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Sajal,hope you be an exempelery mom,more han these bollywood ones! Although ,i ll warn you not to equal fantasy ,& remain realistic,but movie do inspire people at least short while just as it romanticizes love between hero & heroine!I know that is what might have been the extent of you interest in movie so far ,may be now you can look for more than that!
Mere Pass Maa Hai…
An eight-year-old-girl in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is asked to speak few lines on “mother” during her school’s annual day function. What can she say? She’s motherless! As she sobs heart-wrenchingly it strikes you forcefully that a mother is a mother and if she’s there in your life it’s enough reason to celebrate. On the occasion of Mother’s Day (May 13) we take a look at mothers in Hindi films down the decades.
The first thought that strikes you about the screen mother is that she’s an icon. Omnipresent… revered… glorified. The image she conjures up is of a lady swathed in a white sari, her hair streaked with chalk, sobbing incessantly. And the actress whose face flits through the mind’s eye as soon as you utter the words “screen mother” is Nirupa Roy. Not surprising considering the immortality of the confrontation scene between the two brothers in Deewar. Shashi Kapoor’s answer to Amitabh Bachchan’s challenge is a simple statement, “Mere paas maa hai!”
Ankh Ka Tara
Andaz
Aradhana
Parvarish
Maa
Nirupa Roy, Leela Chitnis, Sulochana and Urmila Bhatt were instrumental in building up this holier-than- thou, larger-than-life persona of the screen mother. The characters they portrayed were self-sacrificing, weeping willows who had struggled all through their lives to bring up their children who accorded them the status of a devi.
The mother-son duo share the most trusted relationship in Hindi films. For the sake of his maa the beta can move heaven and earth, fists and girth. In comparison daddy dear takes a back seat. In Trishool for instance, the illegitimate Vijay’s (Amitabh Bachchan) restrained anger is targeted with vengeance towards his father (Sanjeev Kumar) for having ruined the life of his mother (Waheeda Rehman).
The same was the case in Baazigar when Shah Rukh Khan turns into a cold-blooded murderer to avenge the atrocities meted out on his mother, Raakhee. Raakhee turned out to be the lucky mother again in Karan Arjun where her slain sons, Karan (Salmaan Khan ) and Arjun (Shah Rukh Khan) are re-born to fulfil their mother’s death-wish.
Anil Kapoor in Meri Jung also fights like a man possessed to combat the forces that lead to his mother, Nutan losing her mental balance.
From Kala Bazaar to Suhaag there has been no dearth of characters that have celebrated the stereotype of the screen mother. This encompasses even those enacted by leading heroines of yesteryears. Even when glamorous heroines have accepted mother roles they have rarely broken out of the mould. Raakhee is the classic example. Having played Amitabh Bachchan’s heroine in countless films when she accepted the role of his mother in Shakti she didn’t try to be too daringly different a mother. Despite her star status Raakhee has only tears for company as she is a mute witness to the war between her son and husband (Dilip Kumar).
In Aradhana when the almond-eyed Sharmila Tagore turns mama in the later half of the film, she is also no more than a physical replica of Nirupa Roy or Sulochana. In such a situation Yash Chopra deserves credit for a film like Kabhie Kabhie in which stunners like Waheeda Rehman, Simi Garewal and Raakhee retained their glamour even when they turned mothers.
The frail Leela Chitnis who was inevitably hunched over her sewing machine is too colourless to be memorable. In comparison Lalita Pawar in Junglee sparkled. Far from being the weeper and the follower she was the dictator who laid down the rules. Her eyelids never dropped, her head never drooped.
In later years Lalita Pawar became synonymous with the devious mother-in-law in films like Sau Din Saas Ke. Bindu followed the trend she’s set with films like Biwi Ho To Aisi in which she played the vampish mother-in-law to the hilt.
Like the saas the sauteli maa also cannot be good as gold and for this she has only the mythological Kaikeyi to blame. Remember the heartless Shashikala in Sargam who spews venom at her mute step-daughter Jayaprada? Or the wicked Manorama, who loathes the sight of her step -daughter in Seeta Aur Geeta? Rare are the instances like in Do Raaste, where Veena is a good step-mother to Balraj Sahni. Of course, no matter how wicked the step-mother she is always loved by her stepchild. After all, she is a Maa!. In Beta, for example, Anil Kapoor is devoted to Aroona Irani despite all her machinations and in Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hain, a modern day Ramayan, Mohnish Bahl will not say a word against Reema even after she’s banished him from the family home.
Raj Kapoor was one of the early directors to veer sharply from the stereotype. In Bobby, Rishi Kapoor’s mother, Sonia Sahani is a glam-glam mom who is too busy with her kitty parties to spare much time for her son who’s just returned from school. Her idea of displaying her love was giving her son a hurried peck on the cheek. Achala Sachdev in Hare Rama Hare Krishna was another socialite mother who walks out of a bad marriage without sparing a thought for her husband and daughter. It goes without saying that such mothers ended up losing everything including their children.
