Nargis - A Soulful Actress

By Katherine Kelly


Actress Nargis with an original name of Fatima Rashid was one among the evergreen and versatile actresses of Hindi cinema. Her name is derived from the name of a flower, Narcissus. She began acting in her childhood with the film Talash-E-Haq however she became a full time actress with Tamanna in 1942.

Her mother, Jaddanbai who was a singer and a courtesan, introduced her to the film industry so that she also does not end up as a courtesan.

She has acted in several critically acclaimed films with the celebrated actors Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. A few of those films are Deedar, Barsaat, Awaara and Andaz. Mother India is her best movie in her acting tenure, which started from the 1940s and ended in the 1960s. She was honored with the Filmfare Best Actress Award for Mother India. Her enactment as Radha in the movie is known to be one of her amazing performances. It is heard that her co-actor Sunil Dutt, who in future got married to her, saved her from a fire mishap during the shooting of this movie.

Nargis quit acting after her marriage. They were blessed with 3 kids, Priya Dutt, Sanjay Dutt and Namratha.

Nargis was awarded the prestigious Urvashy Award which is the highest award given to an actress in Hindi cinema. She is the also the recipient of National Award, Padma Shri and Karlovy Award. It was for the first time that an actress of the Hindi film Industry received the celebrated Padma Shri.

Apart from winning a lot of awards, Nargis founded the Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe, along with her husband. This troupe, with several well known Indian film actors and actresses, entertained the soldiers at the border.

This group is the first among others to perform in Dhaka after Pakistan and India combat. Mrs Dutt was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha. However, Nargis could not complete her term of office as she was found to have pancreatic cancer and succumbed to it.

One other well-known quality of Nargis, apart from acting, was her dedication towards social work. Nargis was one among the main patrons of The Spastics Society of India through which she helped the spastic kids. Even after she passed away, her presence was obvious, as her chair was left vacant on the first screening of her son Sanjay Dutt's debut movie, Rocky. The Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was founded in her fond memory.




About the Author:



Comments (0)

Posting Komentar