Top Ten maas of Bollywood

A look at actresses who played the role of the mom with élan and left an everlasting impression on cinegoers

Nadira Babbar with her spirited performance in ‘Jai Ho’ will surely be welcomed into the list of Maas in our cinema. In a milieu that is often accused of a strong mother fixation and a culture that has celebrated the respect for the Mother, it is but obvious that the role of a mother is important and perhaps very vital in our cinema.. We take a look at ten actresses who have ruled the roost as the Mother in our cinema. One would expect that the list starts with Nargis who immortalised the role of a mother in Mother India, but nay this is not a list of women who projected the role of a powerful Mom (Suchitra in Mamata, Sharmila in Aradhana etc) but those who played the role repeatedly and with success.

1. Durga Khote: As part of the ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ team she immortalised the role of a mother. As the lady torn between the commands of her husband and the demands of her son, she held a balance that added a degree of class to the masterpiece. She too started her career in the 1930s and went to act in films right up to the 1980s. Half a century!! Actually lived long enough for her son (Raj Kiran) to come back as reincarnation as Rishi in ‘Karz’.

2. Lalita Pawar: An actress who held her place in our cinema for nearly seven decades!! What an achievement! Remember Mantra in Sagar’s Television version of the Ramayana- directors always went to her when they wanted the mother you would want to hate. Yet she also played some wonderful roles of emotions like in ‘Anari’ and ‘Shri 420’.

3. Achla Sachdev: While others in the category had to be satisfied with playing the Mom who suffered, she got a song rendered for in romantic mode even on being the mother of three in a film in the 60s!! To this day Balraj Sahani’s ‘Eh mere Zohra Zabeen’ is a favourite with lovers of film music. The mother of the sixties, she was often the mild mom and the picture of eternal suffering except in rare times like in ‘Kora Kagaz’ (mother of Jaya Bahaduri) and ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ (Dev and Zeenat’s Mom).

4. Kamini Kaushal: Manoj Kumar chose her for ‘Shaheed’ and since then for over a decade she was the constant mom who wept in white and informed the hero of his duties to get the suffering sister married. She graduated from heroine to mom to grand mom and was seen even in ‘Chennai Express’ with a role that had the superstar going all the way to Chennai to satisfy her wishes.

5. Leela Chitnis: Like most others, she too started her career as a heroine and then moved on to play the ageing mom. A subtle actress is said to have replaced the great Devika Rani in the number game. As a heroine alongside Ashok Kumar, she played mom to the thespian Dili Kumar and lasted in the role for over four decades. Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan are among her famous screen children.

6. Nirupa Roy: Her route to fame was mythological. Her earlier career was about playing mythological characters till Bimal Roy got her to share screen space with the great Balraj Sahani in ‘Do Bigha Zameen’ and what a pair they made, down up to ‘Jawani Diwani’ where she was bhabi, not Maa. However, it is for her that the famous “mere paas maa hai” dialogue was written by Salem-Jaaved-incidentally a role that came to her by default after Vyjayantimala was first considered for the role of Amitabh’s mom in ‘Deewar’. She is rightfully considered the Maa of all moms at Bollywood.

7. Sulochana: She came to Bollywood through Marathi cinema and also played the ever suffering mom to the hilt. I do not recall a film where she was a rich mom. Doomed by every script to poverty and widowhood, she was a favourite with directors who looked for the mother who suffered and wanted her self-righteous code of conduct to rub off on her son. ‘Majboor’ where she played Amitabh’s mom, got her many roles through the 70s and 80s.

8. Dina Pathak: The mother of parallel cinema or midway cinema. Directors like Hrishkesh Mukherjee and Basu Chaterjee chose her for roles where the mom had more to do than just weep her way through the script. The scene where she enters the Amol Palekar household through the kitchen window is a hilarious recall of this talented actress-a scene replicated by Archana Puran Singh in ‘Bol Bachchan’. Do not miss her in ‘Namkeen’ as the mother of Waheeda, Sharmila, Shabana and Kiran Vairele.

9. Waheeda Rehman: Grace is her middle name. After playing alongside Amitabh, she went on to play his Mom. Big B has gone public about his admiration for this actor and who is not!! Seen as recently in films like ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Delhi 6’, she has the unique position of playing Mom to two generations of Bachchans.

10. Raakhe: She had the knack of giving birth to not just one son but two who were heroes in the script: Ram Lakhan, Karan-Arjun …. From one who played alongside Big B age got to move on to ‘more mature roles’ (read mom of the Khans- Shah Rukh and Salman, Anil Kapoor and Jackie Shroff). When the script required a mom with fire in her belly and the guts to take on the baddies like Amrish Puri, Raakhe was the wanted mom.

Obviously the list will be noted for its exclusions like Reema Lagoo, Nutan, etc., the exclusion is based on the fact that they perhaps did not occupy the same screen space as moms or leave an impact as everlasting moms and had other strong images.