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My mother India

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

A daughter's homage to her mother's journey from Australia to India, an exploration into the heritage of a multicultural marriage.....

"As I made this film I began to understand the complexities of my mother's journey from the wide horizons of the 'lucky country' into the dark heart of Indian domesticity"

Personal and political, passionate and poetic, funny and sad My mother India tells the story of a mixed marriage set against the tumultuous backdrop of modern Indian history. With an Indian father who collects kitsch calendars, an Australian mother who hangs her knickers out to dry in front of the horrified Indian neighbours, a grandfather who was a self-styled guru and a fiercely man-hating grandmother - it is no wonder that Safina Uberoi made a film about her family! What begins as a quirky and humorous documentary about an eccentric, multicultural upbringing unfolds into a complex commentary on the social, political and religious events of the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 which tore this family apart.

This is a powerful tale of love and hate, exile and belonging, loss of identity and return of faith.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film Australia documentary India emigre Sikh

Persons of interest

Safina Uberoi .... Screenwriter
Safina Uberoi .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Awards and film festivals:

Australian Film Critics Circle 2002: Jury Prize for Best Australian Documentary
Australian Teachers of Multimedia (ATOM) Awards: Best Long Form Documentary
Dendy Awards SFF 2002: Rouben Mamoulian Award, CRC Award
Hawaii International Film Festival 2001: Special Jury Award
Heidtman/AFTRS award 1998: Best pitch
Melbourne Film Festival 2001: Best video production
Mill Valley international film Festival 2001: Special commendation
NSW Premier's Literary Awards 2002: Script Writing Award
Real life on film Festival 2002: Odyssey Award for Best Documentary

Studios and distributors:

SBSI

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Holy turbans, Batman, will it never end?

Bigotry is the unwillingness to recognise and respect differences in opinions or beliefs. It is evil. If you don't think it is evil, imagine how you would feel if someone else behaved this way toward you. Do you get the point?

The angry, bitter and violent history that exists between religions is probably the best argument against religions and the best proof that they don't work. The institutionalised bigotry of theocracies and state religions are merely the application of that failure, but they still manage to create greater evil than religion left to itself. Ask the victims of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, 11 September and all the rest; the evil done by rioting mobs in India and Pakistan is one more mark against religion.

While I am in favour of independence for anyone who wants it, defining a country's borders along religious lines is a fatal mistake. My mother India brings that truth home.

Most of the rest of the film is taken up with standard documentary fare: black and white photos, strange clothes, amusing anecdotes, funny accents. Its saving grace is the brutal honesty with which Safina Uberoi depicts her family and herself. The word "apologetic" is not in her vocabulary, the mark of a true documentarist. While no-one is ever completely objective, Safina manages to record what she saw rather than seeking out what she wanted. The theme of division that ties My mother India together is what makes it worth watching. If Safina can make documentaries about other people's lives then she will go far.

Security censorship classification

PG (Low level coarse language, adult themes)

Surveillance time

52 minutes (0:52 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: 15 August 2002 - Brisbane
Film: 29 August 2002 - Sydney