From Bechari To Fiesty: Evolution Of Mom Roles In Hindi Cinema

Mothers in Bollywood have come a long way from wearing white cotton sarees to being independent single parents. They're fierce and feisty.

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Whether it be Sakshi Tanwar’s character from the Netflix series Mai or Shefali Shah’s character from the recently released Netflix film Darlings, the mother’s roles are changing in Hindi cinema. They don't portray the cotton saree-clad helpless, crying, ‘bechari’ women who are put on a pedestal. They are getting feisty, vengeful, and real.

Often called the “Golden era of Hindi cinema”, the films that were released between the 1920s to 1990s portrayed mothers as people who were always in misery, crying in a corner, often widowed and poor, suffering and having no say in matters of any significance. Mothers were put up on a pedestal and forgotten about. Actors like Dina Pathak, Reema Lagoo, and Nirupa Roy, among several others, showed how mothers were meant to be for ages.

This changed a little with films like Dil Wale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham, where the characters played by Farida Jalal and Jaya Bachchan played motherly roles who were funny and had their own personalities Then came mothers in Kal Ho Naa Ho, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Dostana played again by Jaya Bachchan and Kirron Kher. Here, the characters of the matriarch were single parents; they were independent, and not tragic queens anymore. But that did not make them any less ‘motherly’.

Cut to 2012, Sridevi portrayed a homemaker and mother in English Vinglish. She explores herself in a foreign country and learns a foreign language in a bid to bond better with her daughter. By the end of the film, she ends up reinventing herself, and finally learns to put herself first.

Breaking all stereotypes, in 2018, Neena Gupta in Badhaai Ho, also starring Gajraj Rao and Ayushmann Khurana, portrayed a pathbreaking character as a woman who gets pregnant in her late 40s. It is not often that mainstream Hindi cinema offers such an interesting role to a 40-something actor. This film was very well received by the audience and performed great at the box office too.

Mothers in contemporary Hindi cinema have gradually pivoted towards becoming more well-rounded individuals who do not need men to rely on or define them. In the 2020 Netflix film Tribhanga, a multi-generational film featuring a dysfunctional family, starring Tanvi Azmi, Kajol, and Mithila Palkar, Azmi’s character puts her art before her family.

Now we have motherly roles like that portrayed by Sushmita Sen in Aarya, Shakshi Tanwar in Mai, and Shah in Darlings. These mothers have taken up guns, and haven't shied away from violence and vengeance when it comes to their children. There is definitely a blurred line between right and wrong with them taking the law into their own hands, but mothers in Hindi cinema don’t sit and cry in a corner anymore. They are strong, fierce and fearless.

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