Life & Style

Mother India remake? No way, says Vidya!

Actor feels the task would be unachievable.

Ians April 09, 2013

Mother India was one of the most expensive projects of its time. PHOTO: FILE

MUMBAI:

Remaking Mehboob Khan’s Oscar-nominated Mother India is an unachievable task, says actor Vidya Balan adding that if someone dared to attempt this, she wouldn’t be a part of it.

As a tribute to 100 years of the Indian cinema, Vidya has donned Nargis’s look from the 1957 cult film Mother India and Meena Kumari’s from the 1962-classic Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam for Cineblitz’s special edition.

But the actor, who entered filmdom with the Parineeta remake, has no intention of working in a Mother India remake.

“I don’t think anybody would even dare to remake Mother India and if someone does then I will salute him, but I will not do it. It is unachievable, really,” the 35-year-old actor said.

Mother India is known for Nargis Dutt’s power-packed performance as a righteous mother, who shoots down her son, played by Sunil Dutt, whom she married after the movie, for being on the wrong side of the law.

One of the most expensive projects of its time, the film is said to be a remake of Khan’s 1940 movie Aurat and it was India’s first submission for the Oscars category of Best Foreign Language Film, in 1958.

Talking about dressing up as Nargis in the same look, Vidya said, “It’s an honour for me to have recreated those two images. One is the image of Nargis from Mother India and when you think of those iconic images from the Indian cinema over time, it definitely features in the top three.”

“The other image we recreated was Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam and I remember seeing that picture when I was in school and finding it extremely intoxicating,” added Vidya, talking about Meena Kumari’s drunk look from the film.

Vidya is currently shooting for Shaadi Ke Side Effects with film-maker and actor Farhan Akhtar while the first look of her upcoming film Ghanchakkar with Emraan Hashmi, has already been released.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2013.

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