Nargis was one of the greatest Indian actresses of all time. Her performances were authentic and natural to a degree not seen in Indian cinema, which still can be quite loud and theatrical.
Daughter of actress, singer and filmmaker Jaddanbai, she was born Fatima Rashid in Allahabad. When only 5 years old, her mother introduced her as a child star, Baby Rani. Her first adult starring role was in Mehboob Khan's Taqdeer (1943) opposite Motilal. She made her presence felt in the same filmmaker Humayun (1945) as Hamida Bano but real star came her way with Andaz (1949) and Barsaat (1949). Andaz remains one of the best triangles in Hindi Cinema with Nargis turning in a fine performance as the modern woman caught between Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor.
Nargis often played women caught in a dilemma of the heart leads to a tragic end - Mela (1948), Andaz (1949), Jogan (1950), Babul (1950), Deedar (1951) and Bewafaa (1952) among others (the kind of roles Patience Cooper did in the year 1920).
Off-screen, her affair with the already married Raj Kapoor was a matching of soul and spirit. After Awaara (1951) she worked almost exclusively with him turning her mentor Mehboob's On (1952). Raj Kapoor and Nargis, the pair had chemistry hitherto unseen on the Indian screen. The passion that each had the other poured on the screen as they romance each other in various films - The song Pyar Hua Hua Ikrar Shree 420 (1955) with Nargis and Raj under the umbrella in the rain is subliminal romance at its best. That Nargis Raj Kapoor's obsession for white took dressing in white and was known as his lady in white. She even met the then Home Secretary Moraji Deasai to try to get him to sanction a marriage between her and Raj Kapoor!
But by 1956 the couple had broken, Chori Chori (1956), a breezy entertainer based on Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934), their last film together. She also made a special appearance in his production Jagt Raho (1956) for old times sake and perhaps it was fitting that at the end of the film she is the woman who finally quenches Raj Kapoor's thirst.
With Raj Kapoor from her life, almost as if by magic, Mehboob offered her his magnum opus Mother India (1957). Mother India is the ultimate tribute to Indian Womanhood! This epic saga of the sufferings of an Indian peasant woman has an inherent and non-seasonal appeal, typical of the Indian situation. The film is a lush color remake of the earlier austere black and white film Mehboob's Aurat (1940). In fact everything about the film is very straight down against the strong, earthy central performance by Nargis. The film is the pinnacle of her career and won her best actress award at the prestigious Karlovy Vary festival. Mother India was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, but lost to Fellini's Nights of Caberia by a lone voice!
It is a familiar story that while shooting for the film, Nargis was trapped amidst lit haystacks. As the flames became higher and higher, Sunil Dutt playing her rebellious son, Birju, in the film ran through the fire and rescued her. He proposed to her and Sunil Dutt Nargis married and quit films after marriage. She did lend her voice, and we do her silhouette appeared in Sunil Dutt's 'one actor movie monument' Yaadein (1964) and she made a comeback kind of skill to play a woman with a split personality in Raat Aur Din (1967) the Winning the National Award for the same.
Nargis was the first film personality to be awarded the Padma Shree and later her charitable work for spastic saw her nomination for the Rajya Sabha. She died of cancer in 1981, the same year her son Sanjay Dutt made his screen debut with Rocky |
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