I have just seen this little sweet short and it reminded me how brilliant Farida Jalal is. Please stop making horrendous jokes about her performance in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) (SRK movies are not the only ones in which she played). Also, stop spreading false rumours about her death. Farida is well and alive. Even though she is 68 years old, she is still going strong as Bollywood’s veteran actress.
Instead of making fun of her SRK movies, small-minded whiners should watch such classics as Aradhana (1969), Bobby (1973) or Henna (1992). For your own sake, read this great article by Khalid Mohamed which sums up Farida Jalal's career: Happy Birthday Farida Jalal: B-Town’s Most Dependable Co-Actor; or even better, watch this heart-warming interview in which the actress discusses her life and film career.
Starting as a pretty young lady in Taqdeer (1967) and performing as "cute and bubbly" heroine throughout the 1970s, she eventually became the paragon of everyday mommy, aunty and granny. Observe her onscreen transformation through the decades here. Nevertheless, in my personal opinion, Farida Jalal's greatest achievement is her performance as Mehmooda Begum in Shyam Benegal's Mammo.
Farida Jalal is the driving force of this motion picture. Apart from the fact that she was not the first choice to play the leading part, she did the job flawlessly. Though she has many memorable roles, like, for instance, as the mother in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), I will associate her with this loud and big-hearted extrovert who Mammo Nani was. Farida Jalal is a true gem and a cinematic treasure of India. I wish you many more outstanding performances!
Rather than reviewing the
very first Bollywood movie I have seen, I decided to would be safer, and more interesting, to
analyse the movie that really startled me emotionally and eventually got me
into watching Indian movies. This is a film peculiarly called Mammo.
Language: HindiMovie Industry: BollywoodRuntime: 120 min
Plot
13-year-old Riyaz (Amit Phalke) lives a poor lifestyle in Bombay
with his grandmother, Fayyuzi (Surekha Sikri), until one day somebody knocks at their door. It
turns out that this is Mammo (Farida Jalal), Fayyuzi’s sister, who fled from her abusive
family in Pakistan to have a fresh start in India. Unfortunately, she has no
money and is allowed to stay in the country on a temporary visa only. Riyaz
does not suspect that the arrival of an unknown relative will completely turn
his life upside down...
Review
The first thing that is outwardly visible with this
film is that it was made in Bollywood. Yes, indeed, I can vividly imagine all
the yells and screams of the conservative cinema connoisseurs about all the downsides
of Bollywood movies: 3-hour long, dull, romantic stories; intermingled with
glittery, ear-splitting, musical stunts; flat characters and as convoluted
plots as possible; often, or almost always, ending on a happy note. Well, the
discussed movie does not match any of the enumerated features of a standard (in
our thinking) production straight from the Indian continent.
It is a fairly simple story, but still not a romance.
If one really wanted to categorise this particular motion picture, its best description
would probably be a social drama or a cinema of moral concern. What makes this
movie so unique is that its straightforward plot is easily applicable to every
culture of every nation in the world, thus the people of the West, can
without difficulty understand and relate to the presented story.
But what is all the fuss about basically? In short, it
is a movie about growing up, a struggle to find one’s own identity and a place
in modern society. However, what really is growing-up without parental love?
That is the crucial question posed by this movie. We have young Riyaz, who is
neither a child nor a teenager, orphaned by his mother, rejected by his father,
and cared for only by a grandmother who does not really know how to handle kids.
Then, all of a sudden, Mammo Nani arrives (Nani in Hindi means ‘grandma’), a rather extrovert person with,
subtly speaking, a strong tendency to utter words with the speed of a
machine gun and in a very loud manner. In other words, Mammo is not able to
keep her mouth shut, even in relation to strangers, whom she constantly greets
and tries to befriend. Needless to say, such an annoying relative, disrupting
the stillness of daily life, becomes quite a burden for young Riyaz. Riyaz
despises Mammo, he disowns her in front of his friends, and hopes everyday for
her departure. Nevertheless, Mammo Nani is the only person able to understand
the emotional misery of a young boy and within a period of only a few months,
she becomes a parental figure to him.
The interesting factor about this picture is that its
cast did not include any of the overblown and pompous Bollywood celebrities of the
90s. Instead, the makers decided to focus on less recognisable faces and this
proved to be a wise choice. The leading actress, Farida Jalal, is a real gem
and the driving force of this film and it has to be mentioned that in her
30-year long acting career of playing secondary characters and conventional
mother figures, it was her first(!) leading role and she did the job
flawlessly.
Unlike the rest of the boring adults, Mammo does not
follow a strict code of social etiquette. For instance, instead of reproaching Riyaz
for smoking, she encourages him to continue the habit so he could discover its
disadvantages on his own; rather than forcing him to attend school (which he
skips to watch Western movies at the cinema), she joins him to watch some Indian films instead; on top of that, she also teaches
him self-confidence and assertiveness while verbally abusing a thug in a bar.
Furthermore, the historical context of India’s
independence is important for understanding the relationship between Mammo and
Riyaz. Mammo was a victim of the Partition,
a territorial split in India which led to the creation of such countries as Pakistan
and Bangladesh. In 1947, the Muslims residing in India had to move to
Pakistan, whereas all the Hindus within Pakistani territory had to get to
India. This unusual flow between nationalities led to one of the most tragic conflicts
in history, when the people of both religions turned against each other. The
whole trauma of the event is reflected only in one scene of the film, through
Mammo’s recollections; however, we are not served with any "artistic" flashbacks or
some tear-jerking, incidental music in the background, but what we get is Mammo's own spoken
testimony and this is perhaps one of the most powerful scenes treating a
difficult subject in the form of just a conversation.
Moreover, the issue of corruption within the Indian administrative
institutions is also an important theme of the picture. Mammo is no longer seen
as an Indian citizen in the eyes of the law, although she was born there. She
has to plead with the police officials to be allowed to stay on a permanent
basis, yet her begging has no effect, thus in the end, she resorts to bribery.
She gives over 5000 rupees to the officer and the woman is led to believe that
she may stay with her sister and Riyaz, but it is a false assurance...
Recommendations
All things considered, Mammo is a wonderful, moving, and thought-provoking picture with a
surprising, bittersweet ending. If you are afraid of stumbling upon some tasteless
Bollywood flick, it is best to start your journey across Indian cinema with
this movie. This is my personal favourite non-English speaking film and I
recommend it to everyone who would like to spend a quiet evening, pondering
upon a simple story, or even to shed a few tears.
