Mumbai, March 07, 2025.
Almost always in a white sari, long-suffering and beyond reproach, waiting for her son to come home so she can tell him to wash up while she sets out his meal. That’s the mother figure imprinted in the collective memory of generations of Hindi cinema goers.
That is fast changing. Images of the ideal ‘ma’ framed in sepia, all the way from Nirupa Roy to Rakhee, are giving way to the modern-day mother in her many shades who loves her children for sure but also maintains her individuality.
As another women’s day comes around, time perhaps to look at the long distance travelled. More and more mothers in Hindi cinema, both mainstream and off it, now represent the concerns of everyday women, of those who have lives beyond their children. They have agency, often a job and points of view that go beyond typical “motherly concerns” of yore.
