{ "id": "epdmm1n2cs", "slug": "hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa", "title": "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": 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"geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s.romance-and-drama-films", "label": "India · 1946 to 2000: Romance and drama films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s.romance-and-drama-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.ind", "label": "India", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946", "label": "India · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema", "label": "Indian films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s", "label": "Hindi films of the 1990s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s" }, { "id": "geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s.romance-and-drama-films", "label": "Romance and drama films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.ind.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s.romance-and-drama-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ), also Mother of 1084, is Govind Nihalani's 1998 Hindi film adapting Mahasweta Devi's Bengali novel Hajar Churashir Ma, starring Jaya Bachchan as Sujata Chatterjee and winning the 1997 National Award for Best Hindi Film.", "snippet": "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ), also Mother of 1084, is Govind Nihalani's 1998 Hindi film adapting Mahasweta Devi's Bengali novel Hajar Churashir Ma, starring Jaya Bachchan as Sujata Chatterjee and winning the 1997 National Award for Best Hindi Film.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.indian-cinema.hindi-films-of-the-1990s.romance-and-drama-films", "markdown": "# Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ)\n\n**Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa** (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ; English title *Mother of 1084*) is a 1998 Hindi-language political drama directed by Govind Nihalani, based on [Mahasweta Devi](https://www.edgepedia.org/mahasweta-devi)'s Bengali novel *Hajar Churashir Ma* (1974). Set in Calcutta during the Naxalbari movement of the early 1970s, it follows Sujata Chatterjee, a middle-class bank employee who, after identifying her dead son Brati as corpse number 1084 in the police morgue, sets out to understand the revolutionary politics that cost him his life, and in the process recognizes her own alienation as a woman within her family and class.[1](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/45th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf) • [2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Release | 1998, Hindi, 35 mm color, 146 minutes[1](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/45th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf) |\n| Director and source | Govind Nihalani, adapting Mahasweta Devi's Bengali novel *Hajar Churashir Ma* (1974)[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998) |\n| Lead cast | Jaya Bachchan as Sujata Chatterji; Anupam Kher as Dibyanath Chatterji; Joy Sengupta as Brati; Seema Biswas as Somu's mother; Nandita Das as Nandini; Milind Gunaji as police officer Saroj Pal[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178562/fullcredits/) |\n| Setting | Calcutta, 1970–1972, during the Naxalbari leftist movement[4](https://www.bollywoodmdb.com/movie/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1546) |\n| Award | Best Feature Film in Hindi at the 45th National Film Awards (for 1997); Rajat Kamal and Rs 20,000 each to producer and director[1](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/45th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf) |\n| Key crew | Producers Govind Nihalani and Manmohan Shetty; music Debajyoti Mishra; editing Deepa Bhatia[5](https://iucat.iu.edu/iuk/7469920) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nSujata Chatterjee is a traditional, submissive upper-middle-class woman employed in a commercial bank in Calcutta. One morning she receives news that her youngest and favorite son, Brati, is dead, his body lying in the police morgue as corpse number 1084, the number that gives the film its title.[4](https://www.bollywoodmdb.com/movie/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1546) Brati had joined the Naxalite movement, the militant leftist current that began in rural [West Bengal](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-bengal) with demands for minimum wages for agricultural labor and spread to the cities, drawing wide participation from students and the leftist intelligentsia.[4](https://www.bollywoodmdb.com/movie/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1546)\n\nHer husband Dibyanath and the rest of the family want the death hushed up to protect their social standing, and Brati is never mentioned in the house again. Sujata instead searches for the son she never really knew. She visits the impoverished family of Somu, Brati's friend who was killed alongside him, and meets Nandini, Brati's girlfriend and fellow revolutionary, recently released from jail. From them she learns of her son's commitment, of the betrayal that led to the killing of the five friends, and of the police torture inflicted on young Naxal sympathizers.[6](https://www.ottplay.com/features/hazar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998-a-mothers-grief-and-awakening/fbbc5b06b4415) • [7](https://filminformation.com/featured/flashback-17-march-2023-from-our-issue-dated-24th-march-1998/)\n\nThe awakening is personal as well as political. Sujata comes to see her own household, with its complacent affluence, as a microcosm of the society her son rebelled against, and she recognizes her own alienation as a woman and wife. In the film's extension of the story, she emerges as a human rights activist.[4](https://www.bollywoodmdb.com/movie/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1546) • [7](https://filminformation.com/featured/flashback-17-march-2023-from-our-issue-dated-24th-march-1998/)\n\n## The novel and the adaptation\n\nMahasweta Devi's novel *Hajar Churashir Ma* (হাজার চুরাশির মা) was published in 1974.[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998) Its present-day action covers a single day, 17 January 1972, the second death anniversary of Brati, which coincides with the engagement of Sujata's daughter Tuli; the narrative then moves through Sujata's memory in a stream-of-consciousness style rather than chronological order.[8](https://lsr.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/English-Department-Publication-Jabberwock-2020.pdf) The film, by contrast, is mostly chronological, using monologues and flashbacks, and one reviewer describes it as an adaptation that remains true to the book while taking the story further.[6](https://www.ottplay.com/features/hazar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998-a-mothers-grief-and-awakening/fbbc5b06b4415)\n\n**The changed ending.