Radha is the symbolism of moralism, refusing to bow to the adversities she faced in life: massive debts, the loss of her husband and two children, destruction of her homeland, and lastly, the choice to kill her younger son when he deviated away from the right conduct. Alike to many stories of mothers who grit their teeth and survive through any trials in life, Mother India is a melodrama with sense of nationalism – many have said that the movie represents India after the country’s independence.
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| Radha shooting Birju. |
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| Birju on the brink of death. |
I have to admit, I was taken aback when she killed her younger son at the ending, as from the movie I could see how deeply she loves her sons (she contemplated offering her body to the evil money-lender in exchange for food to feed her starving children) yet at the end she shot her son just to uphold the honour she made to the villagers. The conflict between motherhood and ethics!
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| Nargis taking care of injured Sunil Dutt. |
I was reading up on them and apparently their son in real life, Sanjay Dutt, leads a troubled life of drugs, illegal possession of arms, while going through a few marriages. His life seemed to parallel Birju’s life in the movie, of a young fine lad who eventually went on an eventful path of life.
Certain key events in the movie were brought across with the use of Hindi songs, but since I do not understand Hindi, I could not understand what the songs were trying to convey. It is quite a pity, as if I had the understanding of the language I bet I would understand the movie even better!
References:
Mother India (1957) - IMBD
Sanjay Dutt - Wikipedia
Bollywood Forum
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