Tanging Ina is now Ina ng Bayan

In 2003 when her Star Cinema starrer Tanging Ina was shown, Ai-Ai de las Alas became an overnight superstar, the Box-Office Star to watch, after the movie raked in record sales across the country — and beyond. It was easy to empathize with Ai-Ai’s character which is a mother of a dozen children by different men who have abandoned her to raise the children by her lonesome, and successful she did even if she had to do odd jobs. No wonder she was called “Ang tanging ina,” the perfect mother put on the pedestal without her wanting to for other mothers to look up to.

“It was by far my most memorable movie,” admitted Ai-Ai whose succeeding performances have been measured against her Tanging Ina record. “Up to now, even if I’ve done other roles, people still call me ‘ang tanging ina’ and I’m flattered and honored.” One good turn deserves another and so Star Cinema has come up with a sequel. Tanging Ina Ninyong Lahat, as its official entry at the 2008 Metro Manila Filmfest.

The movie features the same director, Wenn Deramas, and the same cast led by Ai-Ai and including Carlo Aquino, Alwyn Uytingco, Shaina Magdayao, Serena Dalrymple, Jiro Manio, Yuki Kadaoka, Eugene Domingo, DJ Durano, Bianca and Janella Calma and Gloria Diaz as President Hillary.

The only one not in the cast is Heart Evangelista. Taking up where the first Tanging Ina left off, Tanging Ina Ninyong Lahat shows Ai-Ai as Ina embarking on a new direction since she feels that her children are grown up and/or fast growing up, and they don’t really need to be cared for. Don’t look now but since she is considered a role model for all mothers, she ends up being the President of the Philippines, as in Inang Bayan, all because of the mothers backing her up, but then, even as she leads the country to progress and prosperity on a program based on motherly love and maternal instinct, time comes when she is faced with a dilemma: Should she go on serving the country as everyone’s Ina even if in process she doesn’t come up to her duties as the Ina to her children? The movie’s ending springs a pleasant surprise.

Tanging Ina Ninyong Lahat is predicted to equal if not surpass the unprecedented record of Tanging Ina, and rightly so.

“This is a movie dedicated not only to mothers but also to children who love their mother,” said direk Wenn.