Nargis

Nargis (June 1, 1929 - May 3, 1981), was an Indian actress best known for her role as Radha in the Oscar-nominated film Mother India. She was the wife of actor Sunil Dutt (who appeared in Mother India as her son) and her son Sanjay Dutt is currently a very successful actor in the industry.

Personal Life

Nargis was born Fatima Rashid, the daughter of the Allahabad-based singer, Jaddanbai and Uttamchand Mohanchand (also called Mohanbabu), a Mohyal Brahmin from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Jaddanbai was involved in the earliest Indian cinema as a singer, dancer, actress, and even director and composer. Nargis married the actor Sunil Dutt (himself a Mohyal from Jhelum, Pakistan). Her brother Anwar Hussain was also an actor in the film industry. Nargis started her career in the 1930s as a child artist and progressed quickly to leading roles in several popular films in the 1940s and 1950s which remain popular today. In most of her films she appeared opposite the director and Bollywood star Raj Kapoor. She is said to have been his real-life love interest as well as his favorite heroine. The affair was doomed to remain an affair, however, as Kapoor made no move to divorce his wife. Her most famous role was in Mehboob Khan's oscar-nominated epic drama Mother India in 1957. It is a well-known story that while shooting for Mother India, Nargis was trapped amidst lit haystacks while filming a scene. As the flames got higher and higher, Sunil Dutt, who played her rebellious son Birju in the film, ran through the fire and rescued her. Later, Dutt proposed to her, and they married on March 11, 1958. The marriage produced three children: Sanjay, Anju, and Priya. Namrata went onto marry actor Kumar Gaurav, son of Rajendra Kumar who had appeared alongside both Nargis and Sunil Dutt in Mother India.

Career

Fatima was recruited to the cinema at an early age. Fatima made her first film appearance in 1935, in Talashe Haq. The six-year-old was credited as "Baby Nargis". Nargis, her stage name, means "Narcissus", the flower. She was always credited as Nargis in all of her films.

Nargis appeared in numerous movies after her 1935 debut; she won lasting fame for her later, adult, roles. She starred in many popular Hindi-Urdu movies of the late 1940s and 1950s such as Barsaat (1949), Andaz (1949), Awaara (1951), Shree 420 (1955) and Chori Chori (1956).

Her most famous role came in Mehboob Khan's Oscar-nominated rural drama Mother India in 1957. She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance. After marriage to Sunil Dutt in 1958, Nargis acted in only a few films and her last film appearance was in the 1967 film Raat Aur Din for which she won a National Film Award for Best Actress.

Nargis died of pancreatic cancer in 1981, only a few weeks before her son Sanjay Dutt's debut film Rocky was released.

Awards and Recognitions

1957 - Filmfare Best Actress Award, Mother India

1968 - National Film Awards for Best Actress, Raat Aur Din

Nargis Dutt was the recipient of the Urvashy Award, the highest honour that can be conferred on a movie actress in India.

She was not just the first actress to win the Karlovy Wary award, but the first film personality to be conferred a Padma Shri and also a Rajya Sabha seat in Parliament. She had been conferred with a National Award for cinematography for contribution to Indian Cinema

On January 8, 2001, Amitabh Bachchan and Nargis Dutt were honoured with the Best Artists of the Millennium award by Hero Honda and file magazine "Stardust".

Filmography

1) Raat Aur Din (1967)
2) Yaadein (1964)
3) Adalat (1958)
4) Ghar Sansar (1958)
5) Lajwanti (1958)
6) Mother India (1957)
7) Pardesi (1957)
8) Chori Chori (1956)
9) Jagte Raho (1956)
10) Shree 420 (1955)
11) Angarey (1954)
12) Aah (1953)
13) Dhoon (1953)
14) Paapi (1953)
15) Shikast (1953)
16) Amber (1952)
17) Anhonee (1952)
18) Ashiana (1952)
19) Bewafa (1952)
20) Sheesha (1952)
21) Awaara (1951)
22) Deedar (1951)
23) Hulchul (1951)
24) Pyar Ki Baaten (1951)
25) Saagar (1951)
26) Aadhi Raat (1950)
27) Babul (1950)
28) Chhoti Bhabbi (1950)
29) Jan Pahchan (1950)
30) Jogan (1950)
31) Khel (1950)
32) Meena Bazaar (1950)
33) Pyaar (1950)
34) Andaaz (1949)
35) Barsaat (1949)
36) Darogaji (1949)
37) Lahore (1949)
38) Roomal (1949)
39) Aag (1948)
40) Anjuman (1948)
41) Anokha Pyar (1948)
42) Mela (1948)
43) Mehandi (1947)
44) Nargis (1946)
45) Bisvi Sadi (1945)
46) Humayun (1945)
47) Taqdeer (1943)
48) Tamanna (1942)
49) Talashe Haq (1935)