''Maa'' (Mother) is a 1952

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

-language social family drama directed by

Bimal Roy Bimal Roy (12 July 1909 – 8 January 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as ''Do Bigha Zamin'', ''Parineeta (1953 film), Parineeta'', ''Biraj Bahu'', ''Devdas (1955 film), D ...

for

Bombay Talkies Bombay Talkies was a movie studio founded in 1934. During its period of operation, Bombay Talkies produced 40 movies in Malad, a suburb of the Indian city of Bombay. The studio was established in 1934 by Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. After Ra ...

. Bimal Roy was asked to come to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

from

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

to direct the film for the studio, which was going through bad times. Bombay Talkies' earlier favourite

Leela Chitnis Leela Chitnis (''née'' Nagarkar; 9 September 1909 – 14 July 2003) was an Indian actress in the Indian film industry, active from 1930s to 1980s. In her early years she starred as a romantic lead, but she is best remembered for her later role ...

was cast in the eponymous role of Mother. This was the first film Roy directed in Bombay. Later, he was to break away and form his own production company: Bimal Roy Productions. The first film he produced and directed under his new banner was ''

Do Bigha Zameen ''Do Bigha Zamin'' () is a 1953 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Bimal Roy. Based on Rabindranath Tagore's Bengali poem " Dui Bigha Jomi", the film stars Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy in lead roles. Known for its socialist theme, it is ...

'' (1953), the next year. The cinematographer was Josef Wirsching. The film's music was composed by S. K. Pal with lyrics by

Bharat Vyas Bharat Vyas (1918–1982) was a noted Indian lyricist who wrote the songs for Hindi films in 1950s and 1960s. Biography Bharat Vyas was born in Bikaner in British India on 06 January 1918 in Pushkarna Brahmin family. He studied B.Com. at Calcutta ...

. The film co-starred

Bharat Bhushan ''Bharatbhushan Bhalla'' better known as ''Bharat Bhushan'' (14 June 1920 – 27 January 1992) was an Indian actor in Hindi language films, scriptwriter and producer, who is best remembered for playing Baiju Bawra in the 1952 film of the sam ...

Shyama Shyama may refer to: * Shyama (Hindi actress) (1935–2017), Indian actress in Hindi films * Shyama (Malayalam actress) (?–1996), Indian actress in Malayalam and Tamil films * Shyama (Jain monk) ( 247 BC–151 BC), Jain monk * Shama Dulari ( 19 ...

Nazir Hussain Nazir Hussain (15 May 1922 – 16 October 1987) was an Indian actor, director and screenwriter. He was famous as a character actor in Hindi cinema and acted in almost 500 films. Dev Anand starred in a large proportion of the films he acted in ...

Mehmood Mahmud is a transliteration of the male Arabic given name (), common in most parts of the Islamic world. It comes from the Arabic triconsonantal root Ḥ-M-D, meaning ''praise'', along with ''Muhammad''. Siam Mahmud *Mahmood (singer) (born 1 ...

and B. M. Vyas. The story was said to be adapted loosely from the old Hollywood film ''Over The Hills'', which was about a "self-sacrificing son and his mother". According to B. D. Garga, the film's sentimental melodrama was handled with intelligence and finesse by Roy, which stopped it from becoming a "mushy tear-jerker".

Plot

Chanderbabu (

), a retired postmaster, lives in the village with his wife (

) and two sons, Rajan (Paul Mahendra) and Bhanu (

). He continues to live there and work for the Zamindar (landowner), while his children are getting their education. Rajan is studying for his law exam. He is married to a girl (Padma) from a wealthy family whose haughty ways alarm and frightens him. Bhanu, the younger brother is fun-loving but studious. He gets influenced by the Nationalist Movement in the campus and stops his education in the last year of college. His father is disappointed and feels that Rajan is the one they can depend upon in their old age. Bhanu meets Meena (

), and the two fall in love. Meera's father, Ramnarayan, is the school Principal and is impressed by Bhanu. He decides to get Meera married to Bhanu. Rajan's law exams are nearing and he needs Rs. 300 to pay the fees. His wife refuses to get him the money. Chanderbabu tries all avenues to get the money but fails to do so. Bhanu, returning from a fair one night hears the cries of "Thief, thief". He sees his father being pursued by a crowd and immediately runs ahead of them. The crowd thinking him to be the thief, hand him over to the police. He is jailed for one year. On his return, Rajan, who by now has passed his exam, refuses to let him meet their father. The father is ashamed and wants to apologise to Bhanu for suffering on his account. He is sick in bed, but when he hears of Bhanu coming to meet him he tries rushing out but dies. Bhanu leaves from there thinking his parents don't want to meet him. The mother is now bereft and insanely roaming the streets looking for Bhanu. She's informed that Bhanu is dead, and she now lives as a maidservant in her son Rajan's house. Finally, with Meena's help, Bhanu meets his mother and takes her away from Rajan's house.

Cast

as Bhanu *

as Meena *

as Mrs. Chandra *

as Chandra * Paul Mahendra as Raju *

Achala Sachdev Achala Sachdev (3 May 1920 – 30 April 2012) was an Indian actress who appeared in classic films of Hindi language film industry. She was from Peshawar and started her career as a child actor. She later became known for mother and grandmother ...

* Kumud as Padma * Kusum Deshpande * B. M. Vyas *

Soundtrack

The music was composed by S. K. Pal with lyrics by

. The singers were

Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar (born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly (); 4 August 1929 – 13 October 1987) was an Indian playback singer and actor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest, most influential and dynamic singers in the history of Indian music. He ...

Manna Dey Prabodh Chandra Dey (May 1, 1919 − October 24, 2013), known by his stage name Manna Dey, was an internationally acclaimed and celebrated Indian playback singer, music director, and a musician. As a classical vocalist, he belonged to the Bhen ...

Asha Bhosle Asha Bhosle (; Mangeshkar; born 8 September 1933) is an Indian playback singer, entrepreneur and occasional actress and television personality who predominantly works in Indian Cinema. Known for her versatility, she has been described in the ...

, Afzal,

Geeta Dutt Geeta Dutt (born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer and a famous Hindi and Bengali classical artist, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a ...

and Arun Kumar.

Song list

References

External links