** In the novel the story ends with Sujata's burst appendix at her daughter's engagement party; the film gives her a more cinematic closure, showing her building a human rights organization and winning over her husband. This extension drew criticism: the India Together review argued that bringing the story into contemporary politics, with Sujata running an NGO, robs the character of the power inherent in a mother still trying to understand why she could not understand her son.[9](https://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=919) • [10](https://indiatogether.org/mahasweta-devi-in-cinema-media)\n\n## Production and release\n\nThe film was produced under the Udbhav Productions banner by Govind Nihalani and Manmohan Shetty, with Nihalani also handling cinematography and screenplay, Tripurari Sharma writing the dialogue, Debajyoti Mishra composing the music, and Deepa Bhatia editing.[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998) • [5](https://iucat.iu.edu/iuk/7469920) It was released in Bombay on 19 March 1998 at the Metro cinema and on 20 March at one more cinema, through Shringar Films; the trade paper *Film Information* reported good publicity but a poor opening, and judged the film a slow fare aimed at audiences for art cinema, with no songs, comedy, or romance.[7](https://filminformation.com/featured/flashback-17-march-2023-from-our-issue-dated-24th-march-1998/)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nThe film won the [National Film Award for Best Feature Film](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-award-for-best-feature-film) in Hindi at the 45th [National Film Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-awards), for films of 1997. The citation praised its moving depiction of a mother who begins to realize her son's values and beliefs only after his tragic death and in the process emerges a stronger being; producer and director each received a Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 20,000.[1](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/45th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf)\n\nCritics singled out the performances. *Film Information* wrote that [Jaya Bachchan](https://www.edgepedia.org/jaya-bachchan) excels in the role of the sensitive mother, with [Seema Biswas](https://www.edgepedia.org/seema-biswas) superb as Somu's mother and [Nandita Das](https://www.edgepedia.org/nandita-das) excellent as Nandini.[7](https://filminformation.com/featured/flashback-17-march-2023-from-our-issue-dated-24th-march-1998/) A later retrospective describes the film as one of the significant political films in Indian cinema and calls Bachchan's portrayal of Sujata one of the finest performances of her career, marking her return to the screen after a long gap.[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998) The Tuli Research Centre notes that the film was adapted for the screen by Shama Zaidi, while IMDb credits Nihalani with the script and Tripurari Sharma with the dialogue; the two credit listings differ.[2](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178562/fullcredits/)\n\n## Historical context\n\nThe film's backdrop is the Naxalite movement, which took its name from Naxalbari, the West Bengal village where a Maoist group that had split from the [Communist Party of India (Marxist)](https://www.edgepedia.org/communist-party-of-india-marxist) in March 1967 launched peasant uprisings, choosing armed struggle over the parliamentary path. By 1970 Naxalite groups had expanded across the countryside from West Bengal toward Kerala, and the 1970s saw both the movement's campaign of violence and the state's harsh repression.[11](https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/India994-04.htm) • [12](https://idsa.in/publisher/journal-of-defence-studies/naxalite-movement-in-india-the-states-response) The novel and the film do not make a direct case for the movement; it supplies the socio-historical setting for Sujata's grief and resistance.[13](https://books.csmflpublications.com/9789349926639_chapter-10/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [45th National Film Awards Catalogue, Directorate of Film Festivals](https://nfaindia.org/images/pdf/45th%20National%20Film%20Award%20Catalogue.pdf)\n2. [Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998), Tuli Research Centre for India Studies](https://www.tuliresearchcentre.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998)\n3. [Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998) full cast and crew, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178562/fullcredits/)\n4. [Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998), plot and review, BollywoodMDB](https://www.bollywoodmdb.com/movie/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1546)\n5. [Hazaar chaurasi ki maa, IUCAT library catalog record](https://iucat.iu.edu/iuk/7469920)\n6. [Hazar Chaurasi Ki Maa (1998): A mother's grief and awakening, Ottplay](https://www.ottplay.com/features/hazar-chaurasi-ki-maa-1998-a-mothers-grief-and-awakening/fbbc5b06b4415)\n7. [FLASHBACK from Film Information, 21 March 1998 issue](https://filminformation.com/featured/flashback-17-march-2023-from-our-issue-dated-24th-march-1998/)\n8. [The Mother in Hajar Churashir Maa and Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Jabberwock, Lady Shri Ram College](https://lsr.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/English-Department-Publication-Jabberwock-2020.pdf)\n9. [Movie Review: Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, Lokvani, 20 May 2003](https://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/article.php?article_id=919)\n10. [Mahasweta Devi in cinema, India Together, 14 November 2016](https://indiatogether.org/mahasweta-devi-in-cinema-media)\n11. [Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's \"Untouchables\", Human Rights Watch, 1999](https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/india/India994-04.htm)\n12. [Naxalite Movement in India: The State's Response, Journal of Defence Studies, MP-IDSA](https://idsa.in/publisher/journal-of-defence-studies/naxalite-movement-in-india-the-states-response)\n13. [Historicising A Mother's Memories: Reading Intersectionality, Identity, and Memory-Scapes in The World of Mahasweta Devi, CSMFL Books](https://books.csmflpublications.com/9789349926639_chapter-10/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 1990s › Romance and drama films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ)](https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa](https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa (हज़ार चौरासी की माँ)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/hazaar-chaurasi-ki-maa. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa, also Mother of 1084, is Govind Nihalani's 1998 Hindi film adapting Mahasweta Devi's Bengali novel Hajar Churashir Ma, starring Jaya Bachchan as Sujata Chatterjee and winning the 1997 National Award for Best Hindi Film." }