Mammo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Mammo |
| Country of production | India |
| original language | Hindi / Urdu |
| Publishing year | 1994 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Shyam Benegal |
| script |
Khalid Mohamed (story and screenplay) Shama Zaidi (screenplay and dialogues) Javed Siddiqui (dialogues) |
| production | National Film Development Corporation and Doordarshan |
| music | Vanraj Bhatia |
| camera | Prasann Jain |
| cut | Aseem Sinha |
| occupation | |
| |
Mammo ( Hindi मम्मो Mammo ) is a 1994 Indian feature film directed by Shyam Benegal .
action
The young author Riyaz lives with his grandmother Fayyazi in Bombay when one day his sister Mammo, who once lived with them for a few months, comes to mind. A doorbell rings a flashback to this time of his youth in the early 1970s.
Mammo comes to visit from Lahore unannounced . Her husband has died and the childless mammo was bullied by his family. After a long effort, she finally got a three-month tourist visa. But her sister's reception is reserved. Riyaz in particular is upset that he has to give up his room for his aunt. The boy is eager to learn, intellectual, listens to Beethoven and Vivaldi and has a movie poster of The Kid hanging in the corner of his room. To his grandmother's disappointment, he wants to become a writer.
The very next day, Riyaz has to accompany Mammo to register at the immigration office and misses his first lesson. He presents her to his classmates as a rich aunt from Dubai. On the very same day, Riyaz knows how to take advantage of Mammo's presence: with the help of two of her burqas, he and his friend Rohan get into the adult cinema show of Hitchcock's Psycho . In the evening, Mammo notices that Riyaz is secretly smoking and learns the real use of the burqas, which were supposedly used for a play at the school. With the promise not to say anything to the grandmother, Mammo wins Riyaz's trust.
The third sister, Anwari, comes to Bombay with her husband Sabir. Upon meeting her, Mammo causes a furor when she accuses her and her husband of selling the family property in Panipat and taking all the proceeds without paying the other sisters. At this meeting, Riyaz also learns from Sabir that his father is still alive. Riyaz is deeply upset about his grandmother, who made him believe that the father died with the mother in a car accident. He turns to Mammo and discovers a common interest in poetry; she is in love with Faiz Ahmed Faiz , he with Khalil Gibran . He receives a letter from the father he wrote to, in which he sends a check for 1000 rupees, but otherwise does not want any contact. Mammo contributes to the upkeep by providing private Quran lessons for girls.
During a visit to the slum where the housemaid Shantabai lives with her violent husband, Mammo Riyaz talks about her experiences during the partition of India and how she went with her husband to his family in Pakistan . Inspired by these life experiences, at the suggestion of Riyaz and his grandmother, they watch the thematically appropriate new movie Garm Hava . After the visa expires, Mammo is able to extend her residence permit by just under a month at Inspector Apte at the immigration office.
Mammo is secretly preparing a party for Riyaz's 15th birthday and has all of his schoolmates invited through friend Rohan. But Riyaz is anything but enthusiastic, since he has so far avoided allowing anyone other than Rohan to come home. He is ashamed of his middle class background, since his classmates come from wealthy parents. After an angry scolding from Riyaz, Mammo runs away sadly. After a long search they find her in the Haji Ali Dargah and can persuade her to return.
Via the agent Raju, they contact Inspector Apte and negotiate a “disappearance” of the foreigner's file on Mammo in return for a bribe. But this measure only helps for a short time, because after the transfer of Aptes Mammo is picked up by the police at home and expelled from the country because of the expired visa and taken to the train to Pakistan. Riyaz reaches the station with the departure of the train.
Back to the time of the adult author Riyaz, who is just finishing his story about Mammo at the typewriter . They have not been able to find her for the past 20 years. The doorbell rings and the aged Mammo enters. This time they are fabricating a death certificate from the city administration of Bombay about Mammo's death, which is to be sent to the Pakistani high commission in Delhi and the immigration authorities to prevent another deportation.
Awards
The film received awards for Best Hindi Film (Shyam Benegal and NFDC) and Best Supporting Actress (Surekha Sikri) at the National Film Awards for 1995 . Farida Jalal, the only Muslim actress in the film, won the 1995 Filmfare Awards Critics' Prize for Best Actress .
Others
The film set designer was Samir Chanda , the costumes were designed by Pia Benegal . The text for the film song by Vanraj Bhatia was written by Gulzar and the song was sung by Jagjit Singh .
Mammo has been featured at the following international film festivals : the Jerusalem Film Festival 1995, the Birmingham Film Festival 1995, the Cairo International Film Festival 1995, the Canberra International Film Festival 1996 and the Indian Panorama of the International Film Festival of India .
literature
- Mammo . In: Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen: Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema , 1999, pp. 520 f.
Web links
- Mammo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mammo NFDC
Individual evidence
- ↑ Playing time according to NFDC-DVD