Mehboob Khan’s* Mother India (1957) was the first film from the Asian subcontinent to garner an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. The nomination no doubt drew attention to the burgeoning film movement that would eventually become the world’s largest in terms of production. It’s a curious movie, as it so clearly was influenced by the Hollywood musical’s visual style, but carries with it a sometimes exaggerated socialist message. Much attention has been paid to the fact that the Mehboob studio used a hammer and sickle as a logo, and thus the print of the film screened for Oscar voters in the anti-communist 1950s was altered to edit the opening credit icon. While there is no denying that the film sides with a proletariat mentality, I found it to be much more of a human drama than a piece of political rhetoric.
The story follows the life of the village woman Radha (Nargis) over decades, beginning in her old age as she is asked to christen the viaduct that will bring her tiny enclave fresh water. As the water begins to flow she pauses to reflect on the struggles of her life. As a young woman she was to be married to a grain farmer, Shamu. In order for her wedding jewelry to be purchased, her mother-in-law borrowed 500 rupees from a loan shark, to be repaid with the interest of a portion of each crop. Because no one in the family was able to read, the percentage of the crop was unknown. At the first harvest the money lender comes to collect his due, revealing that he is legally owed a much larger portion than Radha expected. For years, through the birth of three sons, she and Shamu work the fields, never able to get out of debt. She is forced to pawn the wedding jewelry back to the money lender for more credit. When Shamu tries to supplement the family income by plowing a field full of boulders, he loses his arms in an accident. Ashamed by his handicap, he deserts the family, leaving Radha to both plow the fields and rear the children. She struggles for years, losing her youngest son to starvation and being forced to pull the plow without the help of an ox. Though her humiliation is evident, she refuses the hand of the money lender, who would forgive all of her debt if she would marry him. As her two remaining sons, Birju (Sunil Dutt) and Ramu (Rajendra Kumar), grow to manhood they come to hate the unscrupulous loan shark. After Radha’s tireless work has inspired the village to produce its best crop in decades, Birju strikes him when he comes to collect his portion. When Birju hides in the haystacks to avoid retribution, the money lender has the entire field set on fire. Radha ages as tragedies continue to befall the village and her family, all the while refusing to accept the loan shark’s proposal. Ramu marries and honors his mother, but beside himself with hatred, Birju flees the village. He returns as a thief with a band of murderers in tow, intent on killing the money lender.
This is a lengthy film that leads up to an almost unthinkably tragic ending, and though the drama contained herein is tangible I can’t say that it’s presented effectively. Mother India is a Technicolor epic that represents the beginning of the movement toward the contemporary Bollywood musical style, but I feel it would work better as a strait tragedy. While some of the musical sequences are beautifully shot and scored they ultimately detract from the film’s depth. Yes, I know that Hindi speaking audiences enjoy these interludes which temporarily shift a picture’s mood, but they just don’t work here. They also tend to move the film in a direction that is likely to mislead Western audiences. In Hollywood musicals, if a guy and a gal sing a song together, we know that it has thus been decreed by the god of the movie universe that they shall be together. Not so here. Romantic implications regarding Birju and several of the women in the village never come to fruition. Perhaps it was simply lost in translation that nothing is consummated because he’s so distracted and overcome by his anger.
Interestingly enough what it is beyond dispute is the legitimate love that bloomed on the set between Nargis and Dutt. During the crop fire sequence she was unintentionally trapped in a ring of flames when Dutt, throwing a blanket over himself, ran in to rescue her. He saved Nargis and the sequence made it into the film. Thankful and enamored, she grew sweet on the man costarring as her son and the two were married less than a year after the film’s release.
I noted last June in my review of Deewaar (1975; #140) that it is listed on the IMDb as a remake of this film. I saw some thematic connections, but I think it a stretch to call this a remake. Looking into the Mother India IMDb page, I am told that it is also a remake of an earlier Mehboob Khan picture. While there appears to be more legitimate connection there, I’m comfortable calling the relationship between Deewaar and Mother India a variation on a common theme, something rather prevalent in Indian cinema.
Language: Hindi
Runtime: 172 Minutes
Grade: 1 Hat off
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