Mother India Movie Review

🎬 Directed by Mehboob Khan

Performance by Nargis, Sunil Dutt

Mehboob Productions, 1957

Cinema is a sort of art that affects millions of people around the globe and shows a particular idea. The Movie “Mother India” directed by Mehboob Khan is one of them.

The movie beautifully represented the post independence era of rural India. The Movie has showed many aspects that post independence era India was facing. The whole plot revolves around a rural Indian woman Radha who has no money and has to work hard to earn her living and ensure that her kids will survive.

The Director didn’t showed Radha as hero who has problems and has to struggle with difficulties and overcome them but the director beautifully molded his character and showed her as symbolic representation of a Indian woman who is hardworking, self-sacrifice with strong moral values. On another hand, Radha can also be viewed as India, the country that has just got independence and has to struggle to survive. It is betrayed by authorities and suffers from financial difficulties, lack of understanding of how to move, but keeps moving forward.

The movie also showed the value of women respect in the scene where Radha's husband leave her all alone and due to flood nothing was left then the landlord came and offered a deal where he demand her as return for food for her children then Radha replied “Chala ja lala, ye Radha bhukhi mar sakti h lekin apni izzat nahi bech sakti” also when her own son started following the girls of village and started disturbing them then Radha herself said “Mai tere 100 galtiyo ko maaf Kar sakti hu leki ladkiyo ko paresan karne ki galti maaf nahi Kar sakti mai” and in last when her son kidnapped lala’s daughter then RADHA herself shooted her son after warning him not to do this.

The majority of scenes In the movie are set in ways that increase the significance of the main message. For example, the first seconds of the film depicts woman holding a piece of earth in her hands (Mother India). In the movie when due to flood everything was distorted then villagers was planning to leave the village and start new life in another village then in the movie we can listen to the song “O Jane Wale Jao Na” where Radha told villagers that “ujadi hai aaj Phir bhi kya dharti Hai tumhari MA”. It conveys a symbolic meaning of Indian people bonded to their land and mourning about its destiny. 

Another feature of the movie is the use of lots close-ups shots to show tired faces and suffering as the central feature of people living at that time also the songs of the movie have its own dipper meaning each lyrics of the each song in movie shows essence of the movie.

The movie Mother India can be considered the film that represents the whole country in a particular period of its evolution, which makes it an essential piece of art that embodies problems, hopes, and views of different groups of people. That is why Mother India is not just a story about a family; however, it is the representation of the whole country.