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Mother India review

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1957 · Hindi · 2h 55m · Drama · CBFC U

Keep your shortlist together and see where it’s streaming

Filmi Score

Very good

4 reviews · provisional

2 exceptional1 very good1 good

What the critics say

Critics call Mother India an enduring, landmark epic anchored by Nargis's career-defining performance and Naushad's music, though many note its rural romanticism and patriarchal framing of women now feel dated.

Audience Score · not yet · appears once three readers have written a review

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Age guidance

13 and up

From the content record · CBFC U · Family Room →

13+

Violence

Intense scenes

Sex & nudity

Positive messages

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Summary

Mother India (1957, Hindi) has a Filmi Score of 72 from 4 critic reviews, is rated 13+ by Filmi (CBFC: U), and streams on Eros Now in the US.

A poverty-stricken woman raises her sons through many trials and tribulations. But no matter the struggles, always sticks to her own moral code.

Where to watch

EROS NOWWatch now

Box office collection

No sourced figure yet.

Cast & crew

Directed by Mehboob Khan · written by Wajahat Mirza & S. Ali Raza · music Naushad

Kanhaiyalal ChaturvediCast

Mehboob KhanDirector

Wajahat MirzaWriter

S. Ali RazaWriter

NaushadMusic

Faredoon A. IraniCinematography

Shamsudin KadriEditing

Cast

NargisLead

Sunil Dutt

Rajendra Kumar

Raaj Kumar

Kanhaiyalal Chaturvedi

Kumkum

Mukri

Sheela Naik

Azra

Sajid Khan

Jillo

Siddiqui

Full crew

Production designV.H. Palnitkar

MakeupP.G. Joshi

Summary

A poverty-stricken woman raises her sons through many trials and tribulations. But no matter the struggles, always sticks to her own moral code.

Mother India (1957, Hindi) has a Filmi Score of 72 from 4 critic reviews, is rated 13+ by Filmi (CBFC: U), and streams on Eros Now in the US.

Where to watch

EROS NOWWatch now AMAZON VIDEORent APPLE TVRent

What the critics said

4 reviews · the critic’s own number where they gave one

The critic’s own number where they gave one

Upperstall.com

Karan Bali · 26 Mar 2001

Bali frames Mother India as an enduring, career-defining showcase for Nargis and a landmark of Indian cinema, with only mild reservations about… Read it there →

Derived by Filmi Retrospective

The Indian Express

Sampada Sharma · 21 Aug 2021

Sharma calls Mother India an enduring landmark, praising Nargis's performance and Naushad's music, but notes its patriarchal framing of women has… Read it there →

Derived by Filmi

The Guardian

Peter Bradshaw · 3 May 2002

Bradshaw calls Mehboob Khan's epic creaky by today's standards but still a big, entertaining work, likening it to The Good Earth and Gone With the… Read it there →

Derived by Filmi Retrospective

The New York Times

Dave Kehr · 23 Aug 2002

Kehr treats Mother India mainly as a historic landmark, comparing it to Stella Dallas, Gone With the Wind and Mother Courage, but offers little… Read it there →

Derived by Filmi Retrospective

How this number was made. We read every review and derive a 0–100 reading from each — including where the critic printed a number, which stays first on its row, because it’s theirs. The Filmi Score is the mean of 4 readings; 0 of those rows also carry the critic’s own rating, shown beside ours. Rubric v2.1, computed 26 Oct 2026. Any critic can ask us to remove a derived reading.

PublishedStated in videoDerived by FilmiNo scoreRetrospective

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Mother India: quick answers

Box office, where to watch and what critics said — from the same data as the page.

Show the answers

Where can I watch Mother India?

Mother India is streaming on OTT: Eros Now (India, the US and the UK), ShemarooMe (India) and Vi Movies and TV (India). It can also be rented or bought on Amazon Video (the US and the UK), Apple TV (the US and Canada) and Google Play Movies (the US). Availability comes from JustWatch and is checked every Friday.

What did critics say about Mother India?

Mother India has a Filmi Score of 72 (Very good), the mean of 4 readings of critic reviews, one per review. The score is provisional until at least five reviews are read. Readings run from 55 (The New York Times) to 82 (Upperstall.com). Every review and how it was scored is listed below.

What readers say

The Audience Score appears once three readers’ reviews have been read under the rubric — built from what people write, never from the rating numbers.

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