Mother India (1957)

Name: Mother India (1957)
Director: Mehboob Khan
Released: 1957
Duration: 2 h 47 min 17 s

by Mehboob Khan 1957G General

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Directed by: Mehboob Khan
Produced by: Chimankant Gandhi, M. A. Qureshi, Mehboob Khan, S. A. Master, V. J. Shah
Dialogue by: S. Ali Raza, Wajahat Mirza
Music by: Naushad
Lyrics by: Shakeel Badayuni
Cinematography: Faredoon A. Irani
Edited by: Shamsuddin Kadri
Production design: D.R. Jadhav, Munawarali Mistry, V. H. Palnitkar
Costumes: Fazal Din
Sound design: Kaushik
Cast: Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, Raaj Kumar, Kanhaiyalal, Jilloobai, Kumkum, Chanchal, Sheela Naik, Mukri, Sitara Devi

Description

Radha holds a village together through flood, famine and a moneylender while her husband's arms are crushed and he walks away. Mehboob Khan remade his own Aurat (1940) in Technicolor, kept Kanhaiyalal in the same part he had played seventeen years earlier, and took the title back from Katherine Mayo's 1927 book attacking India. It was India's first entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and lost by a single vote.

The songs

Chundariya Katati Jaye — Manna Dey · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Nagari Nagari Dware Dware — Lata Mangeshkar · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Duniya Mein Hum Aaye Hain — Lata Mangeshkar, Meena Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
O Gaadiwale — Shamshad Begum, Mohammed Rafi · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Matwala Jiya Dole Piya — Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Dukh Bhare Din Beete Re — Shamshad Begum, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Holi Aayi Re Kanhai — Shamshad Begum · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Pi Ke Ghar Aaj Pyari Dulhaniya Chali — Shamshad Begum · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Ghunghat Nahin Kholoongi Saiyan — Lata Mangeshkar · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
O Mere Lal Aaja — Lata Mangeshkar · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
O Janewalo Jao Na — Lata Mangeshkar · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni
Na Main Bhagwan Hoon — Mohammed Rafi · music Naushad · words Shakeel Badayuni

What we found

The film is usually described simply as Technicolor. Its own title card says Technicolor and its own crew card says the GEVACOLOR negatives were processed at Film Center, Bombay.

From the print itself.

How we know

Both statements are on the print, a few seconds apart: the main title reads 'in TECHNICOLOR', and a later card reads 'GEVACOLOR NEGATIVES PROCESSED AT FILM CENTER, BOMBAY UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF MESSRS. VENDER AWERA & W. SEYS'. Shot on one stock and printed by another process is an ordinary arrangement of the period and is almost never recorded.

The film opens by thanking, by name, the villages that let it shoot there - which is the only record of where most of it was made.

From the print itself.

How we know

The card reads: Umra, Zerwavra and Arthan (Surat district); Sarar Kashipura and Miyagam Dabka (Baroda district); Unchgaon (Kolhapur); Bhijing and Panchwad (Satara district); Igatpuri (Nasik district); and Azamgarh in the United Provinces - 'for giving us whole-hearted co-operation in shooting spectacular scenes in this picture'. A second card thanks twelve individuals by name. Neither database carries any location for the film.

This copy is essentially complete - 43 seconds shorter than the recorded runtime, where the other Mehboob Khan films on this site are short by five to sixteen minutes.

From Indiancine.ma.

How we know

indiancine.ma records 10,080 seconds and this print runs 10,037. A difference that small is head and tail trimming rather than a cut version. Worth stating because Aurat here is sixteen minutes short of its recorded length, Bahen about eight and a half, and Taqdeer five and a half - all of them re-certified 'Revised' prints.

The title is a reply. Katherine Mayo's Mother India (1927) was a hostile account of Indian society written against independence, and the catalogue has both Mayo's book and a 1927 Hindi answer to it, Chandravati's Mother India Ka Javab.

From the print itself.

How we know

Gandhi called Mayo's book a drain inspector's report and more than fifty books and pamphlets were published in reply to it. Mehboob Khan's film takes the phrase back for the country it was aimed at. indiancine.ma also records a 1939 film of the same title directed by Dada Gunjal, so the argument ran through Indian cinema for thirty years. The film's own Hindi title, which indiancine.ma records, is Bharat Mata.

The version sent to the Academy Awards was a 120-minute international cut with English subtitles - nearly an hour shorter than the film, and shorter than any of the three recorded running times.

From Wikipedia.

How we know

Three figures are already on record for the full film: the encyclopaedia's infobox says 172 minutes, indiancine.ma says 10,080 seconds (168) and this print runs 10,037 (167). The export version was a different object again. It was one of five nominees at the 30th Academy Awards, India's first submission, and lost to Fellini's Nights of Cabiria by a single vote.

Details

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Read about it: Wikipedia
The version sent to the Academy Awards was a 120-minute international cut with English subtitles - nearly an hour shorter than the film, and shorter than any of the three recorded running times.
How we know
Three figures are already on record for the full film: the encyclopaedia's infobox says 172 minutes, indiancine.ma says 10,080 seconds (168) and this print runs 10,037 (167). The export version was a different object again. It was one of five nominees at the 30th Academy Awards, India's first submission, and lost to Fellini's Nights of Cabiria by a single vote.
In the film archive: indiancine.ma
This copy is essentially complete - 43 seconds shorter than the recorded runtime, where the other Mehboob Khan films on this site are short by five to sixteen minutes.
How we know
indiancine.ma records 10,080 seconds and this print runs 10,037. A difference that small is head and tail trimming rather than a cut version. Worth stating because Aurat here is sixteen minutes short of its recorded length, Bahen about eight and a half, and Taqdeer five and a half - all of them re-certified 'Revised' prints.
What we found: The film is usually described simply as Technicolor. Its own title card says Technicolor and its own crew card says the GEVACOLOR negatives were processed at Film Center, Bombay.
How we know
Both statements are on the print, a few seconds apart: the main title reads 'in TECHNICOLOR', and a later card reads 'GEVACOLOR NEGATIVES PROCESSED AT FILM CENTER, BOMBAY UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF MESSRS. VENDER AWERA & W. SEYS'. Shot on one stock and printed by another process is an ordinary arrangement of the period and is almost never recorded.

The film opens by thanking, by name, the villages that let it shoot there - which is the only record of where most of it was made.
How we know
The card reads: Umra, Zerwavra and Arthan (Surat district); Sarar Kashipura and Miyagam Dabka (Baroda district); Unchgaon (Kolhapur); Bhijing and Panchwad (Satara district); Igatpuri (Nasik district); and Azamgarh in the United Provinces - 'for giving us whole-hearted co-operation in shooting spectacular scenes in this picture'. A second card thanks twelve individuals by name. Neither database carries any location for the film.

The title is a reply. Katherine Mayo's Mother India (1927) was a hostile account of Indian society written against independence, and the catalogue has both Mayo's book and a 1927 Hindi answer to it, Chandravati's Mother India Ka Javab.
How we know
Gandhi called Mayo's book a drain inspector's report and more than fifty books and pamphlets were published in reply to it. Mehboob Khan's film takes the phrase back for the country it was aimed at. indiancine.ma also records a 1939 film of the same title directed by Dada Gunjal, so the argument ran through Indian cinema for thirty years. The film's own Hindi title, which indiancine.ma records, is Bharat Mata.

Transcript

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Chapters

Mother India (1957)

Description

Summary

The songs

Gallery

What we found

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