The mother has a glorified place in Bollywood films. Women cast in the roles of mothers have shaped our understanding of what mothers are- the provider, the nurturer, and the glue that binds the family together. From Mother India to ‘Mere Paas Maa Hai’ in Dewar, the Bollywood mother has often been a pivotal character, enduring hardships to raise children, admonishing her wayward son for the larger good, and placating irate daughters-in-law. The mother is an all-weather source of wisdom, energy, and hope.
But like any rule whose best proof lies in exceptions, Bollywood films have a fair share of BAD MOTHERS, in the mould of Kaikeyi from Ramayana and Kunti from Mahabharata. Here are some bad mother characters in Bollywood films:
1 Mrs Gupta (Achla Sachdev) in Kora Kagaz 1974
The truth is that every mother loves to see her daughter lead a materially comfortable married life. But in her blind pursuit of this agenda, Mrs Gupta wrecks the home of her daughter Archana and son-in-law Sukesh Dutt who is not well-off financially as Guptas. The status-conscious Mrs Gupta tries to varnish Sukesh’s image in front of her relatives by making up stories of Sukesh going abroad for higher studies. Next, she installs a telephone and a refrigerator in Sukesh’s home for Archana’s benefit, but with utter insensitivity to Sukesh as these are purchases he can not afford. Mrs Gupta’s snide observations, about Sukesh’s paltry income, and the inability to afford taxi rides, continue, each taunt widening the gap between Archana and Sukesh. And finally, Mrs Gupta engineers the removal of Sukesh’s widowed aunt from their home. She is not done yet. She even instigates the divorce notice sent to Sukesh and suggests that Archana remarry.
2 Laxmi Verma (Aruna Irani) in Beta 1992
Stepmothers in films start with a handicap because the audience knows at the outset that she is up to no good. Laxmi Verma sets new standards for the cliché of the evil stepmother. She plots meticulously to divert her innocent stepson Raju’s (Anil Kapoor) share of inheritance to her biological son. As if that was not enough, she attempts to poison Raju’s wife so that a natural heir to Raju may not be born. She learns her lesson when Raju, refusing to believe that his mother could poison his wife, drinks the liquid himself and hovers on the brink of death. In the end, Raju survives, and Laxmi turns over a new leaf.
3 Mrs Malti Makshi (Waheeda Rehman) in Jyoti Bane Jwala 1980
When a mother has to move away from the child she gave birth to out of wedlock, it comes at a great cost to herself and the child. Kunti in Mahabharata did that. As does Malti Bakshi in this film. Malti’s father is guilty of discarding his unmarried daughter’s newborn baby in a dustbin lying to Malti that her child was stillborn, and she readily buys that. Years later, she refuses to accept her presumed-dead ‘illegitimate’ grown-up son Jwala, whose face she instantly recognizes as that of her dead lover. Out of fear of social stigma and retribution, she chooses not to disclose to Jwala that she is his birth mother. It is only when her other son Arjun’s life is in danger at the hands of Jwala that she comes to Jwala, weeping and repentant, playing the emotional card of Arjun being Jwala’s brother. But Jwala’s cold logic shreds her pretense.
4 Sunita Kapoor (Ratna Pathak Shah) in Kapoor & Sons 2016
Ask any parent with more than one child, it is almost impossible to be totally unbiased about your children. Some parents make the mistake of leaning toward the child who needs help and support, while others tend to encourage and extol the child doing better in academics or sports. In either case, one of the siblings senses favourtism towards the other, sowing seeds of mistrust. But what Sunita Kapoor does is something worse. She steals the manuscript her son Arjun is working on and gives it to her other son Rahul. Why? Because she presumes that since Arjun does not appear to be ambitious about a steady career, he would not be serious about getting his manuscript published either. The more sorted and growth-focused Rahul has a better chance of succeeding as a novelist, she concludes. True, Arjun is a part-time bartender with an unsteady income but is that the barometer of his potential as an author? On the other hand, Rahul’s successful career in business is no indicator of his probability of success in other fields. Not only does Sunita Kapoor draw incorrect conclusions, she also ends up treating her two sons as racehorses, moving her bet from one to the other.
5 Mamta Chaturvedi (Reema Lagoo) in Hum Saath Saath Hain 1999
Beware of the outside inside who gives unsolicited advice.Kaikeyi in the Ramayana made the mistake of not seeing through Manthara’s agenda. Here Mamta does not learn her lesson from the epc and becomes complicit in Dharamraj’s (father-in-law of her third son) vile advice that she convinces her husband to partition the business and property among all the sons equally instead of the Chaturvedi’s eldest son Vivek being appointed as the Managing Director of the family business. Dharamraj’s intent is clear-he does not want his future son-in-law Vinod to play second fiddle to elder brother Vivek. Mamta takes his advice and makes that demand of her husband, and in the process breaks up a loving household.
Waiting for your views on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
20th May 2023