The 1994 movie Mammo by Shyam Benegal is more relevant to the contemporary days than its time of release and a lot of this credit can be bestowed to the ruling government.
From the imposition of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to the expostulate outcry of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the marking of 14 August as “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day”, Benegal’s Mahmooda Begum acts as the perfect protagonist, projecting the erroneous nature of selective politicisation of communities, sidelining the collective contributions of citizens.
Mahmooda Begum (Farida Jalal) is an Indian, but post-marriage had been in partitioned Pakistan. Her sisters Fayyazi (Surekha Sikri) and Anwari (Himani Shivpuri) continue living in India. After the demise of Mahmooda’s husband, she is ill-treated and troubled by her in-laws.
As per what might appear to be a common practice in thousands of Indian families, Mammo (Mahmooda Begum) turns to her sister Fayyazi who is based in Mumbai (India), eloping her in-laws’ place in Pakistan.
The line that separates India and Pakistan, Mammo’s maternal home and in-laws’ home, is what rips apart the poor soul of her claim to home. Perhaps all her gestures reflect Indianness at large, yet Mammo is forcibly taken and deported to Pakistan, where she would have no acceptability.
For Mammo, Pakistan is a cruel destination where her husband’s relatives reside, who are no less than Dajjal (evil false prophet), and even her husband’s memories fail to bind her to the land. It compels the poor Mahmooda Begum to flee back to India, where her motherly affection is blended.
She even remembers the partition as Jahannam (hell). Still, the law doesn’t consider the Indian side of Mammo and she is a Pakistani per law, though Pakistan is not hers.
With Benegal’s Mammo, the fear of adversities that dance in the lives of minorities (especially Muslims) in the wake of CAA-NRC turn to be pertinent and makes it precise that for a Muslim, a peripheral association with Pakistan is enough to be an outcast.
Filmmaker Khalid Mohamed’s vision, along with director Shyam Benegal’s visuals, successfully predicted a plot that would be felt under fear by thousands of Indian Muslims two decades later.
Remarkably, Mammo was taken into police custody a day before Eid and the festival of joy escorted a feeling of deathly disownment to her. Meanwhile, her sister Fayyazi and her orphaned grandson Riyaz are potentially able yet helpless to rescue Mammo from falling into the clutches of nightmarish destiny.
Fayyazi herself mentions that their little efforts would not have saved Mammo from being thrown back to Pakistan. On a realistic note, this comment by Fayyazi echoes the helplessness that the majority of the impotent section would face with slight mismanagement of NRC.
Further, what also makes its way along with Mammo is an open question to the government on behalf of thousands of Mahmooda Begum’s who live under the fear of detention and deportation: While you aim to shelter millions of minorities from across the borders, what is the safety and security you extend to your own minorities?
Benegal’s Mahmooda Begum is the most complex character to the chaos surrounding the CAA: an Indian migrating to Pakistan, who is no less than a persecuted soul there and seeks refuge in India but is deported back to Pakistan just because of her broken yet blotted bond with Pakistan.
Like Mammo, thousands of Indians to date have relatives across the borders and it is a common phenomenon cutting down the community lining. This cannot be a guilty offence because Pakistan hasn’t stood as itself but was carved out of India, and irrespective of the partition, what couldn’t be separated was the human relations.
Mammo very remarkably puts across a challenge showing how a law like CAA would fail in rescuing her just because her religion falls in line with the majority of Pakistan. Meanwhile, NRC would throw her out because her religion doesn’t fall in line with the majority of India. In this majority vs majority vying, what remains vulnerable is the torn apart destiny of the poor Mammo.