In a 2002 article in '' The Village Voice '' , film critic J. Hoberman described the film as " an outrageous '' masala '' of apparently discordant elements . " He characterised it as a mixture of " indigenous versions of Soviet-style tractor-opera , Italian neo-realism , Hollywood kiddie-cuteness , a dozen Technicolor musical numbers , and , most significantly , a metaphoric overlay of pop Hinduism . " Hoberman criticised the acting as " broad " , and also wrote about the " vaguely left-wing " nationalist overtone of the film . Author Phill Hall , writing for '' Film Threat '' in 2002 , described the film as exceptionally sluggish and one-dimensional , and lampooned it saying " it takes the strongest of constitutions to endure this film without entertaining notions of matricide . " Jonathan Romney in his 2002 report in '' The Independent '' observed the earth-mother Radha as " India 's answer to Anna Magnani " and the film as " an all-out exercise in ideological myth-making . " '' Women 's Feature Service '' , in a 2007 article , noted '' Mother India '' as " one of the most outstanding films of the post-Independence era . " Ziya Us Salam of '' The Hindu '' wrote in her 2010 report : " Mehboob was able to blend the individual with the universal , thereby enhancing the film 's appeal without compromising on its sensitivity . " '' Mother India '' , its star Nargis , and the director Khan received many awards and nominations . Nargis won the Filmfare Best Actress Award in 1958 and became the first Indian to receive the Best Actress award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in present-day Czech Republic . '' Mother India '' won the Filmfare Award for Best Film and scooped several other Filmfare awards including Best Director for Khan , Best Cinematographer for Faredoon Irani , and Best Sound for R. Kaushik . In 1958 , the film became India 's first submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was chosen as one of the five nominations for the category . The international version , 120 minutes long , was sent for the Oscars . Additionally , this version had English subtitles , and dropped Mehboob Productions ' logo , which featured the Communist hammer and sickle , to appease the Academy . The 120-minute version was later distributed in the US and UK by Columbia Pictures . The film came close to winning the Academy Award , but lost to Federico Fellini 's '' Nights of Cabiria '' by a single vote . Khan was utterly disappointed at not winning the award . " He had seen the other films in the fray and believed '' Mother India '' was far superior to them " recalled Sunil Dutt years later . It also won two awards at the 5th National Film Awards in 1957 : an All India Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film and Certificate of Merit for Best Feature Film in Hindi
5th National Film Awards
5th National Film Awards
Mother India