‘No matter what, never let your dreams go out of your sight because to move ahead in life in spite of all the hurdles in front of you, your dreams will help you. Your dreams are all you have and no one can take them away from you.’

Chanda is a single mother, a maid by profession. She may not be able to provide her daughter with a luxury lifestyle but she did prepare her for a world that may not accept and understand her dreams and taught her that it is ok. She teaches her that no money and shortcuts will ever match the quality of success achieved through hard work. But unlike others, she was not just all words. She became her daughter’s biggest role model by studying and excelling in school along with her, cutting through her social barriers.

While many mothers point at other successful and great women as role models to their kids, Chanda was capable of pointing at herself and ask her daughter to be as a determinant and resolute as her.

Apu (Ria Shukla), Chanda’s daughter, was just another teenager who had no expectations from her life. If not for her determinant mother, Apu would have never passed her 10th, nor would she have become a civil servant. If not for her mother, she would have never understood the meaning of hard work and develop the courage to dream.

Chanda worked four different jobs to provide her daughter with education and proper life. She was not the kind of mother who worried over her daughter’s marriage and dowry. All that she was worried about was how to make her daughter self-sufficient so that she won’t have to live a life drenched in poverty and a life dependent on someone else. More than wanting a better life for herself, she longed one for her daughter.

It broke our hearts to see Apu exploiting all of Chanda’s savings just like that out of pure immaturity and stubbornness. But like every mother, Chanda forgave her nonetheless. All the immaturity, stubbornness, rebellion, and laziness oozes out the moment she sees the struggle her mother goes through to provide her a secured future.

We are filled with pride to see her work hard and eventually giving her an IAS interview. ‘Mujhe Bai nahi banana‘ (I don’t want to be a maid), she says when asked why she wants to become an IAS officer.  And we feel equally relieved when we know that Chanda now helps students with their studies.

To the mothers who work day and night to provide their child a dream life, to all the mothers who kept aside a part of themselves for their child, Happy Mother’s Day!

Nil Battey Sannata
Director – Aswini Iyyer Tiwari
Produced by – Anand L Rai
Watch on – JioCinema