Indian cinema’s long history of eulogising mothers has always “annoyed” actor Vidya Balan as she believes it prevents them from being seen as people who can be flawed.
In her recently released film Shakuntala Devi, Vidya played the titular math genius, who is not the perfect parent to her daughter Anupama Banerjee.
“People are realising that mothers are human beings. A friend of mine wrote to me saying she realised she never looked at her mother as a person but just a mother.
“I’m getting long messages of appreciation, about personal experiences and moments from the film that they enjoyed, how they realised that children should not expect their parents to be perfect,” Vidya told PTI in an interview.
Directed by Anu Menon, Shakuntala Devi streams on Amazon Prime Video. The film’s supporting cast includes Sanya Malhotra, Jisshu Sengupta and Amit Sadh.
In Indian cinema’s long history, Vidya said, there has never been an attempt to understand the personal side of a mother. They are meant to be self-sacrificing and empathetic without personal ambitions.
Vidya believes women are often portrayed in shades of good or evil though there is an attempt to explore different facets of their personality in cinema now.
The guilt of a mother, Vidya said, comes from being passionate about something outside the family due to the patriarchal thinking. (PTI)
