Cinema’s moms are stepping down from their pedestals of perfection to get more real, raw and honest, with shades of grey. Sometimes, they are even messy, flawed, or plain chaotic. Recent times have seen several new shades to the filmy and OTT maa– from complicated (Tanve Azmi and Kajol in Tribhanga) to reluctant (Sheeba Chadha in Badhaai Do), to empowered-yet-flawed (Vidya Balan in Jalsa). Here’s more:

In the past, moms were either relegated to the sidelines of cinema, or put up on a pedestal and in either case, their whole identity centred around their kids. Often, their only flaw was that they loved their kids a tad much.

But, as Renuka Shahane – who wrote and directed Tribhanga (2021), a film about a dysfunctional and unconventional family of three women – puts it, “Ultimately, mothers are human. That is what is reflected in new-age films. Directors are also realising that mothers too have shades to their characters. In Tribhanga, while one of the mothers has had many affairs after her divorce, Kajol’s character had a daughter born out of wedlock. I think these scenarios are very real, relatable, and most people are accepting these changes.”

National Award winning actress Urvashi, who has won acclaim for playing Suriya’s mother in Soorarai Pottru (2020) and RJ Balaji’s mother in Mookuthi Amman (2020), shares, “For one to see the flaws and imperfection in mothers, they have to be looked at as human beings. If you look at mothers in older films, you’ll see they were never the lead actors. They were the hero’s or heroine’s mothers and past a certain age. They don’t have any other priorities, feelings, or thoughts. For them, it’s all about raising their kids and grandkids. That was the concept back then. As an actor, I don’t always want to play the soft and kind mother who doesn’t do much else.”

Madhoo Shah, who’s acted in films across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada, adds, “I was an actor in the ’90s and now, in 2022, I’m playing a lot of mother roles. And most of the characters I play are that of women who have left their unhappy marriages, single mothers raising kids alone, or women who start their careers or find their partners late in life. The characters these days reflect the current generation of mothers. I’m a mother, and my children are very important to me, but my focus is also on myself – my life, wellbeing, appearance, and all that. The attitude was different among the older generation. Their life was all about their husband and children. They went through a very sacrificial, martyrdom kind of motherhood. Whereas right now, there’s a lot of emphasis on self-care.”

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Recently, the film Badhaai Do featured two mother characters, who were a rare departure from the stereoptypical Bollywood moms. Sheeba Chadha – who played Rajkummar Rao’s mother in the film – said she enjoyed playing the role oft he unconventional, and rather ‘reluctant’ mother, who rarely participates in her family’s discussions.

Sheeba says, “Her non participation was the most interesting thing for me because that is really different from those conservative mom roles that one gets offered. I love her desire to not participate at all. She has a great degree of reluctance – she’s not just a reluctant mom, she is a reluctant human being (laughs). It is an interesting quality to explore as it is totally contradictory to what usually mothers are – mothers want to be present and to be contributing,” she said.

Loveleen Mishra, who played Bhumi Pednekar’s ‘hyper’ mom, told us, “My character is so hyper all the time, forget inner, most of her contemplations are outer. Uski life ke funde hi yehi hai. Usko aata nahi isse zyada sochna. There is a situation in the film, when Sumi (Bhumi) comes out to her family, and she is not just horrible, but extremely horrible in this situation. I could not get myself to believe – aisi chandalika maa bhi hoti hai.”

— with inputs from Dharitri Ganguly

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Several of the Oscar nominated films in 2022, featured chaotic and messy moms. While Olivia Colman was a complicated, cruel and distant mother in The Lost Daughter, Meryl Streep was seen feeding her on-screen son to the climate apocalypse in Don’t Look Up. At the same time, Parallel Mothers showed how maternal devotion can skew one’s sense of right and wrong. The Oscar eventually went to Jessica Chastain for her role in The Eyes Of Tammy Faye – in which she plays a character that feels frequently sidelined from her job due to her maternal duties.