Opinion | A Tribute to ‘Mother India’: Revisiting New-Age Radhas

The village moneylender Sukhi Lala (Kanhaiyalal) deceives Chachi (aunt) into affixing her thumb impression on a document that said that 3/4th of the grain output would go to him towards interest of the loan that Lala had advanced to her. Whereas the illiterate Chachi believed that Lala’s share was only 1/4th. And thus Chachi, her son Shamu and daughter-in-law Radha (Nargis) get trapped in penurious debt for two generations. Further Radha’s disabled husband deserts the family, and a natural calamity snatches one of her infant sons away. Radha battles it all, drawing upon the strength of her ideals.

Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957) counts among one of Bollywood’s biggest commercial and critical successes ever. Arguably the strongest women character ever in Bollywood, Radha had in her the purity of Sita, the determination of Savitri that refused to accept that she had lost her husband, and the ferocity of Durga that could tolerate no unjustness to the community. Radha is the role model of the chaste, strong, just, hardworking woman for Bollywood screen women to emulate. Let us visit a few new-age Radhas with similar fortitude in different eras.

1. Puja Malhotra in Arth (1982): While Radha kept pining for the missing Shamu singing Nagri nagri dware dware, she knew she had to trudge along carrying the responsibilities of her children. Husbands may go missing physically or may drift to other women. When Puja Malhotra (Shabana Azmi) in Arth discovers that her ad filmmaker husband Inder was in an extramarital affair with actor Kavita, her moorings come loose as she had no identity save for being Mrs. Puja Malhotra. Like a rudderless boat caught in a storm mid-sea, she calls up Kavita and pleads with her to let go of Inder. From this extreme insecurity what comes next? The best, of course, as Puja struggles and stumbles but surely discovers her financial and emotional independence. She becomes Puja — just Puja, the individual. Just like Radha. Halfway through Mother India we had forgotten about Shamu. In Arth, this new Puja politely declines proposals from two men – one of them from Inder himself.
2. Laxmi Joshi in Pratighaat (1987): When the outspoken college lecturer Laxmi Joshi (Sujata Mehta) files an eye-witness’ report against the local thug Kali for murdering a policeman, Kali strips her naked in public as his revenge, even as her timid husband watches helplessly. Displaying exceptional courage, she fights back, wins the support of her students and of other victims Kali’s criminalities, agrees to fight the local elections against Kali and promises clean administration, thus rising above her personal agenda of revenge against Kali. But when a panicky Kali resorts to booth capturing and rigging and wins the election unfairly, rock-like Laxmi decides to stand by her commitment to her electorate. With parliamentary methods failing to keep a criminal out of power, Laxmi too, like Radha, picks up a weapon.
3. Meghna Mathur in Fashion (2008): For Radha, ‘do waqt ki roti’ was enough. But what is wrong in aspiring for ‘do waqt ka fine dining’? One of the avenues to get to those fancy cuisines is the fashion & entertainment industry. For a long time, conservative families have carried a firm social stigma against modelling as a career for women. And therefore, we hardly find any female lead character in Hindi films whose profession was a fashion model. That is why aspiring model Meghna Mathur’s (Priyanka Chopra) character in Fashion is a landmark one in Bollywood. Her journey too was obstacle-riddled — rejection by agencies, jeers by her successful colleagues, and being asked to vacate her relatives’ home in Mumbai for posing in a lingerie ad. Yes, she sleeps with the creative head of a fashion house in return for a lucrative modelling contract with his company. Radha was married and hence she resisted Sukhi Lala’s indecent advances. But Meghna is single, ambitious and has a right to seek out a strategic steppingstone in her career. True, she lapses into alcoholism, depression and almost gives up. But she comes back fighting, eventually scaling Everest of her profession. She becomes a role model.
4. Meera Gaity in No one killed Jessica (2011): Meera Gaity (Rani Mukherjee) is a spunky young journalist who covers a war right at the war front. And this spunk piques her into wanting to re-open the case of Jessica Lal’s murder by a politician’s son Manish. Be it while convincing her reluctant editor to grant her permission to pursue the case, be it while convincing Late Jessica’s sister that the fight needs to go on, or in carrying out sting operations and convincing witnesses to speak-up, compassionate aggression is what characterizes Meera. Tech savvy too, she uses the exponential reach of the electronic media to whip up public support for Jessica. Meera is the new-age commando who brings criminals to their knees without lifting a finger, let alone a weapon. One might say that she surpassed Radha.
5. Devki Sabarwal in Mom (2017): Devki Sabarwal’s (Sridevi) stepdaughter Arya gets gangraped and the rapists escape the law. And Devki turns into Mahishasura mardini punishing each one of the culprits personally, the quantum of punishments ranging from castration to poisoning to death by a bullet. In Mother India Radha’s grown-up son Birju had turned an outlaw and had taken revenge against Sukhi Lala by murdering him and kidnapping Lala’s daughter. Now this put Radha in a severe quandary as she had assured the villagers of Birju’s good behavior. Dipping into the bottomless reservoir of her strength yet again, in the interest of the larger good, Radha had shot her own son Birju to death. Likewise, Devki in Mom did it for a larger good — for her daughter Arya — stepdaughter, actually, making Devki’s effort more laudable.
6. Malti in Chhapaak (2020): Despite her obvious trauma and her precarious financial situation, acid attack victim Malti (Deepika Padukone) trusts the legal system. Her lawyer Archana’s strengths are her deep knowledge of legalese, her meticulousness in building solid evidence and her presence of mind and articulateness in arguments. She doesn’t need to lean on court room drama and theatrics. And then there is the good Samaritan Shiraz who supports and motivates Malti. Together they win the battle of getting a 10-year imprisonment sentence slapped on Malti’s culprit, but the bigger war on ban of acid sale is yet to be won. Radha’s war was a long drawn one too. But she won. Malti will win too.In different eras, each Radha demonstrated exceptional mental and physical strength. It is a tribute to them that the anniversary of release date of Mother India (25th October) this year comes a day after Vijaya Dashami — the day of victory.

Balaji Vittal is a National Award winning and MAMI Award winning author of Bollywood books, a columnist, a Bollywood commentator and a public speaker. He can be reached on Twitter at @vittalbalaji and his website is www.balajivittal.com. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.