It is reassuring to note that in the ’90s the screen mothers have been given the right to update their wardrobes and dye their hair. And her children have become her friends today. Reema in Maine Pyar Kiya ribs her son, dances with him at functions and despite being a good wife is quiet defiant towards her husband (Rajeev Verma) when he stands in the way of their son’s happine
Mere Pass Maa Hai…
An eight-year-old-girl in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is asked to speak few lines on “mother” during her school’s annual day function. What can she say? She’s motherless! As she sobs heart-wrenchingly it strikes you forcefully that a mother is a mother and if she’s there in your life it’s enough reason to celebrate. On the occasion of Mother’s Day (May 13) we take a look at mothers in Hindi films down the decades.
The first thought that strikes you about the screen mother is that she’s an icon. Omnipresent… revered… glorified. The image she conjures up is of a lady swathed in a white sari, her hair streaked with chalk, sobbing incessantly. And the actress whose face flits through the mind’s eye as soon as you utter the words “screen mother” is Nirupa Roy. Not surprising considering the immortality of the confrontation scene between the two brothers in Deewar. Shashi Kapoor’s answer to Amitabh Bachchan’s challenge is a simple statement, “Mere paas maa hai!”
Ankh Ka Tara
Andaz
Aradhana
Parvarish
Maa
Nirupa Roy, Leela Chitnis, Sulochana and Urmila Bhatt were instrumental in building up this holier-than- thou, larger-than-life persona of the screen mother. The characters they portrayed were self-sacrificing, weeping willows who had struggled all through their lives to bring up their children who accorded them the status of a devi.
The mother-son duo share the most trusted relationship in Hindi films. For the sake of his maa the beta can move heaven and earth, fists and girth. In comparison daddy dear takes a back seat. In Trishool for instance, the illegitimate Vijay’s (Amitabh Bachchan) restrained anger is targeted with vengeance towards his father (Sanjeev Kumar) for having ruined the life of his mother (Waheeda Rehman).
The same was the case in Baazigar when Shah Rukh Khan turns into a cold-blooded murderer to avenge the atrocities meted out on his mother, Raakhee. Raakhee turned out to be the lucky mother again in Karan Arjun where her slain sons, Karan (Salmaan Khan ) and Arjun (Shah Rukh Khan) are re-born to fulfil their mother’s death-wish.
Anil Kapoor in Meri Jung also fights like a man possessed to combat the forces that lead to his mother, Nutan losing her mental balance.
From Kala Bazaar to Suhaag there has been no dearth of characters that have celebrated the stereotype of the screen mother. This encompasses even those enacted by leading heroines of yesteryears. Even when glamorous heroines have accepted mother roles they have rarely broken out of the mould. Raakhee is the classic example. Having played Amitabh Bachchan’s heroine in countless films when she accepted the role of his mother in Shakti she didn’t try to be too daringly different a mother. Despite her star status Raakhee has only tears for company as she is a mute witness to the war between her son and husband (Dilip Kumar).
In Aradhana when the almond-eyed Sharmila Tagore turns mama in the later half of the film, she is also no more than a physical replica of Nirupa Roy or Sulochana. In such a situation Yash Chopra deserves credit for a film like Kabhie Kabhie in which stunners like Waheeda Rehman, Simi Garewal and Raakhee retained their glamour even when they turned mothers.
The frail Leela Chitnis who was inevitably hunched over her sewing machine is too colourless to be memorable. In comparison Lalita Pawar in Junglee sparkled. Far from being the weeper and the follower she was the dictator who laid down the rules. Her eyelids never dropped, her head never drooped.
In later years Lalita Pawar became synonymous with the devious mother-in-law in films like Sau Din Saas Ke. Bindu followed the trend she’s set with films like Biwi Ho To Aisi in which she played the vampish mother-in-law to the hilt.
Like the saas the sauteli maa also cannot be good as gold and for this she has only the mythological Kaikeyi to blame. Remember the heartless Shashikala in Sargam who spews venom at her mute step-daughter Jayaprada? Or the wicked Manorama, who loathes the sight of her step -daughter in Seeta Aur Geeta? Rare are the instances like in Do Raaste, where Veena is a good step-mother to Balraj Sahni. Of course, no matter how wicked the step-mother she is always loved by her stepchild. After all, she is a Maa!. In Beta, for example, Anil Kapoor is devoted to Aroona Irani despite all her machinations and in Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hain, a modern day Ramayan, Mohnish Bahl will not say a word against Reema even after she’s banished him from the family home.
Raj Kapoor was one of the early directors to veer sharply from the stereotype. In Bobby, Rishi Kapoor’s mother, Sonia Sahani is a glam-glam mom who is too busy with her kitty parties to spare much time for her son who’s just returned from school. Her idea of displaying her love was giving her son a hurried peck on the cheek. Achala Sachdev in Hare Rama Hare Krishna was another socialite mother who walks out of a bad marriage without sparing a thought for her husband and daughter. It goes without saying that such mothers ended up losing everything including their children.
