THE MUSICAL POST: MOTHER INDIA

It’s hard to think of musical films without mentioning Indian cinema. As a homage to Bollywood and their forever musical movies, here is the all time classic Mother India, directed by Mehboob Khan. It was the first Indian film to be nominated at the Oscars.

In this 1957 melodrama starring Nargis, Sunil Dutt and Rajendra Kumar, a woman struck by poverty has to raise her children alone, despite the hardships cast by an evil moneylander. After an accident, her invalid husband decides to leave to allow her to marry again. In this video, she goes to the city to look for him.

Not the most cheerful tune but by far the one that struck me the most in this epic film.The singing voice, however, as it was the custom in Bollywood, does not belong to the leading actress but to someone else: playback singer Lata Mangeshka. 

So enjoy the clip, 

and Viddy Well, 

E.D.

P.S.: I always wondered if the camels passing by in the background were planned as part of the shot...