Mom is the word, even for the Bhais

Bhais are back in business. At least, that’s the verdict by those who saw and liked Shootout at Lokhandwala. For those who saw and did not like the film (I for one), bhais were always there. They had gone nowhere, and they will continue to haunt your entertainment scene as long as Bollywood exists, that is forever. Never mind if it’s presented in Ram Gopal Varma style or Sanjay Gupta style.
But one thing that kept me hooked in the movie, even if I did not like it (and I am not going to give you the reasons, there are too many), was the character of Maya’s mother, played by Amrita Singh.
It was a pleasant surprise to see the goody-goody mothers of Bollywood turning an evil leaf. I nearly fell off my chair when the mom tells her wayward son to take a panga with the don in Dubai, and mouths the classic line: “Even he became a don by ousting someone else (so go ahead, kill your boss and be the supreme don).”
Wow. What’s wrong with Bollywood? It was the stepmothers who were supposed to be cruel, scheming and wicked. And moms were supposed to be simple souls, whose husbands had left them and they fought to fend off lecherous villains to bring up her two sons, both of whom will soon grow up, after singing some love songs, to find themselves on the both sides of the law. The poor mom’s elder son would turn out to be a good guy, a Rajendra Kumar, a Shashi Kapoor, a Jackie Shroff while her charismatic younger son would take up the law in his own hands, may be out of frustration, or out of need, or just to get his mother’s gold bangles from the villain, a Sunil Dutt, an Amitabh Bachchan, an Anil Kapoor.
In the Bollywood manufacturing of scripts, the mother had grown weaker while her sons turned into superstars. And trust me, they did so with the help of their moms. It was after Nargis killed Sunil Dutt in Mother India that Shashi Kapoor dared to say, mere paas ma hai, in Deewar meaning, don’t dare to mess with me, if you remember Mother India. But Nirupa Roy was not Nargis and when we came to Rakhi in Ram Lakhan, she was plain pathetic. She could not just decide about anything.
Therefore, Maya’s mom is a welcome change. Pray, why you need to be so-called ‘good.’ Be bad for a while and trust me, being bad is beautiful. Imagine what would have happened if instead of killing him, Rima Lagoo had protected Sanjay Dutt in Vastav.
After all our poor heroes go to their outlaw ways to please their mothers, to begin with, at least. So it’s time the mothers took some responsibilities. And protect their sons. Or at least support them.
After all, we Indian men are all mammas’ boys.