Youngistan!

Our films are turning younger day by day and our stars too are looking better with age. Devesh Sharma reflects on the ‘ever youth’ phenomenon...

- Devesh Sharma

Back when the gods of cinema were young, mothers were really, really old in our films. Sulochana, who played screen mom to Sunil Dutt, Dev Anand and Rajesh Khanna in several films was a contemporary of Sunil Dutt and Dev Anand and was just 15 years older than Khanna. Yet she was made to look like she was in her 70s in most films. The same was the case with Nirupa Roy, mother to Amitabh Bachchan in several sagas. She was just a decade older than the angry superstar. But she was made to look as old as God Almighty. It looked like the weight of the world was on their shoulders. They were mostly clad in the same faded saree throughout, never mind the fact that their sons wore bespoke clothing.

Cut to cool mom Reema Lagoo in films such as Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun! She brought a breath of fresh air to the character of the mother. She not only looked authentically middle-aged but was in sync with the times and wasn’t averse to a bit of flirting. She paved the way for such actresses as Farida Jalal, Kirron Kher, and Ratna Pathak, all of whom managed to mix a little oomph and sass with their maternal instincts on screen. Cut to the present and you have Neena Gupta, playing a woman with grown-up children having another go at motherhood in the recent hit Badhaai Ho! As an indicator of the changing tastes of viewers and viewpoints, the film raced right into the 100crore club without breaking a sweat. Three cheers to that.