Happy Birthday, Ratna Pathak Shah: Here's why she is Bollywood's most adored mother

Actor-director Ratna Pathak Shah is known for working predominantly in the Hindi cinema, television industry, and in theatre. She shot to fame in the 1980s with the TV serial ‘Idhar Udhar’. She gained widespread recognition with her portrayal of Maya Sarabhai in the popular sitcom ‘Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’.

In a career spanning over three decades, Ratna has managed to ace the most challenging roles and has also broken the stereotype around mothers with her minimalistic approach and a touch of realism.

Here's a look at some of the mother roles that Ratna Pathak made fashionable.

Kapoor & Sons (2016)

Cast: Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt

Director: Shakun Batra

Ratna Pathak starred as Fawad and Sidharth’s mother in the film. Her character Sunita Kapoor realises that she hasn’t been perfect all her life, and has made mistakes while bringing up her children. Her character has been beautifully and realistically brought to life.

Khoobsurat (2014)

Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan and Ratna Pathak Shah

Director: Shashanka Ghosh

Ratna starred as Nirmala Devi Rathore, a prim and proper mother. When a quirky physiotherapist enters her royal home and starts to flout rules and falls for her son, Nirmala plays a roadblock, and decides to give her son a reality check.

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (2012)

Cast: Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shah

Director: Shakun Batra

She played Imran’s mother in this film, who was a fiercely dominating woman. She totally wowed the audience with her performance and added the necessary conflict in the story as her son loses his job and is too scared to tell his parents.

Golmaal 3 (2010)

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Arshad Warsi, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade, Kunal Khemu

Director: Rohit Shetty

Ratna plays Ajay Devgn and Shreyas’ mother in this action comedy. Her character Guddi meets her college lover Pappu, played by Mithun Chakraborty, after many years only to know that their love is still true and neither of them is married.

Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (2008)

Cast: Imran Khan, Genelia D’Souza

Director: Abbas Tyrewala

Ratna played the role of Savitri, Imran Khan’s mother, on the big screen. She is an overprotective mother who refuses to let her son become like his warrior father. However, all her efforts go in vain when he falls in love and decides to do all that she was scared about.

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