Actress Shefali Shah feels the image of the on-screen mother has undergone a massive change in Bollywood and is now reduced to just cardboard characters. The actress is playing mother to Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra in Zoya Akhtar's 'Dil Dhadakne Do'. She is paired opposite Anil Kapoor in the film.
Citing the example of on-screen mothers like Nirupa Roy in 'Deewar', Waheeda Rehman in 'Trishul', Dina Pathak in 'Khubsoorat' and Raakhee in 'Shakti' and 'Ram Lakhan', Shefali said in the in 60s-70s a story was incomplete without a strong matriarchal figure but today such roles are often cliched.
"There have been incredible mothers in films in the past. In fact, earlier mothers were a far more prominent feature in a film... In the 60s-70s, no story was complete without a mother but today such roles have become cliched. Now, in most films, mothers have become marginalised, they are mere props instead of propellers of the story," Shefali told PTI.
The actress said she was initially apprehensive about playing a mother in 'Dil Dhadakne Do' but she was also reluctant to let go off a good script and consulted her filmmaker husband Vipul Shah.