Director: Mehboob Khan
After watching Mother India, I felt that the main perception of Radha as a benevelont, loving, righteous and kind personality was resounding throughout the film. In the film, Radha represents an idealized mother in India, and probably the whole of Asia. She is independent, strong and believes strongly in herself and her abilities to make a change. Yet at the same time, she fulfills her duties and responsibility as a mother and a woman in patriarchal society. In the film, I particularly liked the part where she convinced the villagers to stay after a natural disaster (the flood) because she believed that the land can still be retrieved. And as she starts singing, she plows the land with both her sons. The whole song she had a super dramatic face as she expresses herself in front of the villages. But it was cheerful towards the end and I liked the part where Mehboob Khan uses dissolving images to show that time has passed and instead of her leading the plow, both her son were in front of her instead because she's old.
The whole idea of Mother India essentially reminds me the concept of a benevolent mother in The Goddess and To Live. In all cases the situation is different, but the gist of the film is still the same. In whichever catastrophe or even the end of the world, a mother would definitely sacrifice herself for the ones she loved. However is it really true in Mother India? Radha had shot her son, Birju toward the end of the film because he was always creating trouble and stubborn. In the film, she killed her son for the greater good of everybody in the village. But would a mother really do that, even though she knew that her son loved her very deeply. I believe Radha was willing to sacrifice herself (the act of killing her own flesh and blood by herself) for the whole village. I felt that it could've been solved in a less violent and better way, maybe like asking some men to stop BIrju. Maybe there were some virtues in the Indian culture that had made her promise the villagers that she would shoot her own son. Although somehow I felt that Birju was just being the upright person as he only wanted to protect his family from the unequal treatment of the characters in the film. She could have did it because she thinks that it was her own fault that she did not bring up her son well and the village was at stake. Hence, Mother India is a suitable title given to Radha.
[1] Mother India (1957) FILM IN REVIEW; 'Mother India' by DAVE KEHR. Retrieved from http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9C03E5DE153CF930A1575BC0A9649C8B63
[2] Mother India. Retrieved from http://www.kamera.co.uk/reviews_extra/mother_india.php
[3] Films Directed by Mehboob Khan: Mother India, Andaz, Aan, Amar, Aurat
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