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Literary Review
Praising `Mother India'
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Mother India is a well-researched book, though uncritical in its attitude to its subject, says S. THEODORE BASKARAN.
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BOOKS around a film, such as The Battle over Citizen Kane by Thomas Lennon, is a new genre of writing gaining popularity even as the subject of Cultural Studies wins more votaries. These titles tell how the film was made, analyse its content and try to capture the ambience of a particular era in film history. Such works can be a useful source of information and open new regions for study. This book under review, on Mehboob Khan's "Mother India" (1957) is one such. The author had earlier written a similar book on the film "Awara".
Mehboob Khan, the maker of "Mother India", had earlier made the successful film "Aurat" (1940). When he decided to remake it in colour, he gave it an English title, a translation of the traditional phrase Bharatmata. Why did he choose an English title for a Hindi film that glorifies India? May be to make its appeal universal. The film was a huge commercial success. Film historian Ashish Rajadhyaksha points out that the plot and characters of this film became the models for some later films such as "Ganga Jamuna" (1961) and "Deewar" (1975). It set the pattern of removing the father from the scene quite early in a film so that there is undivided attention on the mother figure. The film is described by critics as the sub-continental equivalent of Gone with The Wind (1939).
This well-researched book packs in a lot of details on the film and on the filmmaker, providing background information about making the film. It recreates the filmmaking dynamics of the 1950s. However, there is more focus on the maker of the film than on the movie itself. Of course, his life is a remarkable story by itself. Coming from Gujarat to Bombay in search of a livelihood and starting as an extra in Imperial studios, Mehboob rose to be a major influence in Indian films in the 1950s, producing a film that was nominated for the Oscar. But it is difficult to ignore the hagiographic tone of the book and the author defending every action of the filmmaker.
Similarly the author's approach to the film itself is uncritical and eulogistic; consequently she loses credibility. We have to remember that though it raked in money, "Mother India" did not win much critical acclaim and was compared to the tractor-musicals of the Stalin-era Soviet cinema. It did not win the Best Picture of the year award at the National level. It is difficult to attribute the film's success at the box office to the subject matter. The film had 15 songs by that master, Naushad. Many films in India run for the songs. Moviegoers have developed, quite early in the sound era, the habit of receiving a film as an aural experience.
Right from the British days, particularly the 1940s, patriotism has been a saleable commodity in Indian cinema. It continued in Independent India also, as evidenced by Manoj Kumar films and not forgetting "Lagaan". National loyalty becomes a component of filmic entertainment. It also gives the film a certain respectability, which it otherwise would lack. Mehboob Khan understood this and promoted his film by writing to chief ministers to get waiver of entertainment tax: he managed to screen it for the President in Rashtrapati Bhavan and persuaded Nehru to watch it.
The book reads like a promotional material for Bombay films. Somewhere at the end of the book, the author talks about, in a justifying tone, the dichotomical division between art films and commercial films. This is a distinction that is made by the film industry people and those who do not seriously engage with cinema. Do we talk about "art literature" and "commercial literature"? Do we make such a distinction in music? Then why in films? She also defends the tirade Nargis launched against Satyajit Ray in her very first speech in the parliament.
Symptomatic of the traditional apathy to popular entertainment forms in India, books on cinema do not receive the editorial attention called for. This work is one example. Though there is a useful bibliography, there is no excuse, in these days of word processors, not to have an index.
Mother India, Gayatri Chatterjee, Penguin India, 2002, paperback, p.87, Rs. 250.
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