मेरे पास...माँ है।

Mere paas…maa hai!

I have…Mom!

This classic line from the film Deewaar (1975) exemplifies the deep bond between mother and son that is the core of Bollywood cinema. The scene unfolds in a dark alleyway in the city of Bombay. Estranged brothers--Ravi Verma, a righteous cop with unquestionable integrity (Shashi Kapoor), and Vijay Verma, a down and dirty gangster (Amitabh Bachchan)--confront each other. The choices these brothers have made have taken their lives in two different directions: Ravi’s life of righteous penury spent caring for his feeble mother; and Vijay’s life of riches built on violence and dishonesty.
Vijay prods Ravi on the value of his moral rectitude. “What’s it ever got you?” he asks. “Look at me! I have a mansion, a car, servants at my beck and call! And you? What do you have?” Ravi, his unwavering gaze piercing his brother’s bravado, his quivering lips belying his emotional vulnerability, says, “I have…Mom!”

And that’s all it takes to bust Vijay’s bubble. For all his machismo and arrogance, it’s his mother’s disappointment in him that is the chink in this gangster’s armour. And so it is for many a Bollywood protagonist, be he a villain or a hero. The Bollywood villain may be capable of flaying his hapless victims alive, but one word from his mum is all it takes to turn the tough-guy into a softie. The Bollywood hero will go to any lengths, even forsake the love of his life, to ensure that no harm comes to his mother. Entire movie plots are based on heroes avenging past affronts to mommy-dearest.
This child-parent relationship does not hold true for mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters or fathers and sons in Bollywood cinema.

The basic message here is that a brown man would do anything for his mom. Oedipus, eat your heart out. [Watch "Deewaar" at http://moovieshoovie.com ]

Tadka Dal:

Maternal love can transform mild-mannered poets into justice-hungry vigilantes, and hard-hearted scoundrels into repentant wretches.

The Source:

Mother-son bonds are a strong theme in ancient Indian myth. In the Mahabharata, the epic tale of the battle between the Pandava and Kaurava cousins, one of the main reasons for the Pandavas prevailing over the Kauravas is the sway Kunti (the matriarch of the Pandava clan) has over Karna (her son separated from her at birth and, due to bizarre circumstances, fighting for the rival Kaurava clan). It’s a complicated story, to understate things to an extreme. But the gist is that Karna betrays the side he’s fighting for in order to keep a promise he made to his mommy. Nasty stuff.

Photo from http://www.imdb.com