Mother India Film Analysis

Kapil Kanagal

COMPLIT 247

Mother India Film Analysis

20 April 2015

Technology, Religion, and the Development of India

            In the film Mother India, director Mehboob Khan directly integrates the role of technology to augment the development of India throughout the movie. In the opening scene, modern technology is just beginning to be phased into Indian culture, prompting a discussion about whether the film promotes the role of technology in a developing India, or if it instead critiques it. I believe that though the film promotes technology as an important tool for developing India, it also critiques the bloodshed that was required to develop said technology. This debate stems back to the differing visions of Gandhi and Nehru, regarding the role of technology in developing India.

While Gandhi argued for a more agrarian society, Nehru argued instead for the rapid growth of technology to develop India. During the opening scene, the main character Radha, portrayed by Nargis, is asked to bless the opening of a new dam. Originally, she is somewhat hesitant of the new technology, but as the inauguration draws closer, she has a flashback to earlier on in her life. During the flashback, Radha is much younger and technology is still very rudimentary. In fact, the lack of technology causes her husband to lose his arms in a farming accident, which in turn causes a chain reaction of devastating events in Radha’s life, ultimately causing her to kill her son. The struggles Radha goes through to maintain her fields and support her family are extremely tough, but much of that is due to a lack of technology. For example, her reliance on oxen and manual labor to till the soil would be somewhat irrelevant in the modern India, in which machines would be able to plow the fields for her. In this sense, the movie directly supports the role of technology in developing India, as it makes it much easier for people to farm. However, in the closing scene, Radha sees blood run down the river after the dam is inaugurated to water the fields. This blood represents the blood shed by the death of her troublemaker son, Birju, whom she had to kill to save the honor of the village and her family. Thus, by depicting the water as blood, Mehboob is able to also critique all of the hardship and sacrifice that was required to bring India into an industrial age. Given that the film is entitled Mother India, the blood in the river may allude to the blood shed during the Hindu-Muslim riots that occurred as a result of the partition of India. The fact that the blood is watering the fields may also represent the idea that India is covered with the blood of these riots.

Turning to the reading, it is clear that Mehboob and Nargis were both Muslim actors, but depicted Hindu philosophies and characters. This poses an interesting question as to how a Muslim was able to be the icon that represents Indian nationalism, even after the partition. I feel Mehboob did this in order to portray the idea that India is should not be divided along religious lines. Furthermore, film critic Baburao Patel claimed that without Nargis, there would be “‘no Mother India.’” This further ties into the textbook reading, as this sense of religious inclusion was crucial to India flourishing as a democratic nation. All in all, the film Mother India ties myriad elements together to support the idea that technology and religion played a key role in India’s development as a nation.