This story is from May 11, 2008

Mum’s the word!

PRERNA SHAH / TNN / May 11, 2008, 00:56 IST

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Everyone can take heart from the fact that no matter what, mothers will always be an integral part of Bollywood.

doweshowbellyad=0; Preity Zinta. (TOI Photo) More picsPerhaps no other institution in the world has paid more homage to motherhood than Bollywood. Some of the greatest films of the industry were anchored around Maa, the proverbial mother of India, who was often characterized by unflinching devotion towards her children with a selfless love and spirit of sacrifice.
Maa also spurned some great dialogues, some of them achieving a cult status. Every Indian swears by the Mere Paas Maa Hai dialogue. And millions of mothers in India still have some famous Bollywood songs devoted to them on their birthdays or now, the oft-celebrated Mother��s Day. Isn��t the song Ae Ma Teri Surat Se Alag Bhagwan Ki Surat Kya Hogi a national mother��s anthem of sorts?
The way Bollywood has portrayed mothers is also a barometer of change: Indian mothers have moved on, albeit their priorities and devotion still being towards their family. Durga Khote essayed a variety of roles in her career of almost 50 years, and was adored by a nation for playing Jodhabai in Mughal-E-Azam. Durga was all about sacrifice. However Lalita Pawar, with her long innings and almost 300 films to her credit, was a mother who had shades of gray. Amir Banu was a motherly face in the 40s and the 50s; she portrayed a helpless, vulnerable mother in most of her movies. Movie buffs will also remember Leela Chitnis, who played with ��lan the ��suffers in silence�� sort of a mother.
The lovely, sensuous Nargis, will also apart from other roles, always be remembered for her righteous, stoic mother act --- Mother India to be precise. Rakhee, another gorgeous actress of her time shares a similar story. She has won over audiences with her oomph and style and also with a casting coup in which she played mother to Amitabh Bachchan (Shakti). Of course, as luck would have it, she would also play mother to another super star ----- Shah Rukh Khan in Baazigar. Nirupa Roy, who is perhaps one of the most loved Maa of Bollywood never got a chance to showcase her lovely looks on screen. For she was most often draped in a widow��s garb and tears and a coughing spell were her constant companions. Kamini Kaushal was a mother fixture of the 70s and played the mother in a number of Manoj Kumar movies.

So how have mothers changed in present day Bollywood? For one thing, thankfully, we have done away (almost) with the widowhood syndrome. Even if mothers are widowed, they no longer sport the shroud like white, neither are they melancholy or forever brooding over their dead husbands or missing-in-action husband (remember Kirron Kher in Hum Tum?). They are also getting younger. Preity Zinta (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna), Rani Mukherji in the disastrous Ta Ra Rum Pum to name but a few. Bollywood mothers, thankfully now have a life, a career and a passion apart from their husbands, children and house drudgery (Preity Zinta again in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, as the editor of a woman��s fashion magazine). Not that they are any less loving or doting. Doesn��t Preity in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna tell her suitor, after she had been dumped by her husband, that she wants some time, time to be with her son? Remarriage can wait.Didn��t we tell you, nothing quite like good old Maa.

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