Moms in our movies have just got a lot cooler. From oooh la la la Lilette Dubey to the hip Ratna Pathak Shah in Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, they are a far cry from the sobbing, suffering and sacrificing mothers in earlier movies, who would toil till they died for their laadla betas. It seems like only yesterday, that two screen sons in Yash Chopra’s Deewaar fought for Nirupa Roy’s attention as though their life depended on it. One remembers Shashi Kapoor shutting up Amitabh Bachchan with Salim-Javed’s classic line, Mere paas maa hai, and that little boy in Raja Aur Runk Master Mahesh singing, O maa tu kitni achi hai tu kitni bholi hai. Contrary though to their all-giving, all-sacrificing on screen maternal images, there were mothers of yesteryear, who seemed distinctly different from their on-screen avatars. There were those who loved beverages of the stronger kind and there is another who one hears drinks heavily and pushes around her domestic help!

Mirroring reality: Shabana Azmi