bollywood loves its stereotypes for decades it has put mothers on a pedestal clad them in white sarees and whitewashed their character in our cinema a mother has been the picture of sacrificea martyr who fuels the dreams of her children with the kindling of her own unfulfilled onesand the zenith of chastity and virtue in formulaic films of the past she was often evoked when the heros conscience needed some polishing or was wielded out as a weapon if the protagonist was veering dangerously close to the grey area of villainy but over time in tandem with society the hindi film industry too has allowed its mothers to come of age the celluloid maa is no longer sentenced to a life of domesticity she has dusted off years of typecasting and is raring to go be it balancing a career along with the household or playing a friend to her homosexual son discussing her desires or powering through a geriatric pregnancyshe is exploring every facet of a mother that for so long was shrouded in the garbs of patriarchy since it is mothers day weekend we thought it was only apt that our bigstory charts out the course of this evolution by talking to actors and writers who have been the catalysts of change read ona peek at the pastgajra kottary writer until recently a mother was just someone that people wanted to look up to not someone complicatedwriter gajra kottary starts off by looking at the past at the time when mothers were figures who could do no wrong strength of character was something that was always associated with mothers for example in films like mother india or main tulsi tere aangan ki in fact it was for this reason that the mother of laaga chunari mein daag was hugely criticised by the audience as reallife moral ambivalence of a motherwho is also a woman with several other aspects to her life was disturbing for them until recently a mother was just someone that people wanted to look up to not someone complicated he points out adding that over the last few decades films have evolved they show mothers as interesting characters like the one played by dolly ahluwalia in vicky donor or lillette dubey in dil dhadakne do but these were still peacemakers and propellers for the main story the notable exception here is neena guptas character in badhaai ho he asserts shoma chatterji authorhistorian sparkling performances by vidya balan in kahaani 2 and sridevi in mom add to the beauty of the wellwritten charactersauthorhistorian shoma chatterji quotes one of bollywoods favourite onscreen mothers the late reema lagoo to make her point the actress who initiated the change in the way mothers were portrayed in filmsfrom the simpering and sobbing mothers to strong and modern mothershad once been quoted as saying that modernday mothers are different in the sense that they come across more like a friend to the children in hum aapke hain koun 1994 and