The Hindi film screen mother, like the Hindi film vamp, has made a rapid exit from contemporary films. One can barely find traces of her in the recent crop of Hindi movies. Be it action films of the bygone era, or the ever so popular family socials, no film was complete without the mandatory 'Ma' She was a larger than life figure who was able to reduce our brawny screen heroes into bawling wimps. On the occasion of Mother's Day, one would like to pay homage and revisit those filmy moments rendered immortal by the classic mother's touch.

No matter where one begins the story about the mother, one always has to come back to the famous scene from Deewar, where Ravi (Shashi Kapoor), the honest cop, tells his gangster brother Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan), that: "Mera paas Ma hai." The dialogue has since become history, and now passed onto what we call film lore. But it very succinctly expresses the position that a Nirupa Roy, a Durga Khote, a Sulochana, an Urmila Bhatt, a Kamini Kaushal or in later times, even a Raakhee or Waheeda Rehman, occupied in the Indian male psyche. The hero, the mother, the vamp and the sati savitri heroine, those were the fulcrums around which the Hindi film revolved. But a lot has changed in recent times, trends, fashions, why even men have become metrosexual. Women have choices today and there is no sati savitri ma or bahu. No other women typified the mother as the late Nirupa Roy did. She was synonymous with the word 'Ma'. She was a tough mother, who in film after film, brought up her son's the hard way honest way. And there was no way that she would put up with a Vijay. She would always stand by the honest Ravi, even though her heart cried out for her prodigal son. It was only in death, that Vijay was allowed die with his head in her lap. Durga Khote, was the other legendary filmi Ma, who could never be anything but sweet and helpless, even way back in Mughal e Azam, as Jodhabai, torn between her husband Akbar and son Salim.

The mother of all mothers, however was the late Nargis in the cult film, Mother India. The origins of Nirupa Roy's character has its roots in Nargis's portrayal of the mother who sacrifices her own son to save the entire village. She stands by the good son and kills the wayward son. There was another kind of vengeful mother played by Raakhee Gulzar in Karan Arjun, where her conviction supposedly forces her dead sons to reincarnate and take revenge on their killers.

But as time passed, trends changed, even the face of the mother changed. The Nirupa Roys were replaced by the Farida Jalals and the Reema Lagoos. The tradition of the mother was kept up by the Barjatiyas to an extend, and Karan Johar in his Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham. But the mother has now become 'mom' and gradually has become stilted and her portrayal has become cliched. She is gradullay in danger of becoming an endangered species, quite like the 'lorie', quintessentially a mother's song. The mandatory presence is there but the magic is missing. Maybe, we've all grown up and have no time for the mother to fuss over us with a glass of milk and give us moral lessons. But sometimes, like on this Mother's Day, one feels like saluting all those screen mothers, who have at times exasperated us, made us feel mushy at others, and even reduced us to tears in the comforting darkness of a cinema theatre. Movetalkies.com would like to say to all mothers.. Ma Tujhe Salaam!