Mother India

This article is about the Hindi film. For the national personification of India, see Bharat Mata. For other uses, see Mother India (disambiguation).

Mother India
A film poster showing a lady with a wooden plough on her right shoulder
Film poster
Directed byMehboob Khan
Written byWajahat Mirza
S. Ali Raza
Story byBabubhai A. Mehta
Based onAurat
by Mehboob Khan
Produced byMehboob Khan
StarringNargis
Sunil Dutt
Rajendra Kumar
Raaj Kumar
CinematographyFaredoon A. Irani
Edited byShamsudin Kadri
Music byNaushad
Shakeel Badayuni (lyrics)
Production
company
Distributed byMehboob Productions
Release date
  • 25 October 1957 (1957-10-25) (India)
Running time
172 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindustani[1]
Budgetest. ₹6 million[2]
Box officeest. ₹80 million (India)[3]

Mother India is a 1957 Indian epic drama film, directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar. A remake of Khan's earlier film Aurat (1940), it is the story of a poverty-stricken village woman named Radha (Nargis), who in the absence of her husband, struggles to raise her sons and survive against a cunning money-lender amidst many troubles.

The title of the film was chosen to counter American author Katherine Mayo's 1927 polemical book Mother India, which vilified Indian culture. Mother India metaphorically represents India as a nation in the aftermath of its independence in 1947, and alludes to a strong sense of Indian nationalism and nation-building. Allusions to Hindu mythology are abundant in the film, and its lead character has been seen as a metonymic representation of an Indian woman who reflects high moral values and the concept of what it means to be a mother to society through self-sacrifice. While some authors treat Radha as the symbol of women's empowerment, others see her cast in female stereotypes. The film was shot in Mumbai's Mehboob Studios and in the villages of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh. The music by Naushad introduced global music, including Western classical music and orchestra, to Hindi cinema.

The film was one of the most expensive Indian productions and earned the highest revenue for any Indian film at that time. Adjusted for inflation, Mother India still ranks among the all-time Indian box office hits. It was released in India amid fanfare in October 1957 and had several high-profile screenings, including one at the capital, New Delhi, attended by the country's president and prime minister. Mother India became a definitive cultural classic and is regarded as one of the best films in Indian cinema as well as being one of three Hindi-language films to be included on the list of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. The film won the All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film, the Filmfare Best Film Award for 1957, and Nargis and Khan won the Best Actress and Best Director awards respectively. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, becoming the first Indian film to be ever nominated.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference akhtar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Hindustan Times 2007a.
  3. ^ BoxOffice India.