If, like me, you're fairly new to Indian cinema and think, as I did, that it's all singing and dancing Bollywood, here is a brilliant mix of what we might expect and an epic tale that we in the West can really appreciate and enjoy.
I'd only been to the monochrome world of Indian director Satyajit Ray before and frankly, I didn't seem to appreciate those as much as many do. In time, I trust that I will. Mother India, which I bought blind, seemed to be like approaching, say opera, by going to see one that was commercially accessible but maybe not what the purest of critics might approve of. That is was also Oscar nominated in the World cinema category is also testament of how popular and well thought of Mehboob Khan's Indian masterpiece was.
I personally feel that the often quoted "Indian Gone with the Wind" is both somewhat false and misleading. True, its scope and length as well as the beautifully lavish Technicolor (must have been very expensive to make at the time) bear comparison. The central character is no Hindu Vivien Leigh either and even more amiss is that it's not set against a background of War.
The war, indeed, centres around land, land on which to sustain a crop, enough to feed one and one's family. Greedy landowners are the Generals here who cruelly tax their tenants ever harder. Mother Nature herself is also a strict and tempestuous taskmaster as famine and disease strike.
The undoubted stars are the cinematography and the Mother of the title. There is a huge sweep of panoramic camera as harvesting scenes, rivalling that of Russian propaganda films and bright sharp colours fill every frame.
Nargis, as peasant woman, played by actress Radha, tells us the epic story of her life in flashback, charting how, as a young bride, she arrived at a farm mortgaged to an unscrupulous moneylender. Her husband is then injured in an accident and abandons her and their children, Radha perseveres to bring up her sons and cultivate the land.
As is often, so far as I can tell, the case with Indian drama, the family and its issues are paramount and great lengths are taken to explore all moral angles and Mother Earth is no different.
Yes, it does swell into high emotion and near melodrama but that's Indian cinema for you, but equally pathos and despair are equally and dramatically handled. The sound, though, is unfortunately, pretty ropey, breaking up with each sibilant word and with a background of quiet crackles.
One reviewer complained of poor subtitling - on my DVD (confirmed Amazon purchase) they are fine and include the lyrics to the songs, but maybe mine is a later release. The songs add to the narrative, not the other way around and much is dialogue. The singing is usually actually very lyrical and beautiful, so that it's welcomed, which isn't what I had expected to be the case.
I'd only been to the monochrome world of Indian director Satyajit Ray before and frankly, I didn't seem to appreciate those as much as many do. In time, I trust that I will. Mother India, which I bought blind, seemed to be like approaching, say opera, by going to see one that was commercially accessible but maybe not what the purest of critics might approve of. That is was also Oscar nominated in the World cinema category is also testament of how popular and well thought of Mehboob Khan's Indian masterpiece was.
I personally feel that the often quoted "Indian Gone with the Wind" is both somewhat false and misleading. True, its scope and length as well as the beautifully lavish Technicolor (must have been very expensive to make at the time) bear comparison. The central character is no Hindu Vivien Leigh either and even more amiss is that it's not set against a background of War.
The war, indeed, centres around land, land on which to sustain a crop, enough to feed one and one's family. Greedy landowners are the Generals here who cruelly tax their tenants ever harder. Mother Nature herself is also a strict and tempestuous taskmaster as famine and disease strike.
The undoubted stars are the cinematography and the Mother of the title. There is a huge sweep of panoramic camera as harvesting scenes, rivalling that of Russian propaganda films and bright sharp colours fill every frame.
Nargis, as peasant woman, played by actress Radha, tells us the epic story of her life in flashback, charting how, as a young bride, she arrived at a farm mortgaged to an unscrupulous moneylender. Her husband is then injured in an accident and abandons her and their children, Radha perseveres to bring up her sons and cultivate the land.
As is often, so far as I can tell, the case with Indian drama, the family and its issues are paramount and great lengths are taken to explore all moral angles and Mother Earth is no different.
Yes, it does swell into high emotion and near melodrama but that's Indian cinema for you, but equally pathos and despair are equally and dramatically handled. The sound, though, is unfortunately, pretty ropey, breaking up with each sibilant word and with a background of quiet crackles.
One reviewer complained of poor subtitling - on my DVD (confirmed Amazon purchase) they are fine and include the lyrics to the songs, but maybe mine is a later release. The songs add to the narrative, not the other way around and much is dialogue. The singing is usually actually very lyrical and beautiful, so that it's welcomed, which isn't what I had expected to be the case.