Mother India

Mother India is a 1957 Hindi film directed by Mehboob Khan, following Radha, an impoverished village woman who struggles to raise her sons and preserve her family honor after her husband abandons them, and who ultimately kills one son when he turns to banditry and threatens the village's moral order. The film became the first from India nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, won the Filmfare awards for Best Film and Best Director, and helped its star Nargis become the first Indian actress to win Best Actress at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. It is widely regarded as one of the most influential films in Indian cinema, read as an allegory of the newly independent nation's struggles to build itself, and it remains one of only a handful of Hindi films included in the reference list 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.