Cine-Ma: Of movies and motherhood
Vicky Kaushal says that he ‘lives a lot in the present’ and doesn’t have a ‘planning-driven mind’; adds he always dreamt about working with Shoojit Sircar
the script of my next film, something in it struck me, and I said yes to it immediately. And then Sardar Udham Singh will see me in a completely different world. That film is with a director [Shoojit Sircar] who I always used to dream of working with. Unse bahut kucch seekhne ko mila, so that process has given me a different kind of happiness.”
This year will also see the actor work on several biggies — Karan Johar’s ambitious period drama, Takht followed by the Sam Manekshaw biopic (directed by Meghna Gulzar), and Uri director Aditya Dhar’s next, Ashwatthama. Ask him if he looks forward to back-to-back biggies, and he says, “I don’t know how things are going to pan out. But I feel I am still very new to understand ki kaisa hoga sab kuch. And I also believe a lot in destiny and karma. So, my entire focus is on ke abhi main kya kar raha hoon. Baaki dekhtein hai aage kya hoga. I, on my part, just want to keep working with the right intent and all the positivity.”
Radhika Bhirani
Once a canvas where the mother could only be painted as either a holier than thou individual or a scheming and plotting being, Hindi cinema is gradually seeing different colours of strokes in depicting mothers and motherhood. With themes such as surrogacy, single parenting, step mothers and a 50-something pregnant woman, making it to the mainstream — mums have been revamped in Bollywood.
In 2018, Badhaai Ho scored high by showing the stigma that a mother of two grown-ups faces after an unplanned pregnancy occurs. Then there was an OTT film Badnaam Gali which showed a surrogate mum’s story with a pinch of humour. And 2019 ended on a high note with Good Newzz, which saw Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor Khan,
Kiara Advani and Diljit Dosanjh, in a story about reaping the bliss of In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF ).
This year, we’ll see
Kriti Sanon playing a girl who aspires to become an actor, but ends up being a surrogate mother in the Hindi remake of Marathi film Mala Aai Vhhaychy! (2010).
Overall, one senses an effort towards, what Akshay says can be best described as, bringing serious subjects “thoda commercially” to the audience. The actor explains that the intent with Good Newzz was to spread awareness about the virtues of IVF, but in an entertaining way. “...like we made Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017). It was important to keep the humour intact... we didn’t want to make a documentary.”
Patralekhaa, who played the lead in Badnaam Galli, agrees that a fun element can increase the reach of such films, and says she took on a surrogate’s role as she found the character of a girl who has a stand of her own, “very empowering”.
As someone who played a mother in her debut film CityLights (2014), Patralekhaa says that actors are now comfortable about sporting a bump on screen, and it is wonderful because “mainstream actors are torchbearers, and if they’re playing these roles and are getting accepted, it means the audiences are ready.”
Earlier, there have been films such as Kya Kehna (2000), Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (2001), Filhaal (2002) and Salaam Namaste
(2005), but only few and far between.
Interestingly, there has also been a transformation in the portrayal of mothers. A far cry from the Nirupa Roy and Durga Khote-style depiction of ‘ma’ or the Lalita Pawar and Bindu brand of ‘saasu maa’, Bollywood is out to showcase the matriarch differently.
Sample Kangana Ranaut’s role as a mother who resolves to return to a sport she loves in Panga. There’s also Tabu’s cool and hippie Jawaani Jaaneman act. And more recently, we saw The Sky Is Pink (2019), where Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a rock for her ailing daughter.
Film historian SMM Ausaja opines that the industry has “moved with the times”. “From a revered devi-like aura, the mother has become friendlier, trendier, smarter and even tech-savvy,” he adds.
Writer Kanika Dhillon sums it up well, saying it’s “about time that we acknowledge the struggles women go through, the feelings they have, and the inspiration that they can be”.
VICKY KAUSHAL