Want to be filmy Ma
As a teenager, I nursed a secret ambition -
to become a star. Not for me the dolled up, glamorous looking, heroine’s role.
All she has to do is be coy and be a prop to the hero’s image. She is only an
ornamental addition to his alter ego. I hankered for a more coveted position –
that of a mother! Strangely enough, in most Hindi films, it is this white.
saree clad, weeping woman who has the pivotal role. The hero adores her, gives
her a bear hug with an affectionate ‘maaaa’, shattering the silence, rests his
handsome head on her lap while she gives him maternal glances, picks her up and
twirls her around in glee when he gets a first class first in B.A., and vows to
avenge the whole world when she coughs her way into the grave. She is indeed,
the moving spirit behind the He man’s success!The best mother to date, who has
brought errant sons to the straight and narrow path, has been Nirupa Roy. With
her godlike goodness shining out of her eyes, she has turned the most toughened
criminal sons into slobbering cry babies. The famous temple scene in ‘Deewar’ comes to mind. The fugitive
son and the ‘farz nibhaoing’ police
officer son, come together at her bidding. How many sacrifices she had made to
bring up her ‘ankhon ke tare’. The
father is conveniently dead.If he were alive, he would have used the rod to
discipline them while ‘maa’ only uses her love.
In ‘Muquaddar Ka
Sikander’, it’s ‘maa’ who befriends a waif and gives him love and security
which the cruel world had denied. She fondly ruffles the little loveless
child’s hair, and he grows up. Of course the most pathetic thing about a ‘maa’,
is that you have to forego riches and suffer poverty.
But there are rich
‘maas ‘too. These are portrayed as dishing out money rather than love. Remember
that svelte socialite mom in ‘Bobby’?
When she isn’t patting her coiffure into place, she is careering off to parties
and do’s after giving ‘sonny boy’ a tweak on the check. The poor lad finds
solace in the arms of the nurse maid and later, girl friend.
Then there is the
mother in ‘Shiksha’, who smothers
the ‘eklauta beta’ with love and lucre
and he becomes a spoilt brat. (Note how love and money don’t go hand in hand).
When papa ticks him off, the brat walks out of the house with mama’s cheque
book which she insists on giving to him. The redeeming feature is that the guy
repays mama’s trust and becomes a good boy.
Some hero’s sing lachrymose
lyrics to their mothers, refering to them as ‘Bhagawan ki surat’, while she
gets all glassy eyed with emotion. Lucky indeed are these women, because in
real life such devotion is hard to come by.
We must not forget
the vicious mother, often played by Lalitha Pawar whose pinched eye gives the
right degree of venom. Just as bad is the strict mother of ‘Khubsoorat’ who
frowns on every giggle or whisper at the dining table.
Shashikala is a
perfect example of the comical mother. She dresses like a teenager, coos like a
love bird in distress and flutters her eyelashes like a Japanese fan. All this,
to attract an aging doctor in ‘Dulhan Wohi’. Dear indeed is the mother in “Prem
Rog‘, who makes her daughter aware of her love for her childhood playmate.
Though her own life is pretty shoddy with her husband boozing and coddling the
local wench, she is mother enough to feel the throes of passion in her widowed
child’s bosom and awakens her to it.
This is where papas
step in. They come in a wide range. The typical father has a big moustache, is
burly with a bluff manner, is a retired colonel and has a big weakness for his daughter.
The wife is often dead – thus giving him an opportunity to stand before her
garlanded picture and reel off soliloquies.
Unlike the mama who
is generally poverty stricken, he is loaded with cash which he brandishes in
the face of the son or daughter smitten with love and threatens to disinherit
the progeny.
He is more often than
not, engaged in nefarious activities like brewing illicit liquor or
manufacturing spurious drugs. He gets a whacking kiss from his daughter who
flies into the house with a ‘dadeee’ and a hug to put Boa constrictor to shame.
The sons usually are estranged from the father. The mamas and papas of screen
are to be envied. They get away with hugs and kisses the censors are waiting to
chop off, if indulged in by the hero and his gal. It’s perfectly ok if Sharmila, with powder in her hair and
wrinkles on her cheek, clasps Rajesh Khanna to her bosom – but as his beloved?-
sacrilege Oh! sweet hypocrisy!
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