The American Film Institute, which honours the motion picture arts heritage in the United States, in 2005, published ‘100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes,’ a list of the top 100 quotes from Hollywood films. Back in India, the film business isn’t that organised. But in a country, where millions eat, sleep and dream cinema, most people will say without hesitation that the most celebrated dialogue in Indian cinema perhaps is “Mere paas maa hain” from the 1975 Yash Chopra classic Deewar.
The exchange was between Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor, but the benefits were reaped by Nirupa Roy who played their mother. Subsequently, Roy got permanently typecast as Amitabh Bachchan’s on-screen mother. So much so that she even went on to play Bachchan’s mother in Lal Baadshah, a box office dud made in 1999, when Bachchan was well past his prime.
Roy, who will remain one of the most celebrated on-screen mothers in Bollywood, must be credited for giving them a new identity in Hindi cinema. From playing the wronged mother to the idealistic mother, the 1970s and 1980s gave Roy more popularity than she got as a heroine in the 1950s.
However, without taking away credit from Roy, the mother-son or mother-daughter bond perhaps remains one of the most explored relationships in Hindi films. And there’s hardly anything left for filmmakers to attempt. Doting mothers, god-fearing mothers, possessive mothers, idealistic mothers, wronged mothers, single mothers, firebrand mothers, stepmothers, conniving mothers, independent mothers, adulterous mothers to sexy mothers —filmgoers have seen them all in the last 100 years of Hindi cinema. Besides Roy, there have been some other stalwarts too who have left a lasting impression playing mother in an industry where actors are always under the threat of getting typecast.
One of the most significant and stunning moments in Hindi films was when Radha (Nargis Dutt) takes the gun and shoots her outlaw son Birju (Sunil Dutt) in Mehboob Khan’s magnum opus Mother India. Nargis played the idealist mother who brings up her two sons after her husband abandons the family. Radha’s sons grow up with one choosing the right path and the other choosing the wrong. India cinema so long had seen only sobbing mothers and sons who would find solace in each other’s arms.
For the first time, Mehboob Khan presented a theme where a mother had to choose between right and wrong by taking the side of one of her children. Nirupa Roy’s role, and in fact Deewar, was inspired by Mother India. Although in Deewar the plot centred more on the two brothers, the mother was the fulcrum in the story. Twenty-four years after Deewar, a similar role was played by Reema Lagoo in Vastaav (1999), where in the climax she shoots her gangster son Raghu (Sanjay Dutt), a spine-chilling moment in the film.
For Lagoo, who had by then already created a mark in the Hindi film industry playing mother roles, it was a highpoint in her career. In fact, she was one of the first to break the stereotype of mothers in Hindi cinema. As a mother who was more a friend outrightly supporting her rebellious son Prem in Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Lagoo stole the show playing the modern maa. Maine Pyar Kiya did to Lagoo was Deewar did to Roy. For the next few years, she played Salman’s mother in a spate of hits. Interestingly, Lagoo was only seven years older to Salman but for a long time she was identified as Salman’s ‘sexy on-screen mom.’
That said, age has never been an issue when it comes to playing mother roles. In fact, Nargis Dutt, who was only five days older to Sunil Dutt, played mother to him. She later tied the knot with him. Rakhee who formed a hit pair with Bachchan played his mother first in Prakash Mehra’s Laawaris and later in Ramesh Sippy’s cult classic Shakti (1982). Shakti was a film that centred primarily on a volatile father-son relationship. The mother was torn between the law-protecting righteous husband and the law-breaking son.
Rakhee went on to play the heroine opposite Bachchan and other big stars for the next few years and then comfortably slipped into playing mother roles in the late eighties, her most memorable performances being in Ram Lakhan (1989), Khal Nayak (1993), Baazigar (1993) and Karan Arjun (1995). However, this time she was seen mostly playing the wronged mother to the angry young son fighting for justice.
However, in the 1960s and 1970s not too many young actresses braved the idea of playing mother roles. Sharmila Tagore was perhaps one of the few stars who took on the challenge in Aradhana (1969), playing mother to the then superstar Rajesh Khanna. A Shakti Samanta tearjerker, Tagore played Khanna’s love interest in the first half and then played an unwed mother, who commits a murder in self-defence and decides never to reveal her identity to her son. Tagore, who commanded a huge fan following at that time, established herself as the prima donna of Hindi films with her performance in Aradhana. Legend has it that the role was first offered to Aparna Sen, which would have been her Hindi debut, but she chickened out after she heard that she had to play an unwed mother and then the mother of the reigning superstar.
In the 1980s, the likes of Nutan, Dina Pathak and Sulochana Latkar would be cast in similar roles. While Nutan played a mother in a handful of films, the most prominent being Meri Jung (1985), Naam (1986) and Karma (1986), she fell prey to the typecast trap playing the wronged mother in most of the movies. Dina Pathak, however, came up with a captivating performance in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khubsoorat (1980). An image-conscious disciplinarian mother, who tries to hold together the family, she sees the emotional bond with her family members weakening because of her pseudo authoritative nature. Two years prior to that, Pathak played a mother in Mukherjee’s Gol Maal. In this film she played a socialite, Kamala Srivastava, who on Ram Prasad Sharma (Amol Palekar) and his sister Ratna’s request poses as their mother and later gets emotionally attached to them. Pathak’s performance in both the films stands out and can be counted among the most unconventional mother roles ever sketched in Hindi films. The 1990s saw Reema Lagoo and Farida Jalal taking over from Rakhee, Aruna Irani and Seema Deo.
Jalal, in fact, gave a whole new dimension to the concept of mother on screen with some stellar performances over a period of more than a decade. The best certainly was in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), where she plays Lajjo, a mother who wants her daughter Simran (Kajol) to live her life and advises her to elope with her boyfriend.
Since then, filmmakers in Bollywood have explored a range of aspects in mother-son and mother-daughter relationships. Be it Sridevi in Mom, who avenges her step daughter’s rape or Shefali Shah as the insecure and doubtful billionaire socialite mother in Dil Dhadakne Do or Dolly Ahluwalia as the overtly hyper entrepreneur mother who would even indulge in whiskey with her oh-so-cool mother in law in Vicky Donor, the experiment continues.
RITUJAAY GHOSH, OP