Bollywood has the biggest share in promoting motherhood and Nirupa Roy remains the all-time cult mother, playing mom to Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Khanna in innumerable films.She is closely followed by Durga Khote, Nutan, Waheeda Rehman and new-age moms such as Rakhee, Farida Jalal, Kiron Kher and Reema Lagoo, who have shown the world that being a screen mother can be just as taxing.
Be it Prithviraj kapoor’s well-known dialogue “Aap maan hain, sirf maan” from Khan Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam, Shashi Kapoor’s career-defining “Mere paas maan hai” from Indian film director Yash Chopra’s Deewar, or the late Pakistani film actor Muhammad Ali’s evergreen “Maan, mien metric main paas ho gaya” form his limitless films, mothers have always played vital role in the cinema of the subcontinent, altering the course of the story with either a strong dialogue, a brilliant speech or a well-aimed (read deserved) slap.
Lollywood comes a close second in this race with yesterday heroines such as the late Nayyar Sultana and Sabiha Khanum enjoying the proverbial lion’s share as screen mothers. Many like Deeba and Bahar Begum did try to emulate them but the wives of Santosh Kumar and Darpan, respectively, carried on playing mothers to Muhammad Ali, Waheed Murad, Nadeem, Shahid, Sultan Rahi and later year heroes such as Faisal, Javed Sheikh, (late) Ismail Shah, Izhar Qazi and even Shan. In Punjabi films, many actresses has the honour of playing mother to Sultan Rahi, whose screen rage was more than often fuelled by their tears.
There have been films on both sides of the Wagah Border where the mother has played a central character. In Deewar, Nirpua Roy showers affection on the honest Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) and neglects the dishonest Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan). But the best known is Mother India (1957) in which the late Nargis Dutt plays Radha, a mother who faces immense hardships, ultimately shooting dead her own flesh and blood when it comes to defending the honour of an innocent girl.
Directed by Mehboob Kkan, the film was a remake of his earlier work. Aurat, It revolves round the life of Radha whose honour is central to the prestige of family and the whole village. Nargis dominates the whole film and although she got married to her co-star Sunil Dutt after a fire incident during filming, the role of the sacrificing mother remains the ultimate portrayal onscreen.
In Pakistan, family-based films are now a rarity. But in the golden era of ‘60s and ‘70s there were many films that revolved round the character of the mother, especially those featuring the ever graceful Nayyar Sultana. Bahisht remains her quintessential film where she, in flashbacks, narrates her story which results in the death of the lead pair of the film.
Directors, musicians and singers have also given an ode to mothers whenever they could… Indian director Manmohan Desai, famous for making Amar Akbar Anthony. Mard, Coolie, Naseeb and countless other hits always made her the central character in his films to counterbalance for death of his won mother at an early age. Kishore Kumar may have crooned countless hits but Munna bada pyara, ammi ka dulara form the film Musafir stands out from the rest.
Indian writers have also often linked the word dharti with maan in films which notably feature actors such as manoj Kumar, but this in no way undermines the importance of the human counterpart who is the mentor, guide and protector of her kindred till she is summoned to the afterlife.
In Pakistan, Sohail Rana composed Teri aankhon ke bheege sitare for Waheed Murad in the film Maa Beta which was rendered by Ahmed Rushdi as an ode to motherhood. Also who can forget Mehdi Hasan’s Mera payar tere jeevan ke sang rahega in Pervaz Malik’s film Pehchan. Where a resurrected Qavi Khan sings for his mother played by Sabjha Khanum.
The usually nonsensical Hollywood has also has its share of motherly affection in films. Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) non-existent mother in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was the key to the whole plot, and in Robert Zemeckis’s Farrest Gump, Tom Hanks delivered the “My Momma always said” line to so convincingly that he was nominated for an Oscar and ended up winning it, too.
Anne Bancroft played a different kind of mother in The Graduate where as Mrs Robinson she seduces her daughter’s suitor Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman). More recently, Jane Fonda returned to play mother to Michael Varan in Monster-in-Law a comedy which pitted her against her daughter-in-Law Jennifer Lopez. Nicole Kidman played the neurotic mother of two children in The Others, immortalizing the character by her methodological acting.
Finally, the worst amongst the genre is undoubtedly Sylvester Stallion’s Stop Or My Mom will shoot which bombed at the box-office not because of the aging actor playing a cop but because he has a mother who goes out of clean the streets of crime alongside him after doing his laundry.
More abstracts about the An Epic to Motherhood