The conditions of the loan are disputed, but the village elders decide in favour of the moneylender, after which Shamu and Radha are forced to pay three-quarters of their crop as interest on the loan of ₹500 (valued at about US$105 in 1957). The wedding between Radha and Shamu ( Raaj Kumar) is paid for by Radha's mother-in-law, who borrows the money from the moneylender Sukhilala ( Kanhaiyalal). She remembers her past when she was newly married. When construction of an irrigation canal to the village is completed, Radha ( Nargis), considered to be the "mother" of the village, is asked to inaugurate the canal. The film opens in the year 1957, the present day at the time of filming. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, becoming the first Indian film to be ever nominated.
The film won the All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film, the Filmfare Best Film Award for 1957, and Nargis and Khan won the Best Actress and Best Director awards respectively. Mother India became a definitive cultural classic and is regarded as one of the best films in Indian cinema. It was released in India amid fanfare in October 1957 and had several high-profile screenings, including one at the capital, New Delhi, attended by the country's president and prime minister. Adjusted for inflation, Mother India still ranks among the all-time Indian box office hits. The film was one of the most expensive Indian ( Bollywood) productions and earned the highest revenue for any Indian film at that time. The music by Naushad introduced global music, including Western classical music and orchestra, to Hindi cinema. The film was shot in Mumbai's Mehboob Studios and in the villages of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh. While some authors treat Radha as the symbol of women empowerment, others see her cast in female stereotypes. Allusions to Hindu mythology are abundant in the film, and its lead character has been seen as a metonymic representation of an Indian woman who reflects high moral values and the concept of what it means to be a mother to society through self-sacrifice.
Mother India metaphorically represents India as a nation in the aftermath of its independence in 1947, and alludes to a strong sense of Indian nationalism and nation-building. The title of the film was chosen to counter American author Katherine Mayo's 1927 polemical book Mother India, which vilified Indian culture.
A remake of Khan's earlier film Aurat (1940), it is the story of a poverty-stricken village woman named Radha (Nargis), who in the absence of her husband, struggles to raise her sons and survive against a cunning money-lender amidst many troubles. Mother India is a 1957 Indian epic drama film, directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Nargis, Raaj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar and Sunil Dutt.
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