It is reassuring to note that in the ’90s the screen mothers have been given the right to update their wardrobes and dye their hair. And her children have become her friends today. Reema in Maine Pyar Kiya ribs her son, dances with him at functions and despite being a good wife is quiet defiant towards her husband (Rajeev Verma) when he stands in the way of their son’s happiness.
:nah:
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Mere Pass Maa Hai…
Mother India
Deewar
Godmother
Baazigar
Astitva
Rahul
Fiza
Daman
Farida Jalal in Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge was more demure but again when her daughter’s (Kajol) happiness is at stake she urges her to elope with her lover (Shah Rukh Khan). The husband’s fury can be dealt with!
Farida Jalal was also a loving foster mother to Madhuri Dixit in Dil To Pagal Hai and played another colourful character plotting her son’s marriage in the blockbuster Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Sushma Seth with her regal bearing, was known for her classy mamas. In Deewana and Inteha Pyaar Ki she was an ideal mother to Rishi Kapoor. Cry she may, defeated she is not!
At the heart of most of our Hindi films is a mother whose heart is with her children. She’s like a fiercely protective tigress towards her cubs. In Mother India for example, with the endurance of Mother Earth she fights all evils that come her way to nurture her children. However, despite being a loving mother she’s also a righteous woman who shoots down her erring son (Sunil Dutt) when he threatens the honour of another woman.
Jayaprada was another protective mother in Maa who even after her death returns as a ghost because she can’t remain deaf to the wails of her hungry infant and is determined to safeguard the baby’s life.
In Saajan Bina Suhaagan the mother continues to behave like a suhaagan even though she widowed because her daughter is a heart patient. Such a gesture is considered a big sacrifice by a Hindu woman.
A mother’s love is all encompassing yet thankfully, not always blind. Like in Mother India Shabana Azmi in Godmother has no qualms about picking up a gun. She refuses to indulge her son and uses her power to get the unwilling target of his interest (Raima Sen) married off to the man of her own choice.
In Fiza Jaya Bachchan cannot bear the burden of the fact that her son, Aman (Hrithik Roshan) is a terrorist. Taking it as a personal defeat, she commits suicide.
Reema is in a similar situation in Mahesh Manjrekar’s Vastav. But instead of taking her own life she kills her suffering, gangster son (Sanjay Dutt) to liberate him from the haunting guilt of his crimes.
Mahesh Manjrekar also effectively showed the pathos of a mother (Tabu) in Astitva. She is showered with the worst possible expletives by her own son because of one moment of human weakness. However, instead of letting her child and husband break with the complete lack of understanding, she bravely walks out on them and strives to find her own identity. It is interesting to note here that the audience never took kindly to this particular kind of son.
Of course it had to be Rekha to enact a mother with a difference. In Sawan Kumar Tak’s Mother ’98, she played an unwed mother with aplomb and flamboyance, quite unlike the unwed mothers of the past (Usha Kiron in Patita and Mala Sinha in Dhool Ka Phool.) While such mothers in the past almost drowned in the pool of their tears, Rekha was funky and spirited.
The ostracized, unwed mother Priya (Preity Zinta) of Kya Kehna was also unapologetic about her state, asserting quietly, “Married or unmarried, how does it make me any less of a mother!” Touche.
Are our screen mothers finally coming of age? Seems so. Years ago, in her comeback film, Aandhiyan, when Mumtaz played a glam-glam mother to Prasenjeet, our conservative audience saw shades of incest in their relationship. More recently, Rati returned from a 14-year hibernation as a glamorous, liberated mama in Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi who makes a life of her own after she walks out on her husband (it’s the hubby who turns into an alcoholic) and she was welcomed with open arms.
Young actresses like Karisma Kapoor (Biwi No.1), Shilpa Shetty (Jaanwar), Rani Mukerji (Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), Mahima and Kajol (Dil Kya Karen ) and Neha (Rahul) also have no qualms about playing young mothers on screen. These are healthy signs but what’s really heartening is when you see a Raveena Tandon fighting for the future of her 13-year-old daughter in Daman and Rekha, an oppressed village woman, for the life of her girl child in Lajja. Not so many years ago, when faced with a similar situation in Tamanna Pooja Bhatt’s mother couldn’t stop her husband from dumping her in a dustbin from which she was eventually rescued by a eunuch.
Screen mothers have certainly come a long way since then. Slowly but surely they’re breaking out of the stereotype. Only the sentiments attached to the maa remains unchanged. The mother may no longer be an icon but she’s still an indispensible part of our lives… and our vocabulary. Certain words like ‘Motherland’, ‘Mother Earth’ and ‘Mother Nature’ will never change. We wouldn’t want them to.
— Monica Motwani
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barque(bijli) yoon akadti hai apne karname pe ke
jaise phir naya hum aashiyaan bana nahi sakte
[This message has been edited by DeSiMuNdA (edited May 20, 2001).]