Mother India

Rating:
Summary: GREAT MOVIE, BAD DVD TRANSFER
Review: Mother India was the first movie from India to be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category in 1957 (if I'm not mistaken). It's a three-hour epic, with musical numbers atypical of the Bollywood films. It's also the tragic tale of a woman's struggle to raise her children amidst poverty, inhumanity, greed, corruption, and the destructive forces of nature. The weakness of the story is that it tries to be everything: drama, comedy, social realism, a MUSICAL, an EPIC, etc., which makes the middle part of the film so weak. When the children, the two sons, grow into manhood their scenes have too much of a farcical look and feel that, eventually, turns tragic. Yet, what holds it all together is the tremendous performance of the female protagonist. Some of the cinematography is breathtaking, especially when the sky dwarfs the people in Gone With the Windesque style. Unfortunately the film has not been cleaned up (restored) for this DVD, and it has myriad lines, dots, etc. A couple of scenes go briefly out of focus. For the price I paid, I thought I would be getting a more pristine version. It's just basically a video tape on DVD, and a bad copy at that!!! Which is a shame, because it's an astonishing film despite its weaknesses. Once I resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be enjoying a tecnically superior version of the film on DVD, and had to settle for what it is, I didn't feel too ripped off because the story can be quite compelling. Had I known, however, that the quality of this DVD was so mediocre, I would not have bought it. But the movie is definitely an experience and deserves 5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Classical Movie from India
Review: Radha (Nargis) now an old woman remembers her past. She remembers her married life. The family has to work extremely hard to pay off the moneylender Sukhilala (Kanhaiyalal). Her husband (Raj Kumar) loses both his arms in an accident and feeling useless abandons the family. Alone, Radha has to raise her children while fending off financial as well as sexual pressures from Sukhilala. One son dies in a flood, and in later years one son Ramu (Rajendra Kumar) grows to be a dutiful son while the other Birju (Sunil Dutt) becomes a rebel committed to direct, violent action. Finally to preserve the honour of the village, Radha puts an end to Birju's rebellious activities by shooting him down.
Mother India is the ultimate tribute to Indian Womanhood! This epic saga of the sufferings of an Indian peasant woman has an inherent and perennial appeal, being typical of the Indian situation. So tremendous was its success that the film is in fact a reference point in the long-suffering mother genre and is like an Indian Gone With the Wind (1939).