Anandi’s visit to her parents place and the memories that she remembers on the footsteps of her maternal home makes you go back in time in the life of this protagonist. Her memories are of a happy home with her mother plaiting her hair and her father’s helping hand at all times. Simpler times, just the unconditional love of parents to cushion you from all hurt.
You can instantly see the freeing of spirit that one feels when they enter their mayaka. Anandi in all her excitement runs to embrace her mother and is abruptly stopped at the entrance of the room with the scene that unfolds in front of her. Her mother in her death bed, watched over by relatives when it should have been her tending to her bedridden parent. The nuances of the pain and the cry of helplessness stay in your conscience when you see this scene unfold.
We as viewers watched the beauty of a mother-daughter relationship so poignantly portrayed, it was perfection till the end. This bond brought sheen of tears in once eyes. The love, the repentance, above all the forgiveness that is implicit and explicit was given by anandi and taken by bhago. What mother longs for in the end is her daughter’s happiness. She extracts a promise that would lead Anandi towards a bright future.
“Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My mother” - Anonymous
The one shot that brought the beauty of the relationship was of Anandi lying on Bhago as the past comes knocking and her memories from her childhood bring about a heart wrenching beauty of a mother-daughter relationship that lay broken with Bhago’s death. Amazingly Brilliant! I do not think there is any other relationship that can ever be on par than this one. The selfless love and total dedication that a mother has for her children is a revered relationship that will always transcend time.
At the end, Bhago was simply a mother with human failings but her love for her daughter was never in question. She was simply a woman who was bogged down by tradition of her times. She took a single misstep and spent her entire lifetime trying to rectify it. She lamented from the moment Anandi got married and was never at peace with the way her daughter’s life turned out. Her maternal instinct
always came into action when she saw her daughter’s travails but in the end she was simply a loving mother and a homely soul who could do nothing against the traditional values that have been impressed upon her.
Nowhere in life should a daughter be put in a situation where she has to be the one to dress up her mom as a bride in her death. The rollercoaster swell of emotions in seeing a daughter putting the sindoor, the earrings and the bangles on her mother downright breaks your heart.
What brought out the ray of hope in all this emotional rollercoaster was the changing of times and the importance of being an equal. Once upon a time, the villagers wouldn’t have allowed a daughter to be present at the pyre but this time it is dadisa who steps forward and gives her the much needed support to take anandi to the cremation grounds. This is indeed a turning point in the history of Indian culture. This was the defining movement in the whole sequence, the breaking of centuries old traditions but at the same time doing it in a way that the audiences feel the nuances of the change. In a country, strapped with traditions, this is definitely moving the girl child forward! Kudos, to the makers for this important message.
In a way her character was iconic to me just because she was the most gentlest of souls who loved her daughter unconditionally. Anandi’s mom embodied everything that is gentle, loving and above all someone with normal human failings.
Life has indeed come full circle in the life of Anandi. With her mother’s death and her extraction of the promise, I am glad that this girl who has gone through so much in life has a ray of hope in the end after all!
Wriiten by:
Shreeya Gupta
