So, can you answer this simple question? Is your mother different from your grandmother? Has she been given the liberties and independence that your grandmother never enjoyed when she was of her age? Is her position in the family equal to your grandfather’s or is your mother making decisions, the way your father does at home? The answers that you will get will be an indication as to how the status of women and especially mothers has changed drastically in the Indian social context. Our Bollywood gives an insight into the changing trends of the society and the independent mother of today’s India.
In many ways than one, the Bollywood of India is the mirror of the Indian society- the dynamic society. In the traditional India and the transitional phase that it had to go through and the modern India that it is trying to become, Bollywood has always been the reflection of the changes the society has undergone. Similarly, the role and position of a mother has completely changed from being a housewife to that of a working, independent woman. The mothers in our very own Bollywood have got a makeover and now reflect the modern mother of today’s India.
Earlier, the mother portrayed in our Bollywood movies was a shy, homely kind who would agree to what her husband told her and someone who would wait for her son to return from work in the night. Character artists like Nirupa Roy, Sulochna Pandit, Kamini Kaushal, Durga Khote et al. essayed some memorable roles where the mother would play the character which is much closer to the Indian mother of that time. The Indian society of that time was purely male-dominant where the female better half would be left taking care of the home and the children. The decision-making lied completely in the hands of the male head of the family. Such a system was followed by the film-makers of that time draping the ‘ma’ of Indian cinema in a white cotton saree and making her sit in front of a stove taking care of the household chores.