3. Mother India (1957)
Alternative title: Bharat Mata
Language: Hindi
Director: Mehboob Khan
Running time: 168 mins
Starring: Nargis, Raj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar
Company: Mehboob Productions
A haunted dreamscape of rural India, now seen as the ultimate cinematic icon of Nehruvian India. The film was mainly devoted to the gargantuan melodramatic presence of Nargis as the heroine enduring the forces of nature, evil moneylender and loss of husband and finally being forced to choose between duty and maternal love, the nation being evoked mostly in the song and dance sequences. The film's much-underrated surreal feel comes from the director's attempts to exploit the tension between documentary realism and melodrama underscored by unconventional cutting and camera positions, striking colour codes and stylised acting. Mehboob used real-life villagers in the communal sequences and the focus on the rituals of agrarian life has occasioned critics to spot influences of Soviet-style realism of the Dovzhenko school. There is also an interesting subtext about Indian cultic religiosity mainly conveyed through character names, use of religious symbols and cultic activity.
