Mother India free essay sample

Reaction Paper 1: Mother India Mother India is a 1957 Bollywood film, written and directed by Mehmoob Khan. The movie was made 10 years after India obtained its independence from the British. The movie had major significance in terms of the patriotism and the changing situation in the nation at the time, and how the country was functioning without British authority. The term Mother India has been defined as a common icon for the emergent Indian nation in the early 20th century in both colonialist and nationalist discourse. The theme of female chastity and honour appears to be an extremely intriguing and engaging topic explored in the film. Lonely Planet described the film as perhaps the most compelling film about the role of women in rural India, a moving tale about love, loss and the maternal bond. In the 1950s, in India, a woman was expected to protect her chastity, especially prior to her marriage. We will write a custom essay sample on Mother India or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Mother India illustrates how, the protagonist, Radha â€Å"stayed true† to this even after her marriage. The sequence set in the bedroom after Radha and her groom, Shamu just got married portray how valuable chastity is to an Indian woman. Her shyness is portrayed in a series of close-ups and medium shots of her turning her head away from Shamu as her tries to get intimate with her. This act of moving away or turning away from an intimate situation suggests a sense of purity in a woman, that she is not accustomed to situations like this and that it is new to her and in a sense depicts her to be a virgin, to both her husband and the viewers. Furthermore, the use of front lighting in the sequence amplifies Radha’s innocence through the soft, direct lighting on her face. Moreover, Radha’s character is continued to be represented as introverted during intimate circumstances with her husband, even after their first marriage night and after she bore children. This is exhibited in the sequence where Shamu tries to get intimate with Radha at home, while his mother is around and also the scene when he tries to get intimate with her in the fields when she goes to give him his lunch. This gives rise to the fact that it is not just crucial to protect your chastity but rather your honour, especially in the public eye. These type of sequence consistently appears throughout the film, not only between Radha and her husband but also between their sons, Birju and Ramu, and their lovers when they grow older and into men. In Mother India, the honour of a woman goes beyond the life of a woman’s child. This is exhibited through the sacrifice of her youngest toddler, where he dies of starvation because the only way she could have provided for all her children was by complying to the moneylender’s, Sukhilala sexual demands. Her honour and loyalty towards her husband are so great that she is forced to lose a child. Toward the end of the movie, her son, Birju wants to assault/kill Sukhilala’s daughter, Champa, to take his revenge out on Sukhilala. However, Radha feels obligated as a woman to protect another woman’s honour and stops Birju from doing so. And when Birju retaliates, she is left with no choice but to shoot her own son. This just goes to show how much a woman’s honour is valued in an Indian society. Radha’s actions were unexpected to all audiences, but specifically to the audiences at the time of the movie’s release because a â€Å"Hindu† mother’s role atypically consisted on protecting her children and relying on her husband for money, food and all other necessities. In conclusion, it is important to note that the character of Radha in Mother India also represents the changing role of the mother in Indian films and in Indian society in that the mother is not always submissive or dependent on her husband. Mehboob Khan’s portrayal of the themes chastity and honour in Mother India goes beyond representing an atypical Indian woman of the time because he takes these two respectable characteristics of a woman and draws them out in such a way that this conventional portrayal of a woman is almost modernized.