I started googling about nargis dutt and was astonished at the drop down options I got as I wrote her name : Nargis Dutt followed by hot/ cancer foundation/ memorial cancer hospital/ biography/ songs/ awards/ photos.... Would I be googled after I die... I wonder... and I if would be... Would that be suffixed by all these words like...? Mayank kakkar followed by hot/ awards/ photos... etc...
Anyways, I always tend to move to myself... but wait... I am not a narcissist. I am just my favorite... Let’s move to Nargis Dutt. . .
Her actual name was Fatima Rashid... wow... I just got to know that she was a Muslim by birth... “Talash-e-haq” was her first movie, where she was a child artist; as an adult she did her first movie at 14, "Taqdeer"... But her acting career began with "Tamanna"... Her role of "Radha" in "Mother India" was formidable...
Her last appearance was in the movie "Raat aur din" in 1967...
She was the one to form Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe with hubby Sunil Dutt... In the last days of his (Sunil Dutt's) life Kavita Chhibber, whose uncle Tilak Raj Dutt was cousin of Sunil Dutt, interviewed Sunil Dutt... He, till the end referred to Nargis Dutt as Nargis "ji"... (Ref: http://www.kavitachhibber.com/main/main.jsp?id=sunil_dutt)... I really respect this man... It is important to respect woman, which he did...
It is hard to believe that she was born in "Tawaif" tradition of Calcutta; her mother, jaddanbai, did not teach her singing, so she should not enter the tawaif tradition and rather made her talent grow in the movie culture, which at that point was unfolding in India...
It is said that Sunil Dutt had saved her life on the sets of "Mother India" from a fire accident... Now, doesn’t his sound familiar to a scene in "Om Shanti Om".. GOD... copycats directors in India...... Even I will try n make "Kehne mein kya harz hai" :)
It is said that she was so involved in the film, Mother India... that she would be present on the set hours before the schedule, ready with her make up, going through her lines. In fact, 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 her; yet, she never complained her director to hasten the scene, instead she persisted on more retake to extract the best.
After her death, one of my favorite poet, Allama Iqbal expressed the sorrow of her leaving us:
Hazaaron saal 'Nargis' apni benoori per roti hai... badi mushkil se hota hai chaman mein dedavar paida...
I found an article by Priya Dutt ( http://www.rediff.com/movies/2004/jun/01priya.htm) about how she, Namrata and Sanjay were during the old days and how positive, full of life and down to earth Nargis ji was... There was no difference between a dhaba and a 5-star hotel for her...
A very interesting story, that once again narrated the malicious humour and Nargis Ji’s knack to make people happy, goes like this…Once she called up Khushwant
Singh and asked if she could meet him up… Khushwant said yes and she came.. n said: ” I have come to ask you for a personal favour…. I believe you have a house in Kasauli. My children are at Sanawar and I can’t find anywhere to stay during the school Founder’s week celebration… I was wondering if you could let me stay in your house…”
Khushwant then said, “Of course!!!... But only on one condition… Provided thereafter I have your permission to tell anyone I like that Nargis slept in my bed...”...
Nargis relplied, “Done! I stay in your house; you say I slept in your bed…”
Khushwant states that she was as beautiful as she was unassuming and friendly… and she got a dulcet voice..
A quote goes like this, mentioned in an article:
Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies A lass unparalleled….
Beautiful she was in all senses of the word… with a heart of gold…her smile was bewitching… her laughter contagious… she had the gift of eternal youth…
May GOD bless her soul and she rest in peace … Amen...
I have yet to see a comment on Nargis, better than this one."
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