Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2001 5:53 pm
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Lady In White
M.A. Khan
She wasn’t a ‘Tragedy Queen’ like Meena Kumari or as beautiful as Madhubala. She had no dancing prowess like Vyjayantimala or the delicacy of Nimmi but still, she was exquisite and incomparable. Nargis was not just the first actress to win the Karlovy Wary award, but the first film personality to be conferred a Padmashree and also a Rajya Sabha seat in Parliament. Remembering the actress on her birth anniversary.
3rd May 1981. Sunday. A day which will be remembered with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia and sadness as film buffs all over the country sat glued to their television sets to partake of their weekly Sunday film fare. But, instead, came an announcement. A somber faced news reader mournfully announced the news of the death of India’s leading actress - Nargis!
Doordarshan, for once was quick to react, aired Nargis Raat Aur Din. Paying condolences in her typical manner, the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi said, “Her friendly, vivacious face will long continue to cheer our peopleâ€.
Born in Allahabad on June 1, 1929, Nargis’s real name was Fatima, given by her father, Uttamchand Mohanchand, who was a doctor. Her mother, Jaddanbai, was a famous singer of her time and she ardently desired that Nargis follow in her footsteps.
However, Nargis, who was brought up in Mumbai’s posh Marine Drive area and did her schooling from the Convent - Queen’s Mary’s School, unlike other convectional Muslim girls, was progressing and not particularly attracted to films. Nevertheless, Jaddanbai introduced her to films at the tender age of five, with the screen name of the Baby Rani in the movie Talashe-E-Haq. After doing a couple of films, Nargis retreated but these little you can do when destiny make her plan.
Movie Mughal, Mehboob Khan, happened to see Nargis and signed her on as his heroine in his next film Taqdeer opposite Motilal. She was only 14 years old then! The movie failed to make a mark at the box office but it brought Nargis into spotlight.
After working with heroes older than her like Ashok Kumar, Prithvi Raj Kapoor, Chandra Mohan etc., Nargis was starred opposite Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapor in Mehboob Khan’s Andaaz. She essayed the character of a modern day girl whose candid nature is misunderstood by her husband. After Andaaz the Dilip Kumar -Nargis team formed a successful pair providing big hits like Babul, Deedar, Mela, Jogan etc.
However it was Nargis’ pairing with Raj Kapoor that created magic on ... so much that the scene where Nargis falls in the arms of a violin playing Raj Kapoor in Baraat got immortalized at the emblem of the RK Banner. In Awara even though Raj Kapoor was the protagonist, the audiences sympathy was for Nargis who play by lady lawyer clashing with a titan like Prithvi Raj Kapoor, who played the defense lawyer. The court room trial by the duo in par combined with her infectitious romantic scenes towards area a proof of her versatility.
After the sensational triumph of Awaara not only in India but abroad, more particularly in Russia, Nargis became very selective of her assignments to an extends that she proved down her mother, Mehboob Khan’s Aan which hurt him immersely, but they made up when he offered her the role of a lifetime Mother India. The role stretched from a young bride to ageing mother who killed her son to save the dignity of the village. It is said that she was so involved in the film that she would be present on the set hours before the schedule, ready with her make up, going through her lines. Infact, the long muddy drenched scene where Nargis searches for food for her children and later surrenders herself in front of the evil Sukhilala, took seven days to complete. Recalling the scene, actor Sunil Dutt once disclosed in a television interview how she would come to Mehboob Studio and drenched herself in mud. The process would take three to four hours and an equal amount of time was consumed to wash herself after the choosing, yet, she never complained her director to hasten the scene, instead she persisted on more retake to extract the best. The film won her laurels all over the world including the prestigious Karlovy Vary Award, which no other Indian actress had won so far. It also fetched her the Padmashree, again, the first given to any film personality!!
The Dutt family. Nargis with husband Sunil and son Sanjay
Admeasuring the magnitude of her role and the quality of her performance filmmaker Mehboob Khan added an additional feather in her the cap by honouring her with - ‘The most prominent credit title ever conferred to any film star’ on silver screen as well as on publicity posters, And what’s more, her name precedes the film’s title. ‘Not just than the film was nominated for the Oscar’s in the Best Foreign Film category and few may know that it lost the race by ‘Vote’ to Fellini’s. Mother India proved to be a watershed film for Nargis, both personally and professionally. With this, on the one hand she asserted her independence. She got high acclaim as an actress and after the famous fire sequence on the sets married Sunil Dutt.
