It was this picture which made Nargis and relatively unknown Sunil Dutt a household name. It was this movie which brought the common joys and house-hold chores of village life right into our Drawing Rooms and became subject of of our attention.
And it is the music of this film that made the humdrum work of cutting the maze or millet or common village belle dancing to her romantic hero so pleasurable because of accompanying music of Naushad. This was a movie of crass exploitation of moneylender of a soft looking widow with nerves of steel and determination of a Rock that fought the adversity even with the skin of their teeth but came good.
And it was the anti-hero of Sunil Dutt who fought this exploitation to the extent of abducting moneylenders daughter when to save the values of village and honour of women that Mother shoots down his son to be called Mother India. It was denial of Oscar to this movie that made the Committee on Oscars to admit one of its monumental mistakes after 50 years.
We saw this film in 1957 at Agra at its golden jubilee and though all of us were too young to understand the full implications, were shell shocked to see this graphic and epic tale of exploitation and injustice meted out in daily village life and how a brave woman gives a dour fight till as a family they come good.
I for one came very close to my mother after seeing this movie.
Mother India was film-maker Mehboob Khan's chef-d'oeuvre which made Nargis immortal on account of her one of the rarest roles in the Indian movies she essayed with great elan, though the story was heart-rending wherein a poverty-hit woman faces exploitation at the hands of a heartless moneylender, played perfectly by Kanhaiya Lal. Rest of the cast was also a fine blend of actors like-Raj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar and Sunitl Dutt who, interestingly, played son to Nargis but later in the day they tied the nuptial knot. Songs composed by Shakeel Badauni under Naushad's musical direction still ring in the Indian movie-buffs' ears even after as many as six decades now:
'Duniya mein ham aye hai to jeena padega' was the superhit!
Nargis also won the Film Fare award for the film which was also nominated for the Oscar!
This film is historic, I have never seen such an amazing movie portraying all kinds of emotions between a woman and everybody else in the society. The hardship of a woman generally faced in rural India will fill your eyes with tears. The love bond between a mother and her children is the most beautiful part of this film. The came out in 1957 and it is without doubt the most iconic film of Indian cinema!
