been revisited by many filmmakers. To this present day, a girl pulling a gun on her son would go away you shocked so one can think about the horror and affect of the scene when Nargis’ Radha shot Dutt’s Birju.

Mother India is blessed with a few of the finest performers of its time. After watching loads of movies from the Fifties, there is no such thing as a doubt in my thoughts that Nargis was really an enigmatic performer and if there was one movie that had her at her finest, it was Mother India. Sunil Dutt’s Birju is kind of compelling in scenes the place he’s struggling to make sense of the debt his household owes whereas looking for alternate vents for his anger.
With music by Naushad and lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni, Mother India is blessed within the soundtrack division as properly. With tracks like “Dukh Bhare Din Beete Re”, “Holi Aayi Re Kanhai” amongst others, Mother India organically locations its songs within the narrative, which was fairly uncommon for the Fifties.
Mother India’s storytelling and themes have birthed numerous tales in Indian cinema however because the movie has aged, not all of the themes that it proudly represented again within the day maintain properly. Nevertheless, Mother India stays some of the celebrated movies of all time and only for that laurel, it deserves to be seen by generations to come back.
Bollywood Rewind | Anari | Chaudhvin Ka Chand | Boot Polish | Do Bigha Zamin | Devdas | Baiju Bawra | Shree 420 | Pyaasa | CID | Madhumati | Naya Daur | Awara | Sharada | Do Aankhen Barah Haath | Bandini | Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
Mother India is streaming on YouTube, MXPlayer.