A Mama's Story

When I first saw the 1948 film ‘I remember Mama’, I felt proud and happy at the end of it. Normally, after viewing a film belonging to the genre of motherhood, particularly the ones that ooze the very essence of motherhood marvellously with their unflinching devotion and tender ways, I tend to get reminded of my own mother. I get transported to those days, which I still yearn for, where father is the head of the family but you are nevertheless taken under the loving shelter of your mother, the problem solver, the ultimate controller of the happenings. But today I’m bubbling with pride because I not only relate the central character to my mother, but I saw shades of myself in her. There were several moments in the movie that has beautifully struck a sharp chord on me. I shall write on one such moment. There was this particular point in the film where the mother, played by Irene Dunne, promises her fourth daughter that she would be near her once her surgery is done. But due to the rules laid out by the hospital, the mother is refused to visit her daughter for 24 hrs. Because she doesn’t want to go back on her promise and because she was dying to see her child well, she plans on visiting her child that very night in the guises of a floor cleaner. For most of us, this act only would suffice to prove the concerns of a doting and caring mother. But to me it was the scene that followed that that was almost magical. She enters her daughter’s ward and finds her little angel lying on bed, trying to go to sleep. She sings her a lullaby in her angelic voice that puts the rest of children to sleep as well. But the whole beauty of the scene comes after that when Dunne walks out of the room as soon as the duty nurse returns. The nurse observes the room and notices that there is a change, that there is a wonderfully soothing, almost berceuse silence emanating from the room, that for a minute she wondered if that was the very same room she had left a couple of minutes ago. For me, that was the icing of this delicious cake. Not because of the effort she took to see her daughter and keep her word but because of the ethereal effect her song had on the entire ward. It was a wonderfully treated scene by director George Stevens. The movie definitely sums up the everlasting magical effect a mother can provide her family. And to me, it was a gentle reminder of the mother within me that it kindles my heart to even think of it. This film wasn’t just about a mother but a tale of a woman of solid substance. She is a wife, daughter, niece and a sister too. Her responsibilities stretches beyond her family. And she doesn’t waver in her love towards anyone, although we know for certain that it is not easy to care for everyone with the same wavelength. To put down my higher innermost thoughts on the movie, I should say it was a self-introspection in several ways for me, even from the rare and rather unusual scenes. Everyone ought to watch this film at least once in their lifetime to witness the unquestionable splendour of motherhood as well as womanhood, played perfectly by Irene Dunne.