01/06/2015
Fondly remembering our visionary, the late Padmashree Nargis Dutt, on her 86th birth anniversary today.
Nargis Dutt (1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981), Nargis was born as Fatima Rashid in Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, India into a Punjabi, Muslim family. Her father was Abdul Rashid alias Mohan Babu, a wealthy Mohyal Tyagi from Punjab, Rawalpindi who had converted to Islam. Her mother was Jaddanbai, a Muslim immigrant whose family had settled in the Punjab region. Nargis' family had then migrated to Allahabad from West Punjab. Jaddanbai was a Hindustani classical music singer and courtesan in Allahabad. She introduced Nargis into the movie culture unfolding in India at the time. She made her screen debut as a child artist in Talash-E-Haq in 1935, but her acting career began in 1942 with Tamanna.
One of the best-known roles of Nargis was that of Radha in the Academy Award-nominated film Mother India (1957), a performance that won her Best Actress trophy at the Filmfare Awards. In 1958, she married her Mother India co-actor Sunil Dutt, and left the film industry. The couple married on 11 March 1958 and had three children together: Sanjay, Namrata, and Priya. Sanjay went on to become a successful film actor. Namrata married actor Kumar Gaurav, son of veteran actor Rajendra Kumar. Priya became a politician and a Member of Parliament.
She was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha from 1980–81, but fell ill and passed away during her tenure. Read more about the legendary actress and her mother Jaddanbai on:
http://www.womenonrecord.com/music-makers/artists/jaddanbai
Jaddanbai played a pioneering role in Indian cinema in the early talkies era. She started off as an actress and was also one of the first women to produce, direct films and compose music for films. But her achievements have been overshadowed by her reputation as the legendary Nargis’s mother.
