/> Last week's terribly unfunny comedy Mr White & Mr Black tried to act funny about the cine-Maa. Not done.

The film had Ashish Vidyarthi as a weepy wimpy broken -hearted don grieving for his mother whom he killed by accident.

Don sits around watching sentimental films about the mother -figure on evergreen DVDs weeping buckets as Shashi Kapoor shuts Amitabh Bachchan up with Salim-Javed's classic line, 'Mere paas Maa hai', and that little boy in Raja Aur Runk Master Mahesh sings O maa tu kitni achi hai tu kitni bholi hai.

Have you ever heard that song and not cried?

It remains a tribute to so many luminaries of the emotion-picture.

Lata Mangeshkar who at age 40 sang a song expressing a 10-year old boy's filial voice, Laxmikant-Pyarelal who composed this unbelievably moving and timeless melody, and Nirupa Roy Bollywod's mummy no. 1 who passed away quietly.Can't say unsung.

Contrary to her image all-giving all-sacrificing maternal image Nirupa Roy, I believe, liked the good things of life specially the strong beverages.

In fact another cine-Maa known to play strong assertive author- backed moms to Shah Rukh, Salman and the likes, drinks heavily and slaps around her domestic help. Anything but maternal!

Moms needn't be angelic. In B. R Ishaara's Kagaz Ki Nao 30 years ago Helen's daughter Sareeka fainted with fright when she saw her widowed mom with a man.

"Why do we presume our mothers to be deities?" Helen had pleaded in this poignant look at the way moms used to be.

The portrait of the mother as the last word in resilience and sacrifice remains. When did it change? When Shabana Azmi throttled her lover's son in B.R Ishaara's Log Kya Kahenge? Or when Aroona Irani plotted against her doting step-son in Indra Kumar's maa-ki-maya-masala-maar-ke tale Beta.

Hindi cinema's best-known and best-loved moments of magic on the screen are mother-oriented.

From Mehboob Khan's Mother India to Suchitra Sen in Mamta to Sharmila Tagore in Aradhana to Yash Chopra's Deewaar to Pravin Bhatt's Bhavna (watch this one for a powerhouse performance by Shabana Azmi as the mother who becomes a hooker to make her son a doctor)...somewhere, with Nirupa Roy's death, ended the portrait of the strong self-willed mother who acted like an uncaged lioness when her child was under threat.

Sulochana, Leela Chitnis, Kamini Kaushal, Achala Sachdev and of course Nirupa Roy. Kahan gaye 'woe' log???? Kamini Kaushal and Achala Sachdev are still around. When I spoke to Kamini on her 80th birthday recently I couldn't believe how agile and girlish she sounded.

Why do we carry such powerful images of the screen-mother as emotional anchors and unshakable deities of kindness and compassion?

With a new breed of 30-minus heroes came the younger hipper moms like Reema Lagoo, Anjana Mumtaz and Beena.

But somehow the large-hearted all-giving mother seems to have gone with the wimp. Remember the 40-plus Rajendra Kumar in O.P Ralhan's Talaash sobbing in his mother Sulochana's lap as Sachin Dev Burman sang Meri duniya hai maa tere aanchal mein.

The last of the truly great all-giving screen moms was Raakhee Gulzar who could bring in a great deal of empathy to roles that would otherwise have ended up as clichés.

When did the screen moms begin to get mildewed? Was it when the Nirupa Roys and Dularis were replaced by the Waheeda Rehmans and Raakhees to make the mother more glamorous?

Moms in our films are a threatened species. More often than not they're victims of clichéd portrayals more sinned against than 'singing'. So next time one of those braindead directors decides to make one of those super-braindead comedies here's some advice.

Please pick on someone your own 'sighs'.