The receding mother figure

This chapter examines the sacred figure of the “Mother” deeply respected in Indian cinema (especially the Hindi films of the 1950s) retreating in film narrative and the individual coming to the forefront in Ray’s cinema. Through this chapter I argue that motherhood is not the ultimate goal for women, but a way of essentialising womanhood through the social roles associated with it. While Sarbojaya remains the quintessential self-sacrificing mother of the 1950s, by the time we come to reading Joya the mother in her is pushed aside to give way to her individual desires and longing. An issue is also what this would say about the changing milieu Ray worked in.