During the shooting of Mother India’s climax, Nargis got trapped in the hay stick of blazing fire. Sunil Dutt, presents on the sets jumped in to the fire and saved her from the inferno at the risk of his own life. Overwhelmed by Sunil Dutt’s daring action, Nargis unhesitatingly accepted the shy youngster marriage proposals. The duo tied the nuptial knot on March 1st 1958.
MEMORABLE ROLES
Mother India - Raj Kumar, Sunil Dutt
Raat Aur Din - Feroz Khan, Pradeep Kumar
Awaara - Raj Kapoor, Prithvi Raj Kapoor
Anhoni - Raj Kapoor
Andaaz - Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor
Jogan - Dilip Kumar
Adalat - Pradeep Kumar
Lajvanti - Balraj Sahani
Chori Chori - Raj Kapoor
Mela - Dilip Kumar
MEMORABLE SONGS
‘Ajao tadapate hain araman...’ (Awara)
‘Ajaa re, ab meraa dil...’ (Aah)
‘Ajaa sanam madhur chandanii mein hum...’ (Chori Chori)
‘Chhod gae baalam, mujhe haay akelaa chhod gae...’ (Barsaat)
‘Dam bhar jo udhar munh phere, o chandaa...’ (Awaara)
‘Duniya mein ham ae hain to jina hi padega...’ (Mother India)
‘Jaanaa thaa hamase door, bahaane banaa liye...’ (Adalat)
‘Jiyaa beqaraar hai, chhaai bahaar hai...’ (Barsaat)
‘Nagarii-nagarii dvaare-dvaare dhuundhuun re saanvariyaa...’ (Mother India)
‘Panchhii banuun udatii phiruun mast gagan mein...’ (Chori Chori)
‘Pii ke ghar aaj pyaari dulhaniyaa chalii...’ (Mother India)
‘Pyaar huaa iqaraar huaa hai, pyaar se phir kyon darataa hai dil...’ (Shree 420)
‘Raajaa kii aayegii baaraat, raangiilii hogii raat...’ (Aah)
‘Uthaaye jaa unake sitam aur jiye jaa...’ (Andaaz)
‘Yuun hasaraton ke daag muhabbat meIn dho liye...’ (Adalat)
‘O o o mujhe kisii se pyaar ho gayaa...’ (Barsaat)
‘O!mere laal aa jaa, tujh ko gale lagaa luun...’ (Mother India)
‘Gaa mere man gaa...’ (Lajwanti)
‘Jahan mein jaati hoon wahi chale aate ho...’ (Chori Chori)
‘Chod babul ka ghar...’ (Babul)
Though Nargis quit films after Mother India, ten years later, she got an offer she simply couldn’t refuse, Raat Aur Din. It was one of the most interesting roles ever portrayed on the Indian screen. Playing a split personality who by the day is an introvert but as night falls, she transforms into an exhibitionist, Nargis did a splendid job of the script. And predictibly, Raat Aur Din fetched Nargis her scared National Award. Except far than one film, she never missed the arc lights. She involved herself in social service.
During the Indo-China war in 1962, she and her husband organized cultural tours to entertain the Jawans on the border. Besides this, she was deeply involved in work for spastic children and a few years later got politically activated whom nominated as a member of Rajya Sabha.
Towards the late 80’s she developed cancer, but told no one about it. However, when her pain became unbearable she revealed the truth about the deadly disease, but it was too late. Sunil Dutt left no stone unturned to save her, she was admitted to Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, where she underwent long and strenuous treatments and series of surgeries for cancer of pancreas. But her condition never really improved. During the seven months that she was in the hospital, Sunil Dutt never left her side and never gave up hope. Ultimately, hopes were revived and one fine day Nargis was discharged and returned home. She had turned pale, lost weight, but she was happy to be back with her family. Till her last day, she worried about her children, particularly Sanjay. She wanted to be a part of her dreams, his career but as fate would have it just five days before the release of Sanjay’s debut film Rocky, her condition deteriorated and she had to be rushed to Breach Candy Hospital. When the Bombay doctors gave up hope, Sunil Dutt began arrangements to fly down the doctors who had treated her Sloan Kettering, but it was too late. In the many noted condolence messages bestowed on her director, Satyajit Ray had said, ‘The industry is still struggling to find another Nargis’. On the poet Allamah Iqbal expressed ‘Hazaroah Saal ‘Nargis’ apni benoori par roti hai..., badi Mushkil se hota hain chamanme dedavar paida...’.
http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.ph ... nt_id=4109
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