Do You Know, That No Film Distributors Were Ready To Buy The Film ‘Mother India?

One of the most iconic and classic Hindi film ‘Mother India’ is directed by Mehboob Khan. Featuring Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar and Raaj Kumar, the film had the yesteryear top actors and a great script yet the film distributors had second thoughts on purchasing it. In fact, Mehboob Khan is said to have made Nargis the Bharath Mata after the release of this film. The film released in 1957 in fact not only got nominated for the Oscar Award but also was selected in the top five film category.

The famous film maker Mehboob Khan always made such films that would give a message to the society, or showed sacrifice for the country and his biggest hit was Mother India. Actually Mother India was a remake of his own film Aurat released in 1937. In this film he had portrayed the hardships of the Farmers of India and a helpless mother’s life. In this film he had also depicted India in a bad light showing a lot of poverty and scarceness that did not go too well with the audience.   Therefore, film distributors were not much in favour of Mother India  as well, with a fear it would be a film similar to Aurat.

In Mother India, film climax had shown Nargis killing her own son to protect the girls in her village. Film Distributors felt no mother would kill her son no matter how the son is, therefore the film distributors had demanded to change in the climax scene of the film. 

Mehboob Khan was in a dilemma as the script required it and he decided he would speak to the women of his village. So he went to his village and he spoke to the mothers especially and asked them if they had a son who was a spoilt brat and was a hindrance to the society especially a threat to the young women and had raped a woman, what would they have do? Their reply was shocking but they spoke the truth.  They said if they had a son like that they would have killed him rather let him live and humiliate them too. A mother’s role is not just giving birth to a child but also show him or her the right direction.   Mehboob Khan got his answer and he decided to keep the climax of the film as is and he released the film. When the film was released it was a super hit and the audience loved the climax scene that fitted in perfectly for the script. 

Mother India gave this strong message through the film that if a son or daughter is abusive, cruel and a tyrant, it is the mother’s duty to bring him on the right track. If the son or daughter is not willing to change, the mother who has given birth to the child has every right to take a drastic step.