Her life is not spent slaving over gaajar ka halwa on a kitchen stove. Instead she’s imbuing her daughter with feminist values, struggling to accepta gay son and occasionally embarrassing potential in-laws with rude communal one-liners. NICHOLA PAIS revels in the new Hindi film mother, wisdom, warts and all.
Ratna Pathak Shah is chuckling at being unofficially designated the ‘go-to modern mother’. And deservedly so! Her Sunita in KAPOOR AND SONS (2016) has been winning hearts for its true-to-life portrayal of a woman who occasionally falls to pieces coping with an adulterous husband, sons who cannot see eye to eye, financial issues and a father-in-law with a flair for playing dead. Yes, she’s real, someone we can identify with and she’s a woman; not a safely compartmentalised ‘mother’ – thank you, Shakun Batra.
One of the many tropes Pathak Shah’s Sunita broke was that mothers love their kids equally – they don’t and that doesn’t necessarily make them bad mothers. We see Sunita stealing her younger son’s idea for a novel to pass it on to her older favourite, even as she eventually finds it most difficult to accept the fact that her ‘perfect bachcha’ is homosexual. Lauding Sunita as a “fantastic role to play,” Ratna admits with a tinge of regret that she isn’t too hopeful of similar parts falling into her lap anytime soon.
She could, however, be wrong there. Ratna herself has played some of the Hindi film screen’s most striking mothers, whether it was the uber protective mother in JAANE TU YA JAANE NA (2008), or even the starchy royal matriarch of KHOOBSURAT (2014). The Hindi film mother has been a work in progress since a while now and the results have been refreshing, to say the least. Take Rama, who played mother to Sonam Kapoor in NEERJA (2016). She lies down alongside her daughter to wake her up with a warm cuddle and finally pays tribute to her brave Neerjasaying that she never taught her to be a hero… ‘Hamare mein bhai yo ko veer bolte hain… pata nahi kaha se usne sabke liye jeena seek hliya’.…From her own mother, perhaps? Life’s lessons are not taught in a classroom, after all.
The stereotype is steadily being broken as the evolving Hindi film mother reflects the relevant realities of our time. Deepti Naval in LISTEN…AMAYA (2013), a widow who is set to remarry, faces the strongest opposition from her own grown-up daughter. Her gritty, stoical portrayal drives home the fact that a woman, yes even a mother, is entitled to a life of her own. In JAB TAK HAI JAAN (2012) NeetuSingh Kapoor actually walks out on a stagnant marriage and leaves her daughter behind for the man she loves..
Can you imagine Nirupa Roy, Leena Chitnis and their ilk ever being allowed to pull that off? Or then being allowed to have a weakness for spirits? Dimple Kapadia in DIL CHAHTA HAI (2001) plays an alcoholic who is kept away from her young daughter by her ex-husband – a reality that was portrayed with touching pathos. Mums can have tragic flaws and fears and they do grieve and bleed. It simply took Hindi cinema and we, the audiences, time to accept that the Hindi film ma could not spend the rest of her life telling her son to sit while she made tea or served up a meal.
A beautiful bejewelled Kirron Kher in DEVDAS (2002) dances with full abandon at her zamindari neighbour’s glittering celebration as opposed to sitting demurely as mothers are usually portrayed – that she rises to her daughter’s defence like a tigress later is also perfectly understandable. Manisha Koirala in AKELE HUM AKELE TUM (1995) gives up on her family to pursue her singing career, while Shabana Azmi in BHAVNA (1984) is a single mother who eventually works as an escort to provide for her child; which drives home the fact that each woman will choose her own path.
And then sometimes they will try to derail their offspring’s path! The loud Punjabi mom Amrita Singh plays in 2 STATES doesn’t get along at all with her son’s to-be in-laws, openly jibes at their Tamilian culture, discourages her son’s writing ambitions and even wants to fix an arranged marriage for him with a Punjabi girl. All this with an infectious glee that never totally paints her as the vamp of the piece!
And coming to that legendary ‘Mere paas Ma hai’ line, if it was VICKY DONOR’s Dolly Ahluwalia who was the object of warring sons, she would most likely suggest a whiskey-drinking session first and invite her mother-in-law over as well. You have come a long way, mommy!
MUM’S THE WORD!
“Earlier, women were shown as dedicated housewives and mothers who did not have a life of their own. From submissive and regressive, such characters have moved to someone having their own voice and a multi-faceted personality.” – Shefali Shah (DIL DHADAKNE DO)
“There is a change coming in mainstream Hindi cinema. Earlier, when there used to be a role of a mother, she would drop the thaali and scream ‘Nahin!’, an absolutely stereotypical role.” – Shabana Azmi (NEERJA)
“To a great extent I can relate myself to Maya Avasthi. My portrayal as Maya was a sensible mother who is conscious about his son’s inability who spent much time with her son and tried to make him study. She researched about dyslexia when she knew that her son has a problem of reading.” – Tisca Chopra (TAARE ZAMEEN PAR)
