Mother India: The Movie

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Everyone should experience Mother India. It is one of Glasgow's most beloved curryhouses. It also serves as the mothership for the three (amazing) Wee Curry Shops, as well as the adroit tapas of Mother India's Cafe and the handy homeliness of Mother India's Dining In, which is just next door to the cafe. They are all fantastic.

There remains another Mother India, though: the epic 1957 melodrama about a woman who has to struggle with some unbelievable personal circumstances to look out for her family. This ain't no picnic. Previously on TATTGOC, we talked to Monir Mohammed, owner of Mother India, about the movie and some of his other Bollywood favourites. More recently, we saw this poster in an Edinburgh curryhouse. And while yes, it does look like a bazooka, it's not really that kind of film.




Thanks to the internet, it is now possible to watch the original Mother India online, either in the embedded video above or by clicking HERE. It's three hours long, there are no subtitles, and you're probably watching it on a tiny screen ... but there's still something remarkable about the film. (We recommend switching off annotations to get rid of pop-ups, and in the embedded version you can even sneakily jack it up to double speed.)

The bit with the bazooka (it's actually a plough) starts at around 1:03:00, a musical number that starts off quite maudlin but ends up pretty celebratory. Soon after (at around 1:08:00), a storm destroys and floods her village, she's neck-deep in water propping up some planks to keep her kids safe, and then she gets attacked by a water snake ... Mother India has it tough. While it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1958, Mother India lost out to Fellini's grim streetwalker tale Nights Of Cabiria. This lady just can't catch a break! In any case, Mother India – TATTGOC salutes you.

SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC POSTS
A Spicy Bite Before My Bloody Dhalentine
We've Got The Skinny On The Scottish Curry Awards 2013



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