Past Present Future: Indian Cinema at 100: Mother India

• Event Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2013
• Time: 7:00 (CDT)
• Location: Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free Admission

• Film

In observance of the centenary of Indian cinema, the University of Illinois Library presents "Past, Present, Future: Indian Cinema at 100," a forum dedicated to examining the origins, evolution, and future of Indian cinema in both local and global contexts. This landmark event, marking one hundred years of innovation, growth, and productivity by the world's largest, most prolific, and most culturally diverse film industry provides a unique opportunity for the University of Illinois - home of nearly one thousand students who hail from the subcontinent, and more than forty South Asian specialists from across the disciplinary spectrum - to recognize the artistic, cultural, and historical contributions Indian cinema has made over the last century.

Mother India (1957)
Not Rated, 172 min.

Mother India is a 1957 Hindi epic melodrama film, directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raj Kumar. 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 money-lender amidst many troubles. Despite her hardship, she sets a goddess-like moral example of an ideal Indian woman.

Several films will be shown at the Spurlock Museum Knight Auditorum in conjunction with "Past, Present, Future: Indian Cinema at 100" throughout September, October, November, and December.

This event is co-sponsored by the University of Illinois Library, the Spurlock Museum, the Center for Advanced Study, the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, the University of Illinois Office of Public Engagement, the Program in Gender and Women's Studies, the LGBT Resource Center, the Program in Comparative and World Literatures, the Department of English, and the School of Literatures, Cultures, and Liguistics at the University of Illinois.