Mother’s Day: 5 Movies Steer Clear of Cliched Portrayals Of motherhood

This Renuka Shahane directorial was produced by Ajay Devgn, Deepak Dhar, and Siddharth P. Malhotra and deals with unspoken issues that can complicate the relationship between mothers and daughters.

This Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao production depicts the courage it takes for a mother to stand up to patriarchy and abuse within the family unit to protect her children. The Advait Chandan directrial also asks pertinent questions about why the girl child is denied the freedom to chase her dreams under one pretext or another? And why must she hide her true self if she wants to succeed in our milieu?

Aijaz Khan directorial portrays the difficulties of a mother who must raise her child alone while dealing with enormous personal grief and loss.  The  film is about a devastated Kashmiri family where the father  has gone missing, leaving behind his seven-year-old son Hamid and Ishrat, his grieving wife.  Rasika Dugal  poignantly depicts the struggle of a mother whose child (played by Talha Arshad Reshi) wants answers she cannot give. How the two deal with their loss to once again bond with each other brings the film to a healing conclusion.

Devashish Makhija film is not exactly about a mother but about the primal maternal instinct to protect and avenge a wrong done to a beloved child. The film reminds us that the  safety of the girl child cannot be ensured by slogans and must be addressed on a societal level.