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Chanda And My Mother Essay

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In contrast, Chanda’s care for her mother is intimate. Before the funeral for her baby sister Chanda and her mother share a powerful embrace, and her arms are wrapped around her sobbing mother’s neck (00:18:35). Because Chanda’s silence and the frame’s focus on her mother’s tears, it is read as Chanda is holding her mother and not the reverse. As the camera pans out further we see Jonah, her stepfather, crying alone. It is made clear that Chanda is providing care for her grieving mother in this scene and that her mother has chosen her, over her husband. There is no shame in this scene. Their grief is unapologetic and loud, a rupture, a much needed catharsis. Chanda fills her mother’s emotional needs better, or more, than her stepfather does. At the end of the film Chanda traverses the country, traveling from her urban home to the village her mother was born in. She finds her mother much more frail than before and her illness has progressed dangerously. Chanda lifts a damp rag to her mother’s face, cleaning her skin and dampening her lips (01:28:26). Here, Lillian is infant-like, completely reliant on her daughter. Chanda tells her “Don’t worry mama, I’m with you” to which Lillian replies “Chanda I’m lost”. Chanda assures “I’ve come to get you”. Where we had seen evasiveness in Dlangamandla, Chanda is steadfast. She has come here, to this rural place herself, in search. In contrast, Jola had to seek out Dlangamandla. Lillian is honest about her internal sadness and Chanda’s

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