Nargis

Nargis

Original Name: 
Fatima A. Rashid

Date of Birth (Birthday):
1 June, 1929


Date of Death:
3 May 1981


Nargis Dutt born Fatima Rashid but known by her screen name, Nargis, was an Indian film actress. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Hindi cinema. She made her screen debut as a child in Talash-E-Haq in 1935, but her acting carer began in 1942 with Tamanna.



Early life and background:
Nargis was born into the tawaif tradition of Calcutta. Her mother, the Allahabad-based Hindustani classical music singer and courtesan Jaddanbai, did not teach her singing, to prevent her from falling into the tawaif tradition. Instead, she introduced her into the movie culture unfolding in India at the time. Her father was one Uttamchand Mohanchand (popularly known as Mohanbabu), a wealthy doctor born in a Mohyal Brahmin family from Rawalpindi. Her only brother, Anwar Hussain, also became a film actor. Anwar Hussain was born to Jaddanbai and a different husband, and was raised in Muslim tradition like his mother.

Career:
Fatima was recruited to the cinema at an early age. She made her first film appearance in the 1935 Talashe Haq when she was six years old, credited as "Baby Nargis". Nargis, her stage name, means "Narcissus", the flower. She was subsequently credited as Nargis in all of her films.
Nargis appeared in numerous movies after her film debut; she won lasting fame for her later, adult, roles, starting with at the age of 14, in Mehboob Khan's Taqdeer in 1943 opposite, Motilal.She starred in many popular Hindi movies of the late 1940s and 1950s such as Barsaat (1949), Andaz (1949), Awaara (1951), Deedar (1951), Shree 420 (1955), and Chori Chori (1956). In most of her films she starred alongside Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar.
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 her marriage to Sunil Dutt in 1958, Nargis gave up her film career after her last few film releases to settle down with her family. She made her last film appearance in the 1967 film Raat Aur Din for which she won a National Film Award for Best Actress, the first actress to win in this category. She also received a Filmfare Best Actress Award Nomination for this film.

Personal life:
Nargis married actor Sunil Dutt (himself a Mohyal from Jhelum, British India). Reportedly, Dutt had saved her life from a fire accident on the sets of Mother India. The couple married on 11 March 1958 and had three children together: Sanjay, Namrata, and Priya. Sanjay Dutt went onto become a very successful film actor. Namrata married actor Kumar Gaurav, son of veteran actor Rajendra Kumar who had appeared alongside both Nargis and Sunil Dutt in Mother India. Priya became a politician, and since 2005 has been a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha).
Along with her husband, Nargis formed the Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe, which roped in several leading actors and singers of the time, and performed at remote frontiers to entertain the Indian soldiers; it was the first troupe to perform at Dhaka, after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and the formation of Bangladesh.
Later, Nargis worked for the cause of spastic children. She became the first patron of The Spastics Society of India. Her charitable work for the organisation got her recognition as a social worker.


Death:
Nargis was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment for the disease at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Upon her return to India, her condition deteriorated, and she was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. She sank into a coma on 2 May 1981 and died on 3 May 1981. Her absence at the premiere of her son's debut film Rocky on 7 May 1981, where one seat was kept vacant for her, was a nationally famous event.
Nargis is buried at Badakabarastan in Marine Lines, Mumbai.



Awards and recognitions:


1957 - Filmfare Best Actress Award, Mother India


1958 - Best Actress at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Mother India


1958 - Padma Shri - first film personality to be conferred the award.




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


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

She was not just the first actress to win the "Karlovy Wary Award", and also nominated to the Rajya Sabha (Upper house of Indian Parliament) (1980–81), but fell ill and died during her tenure.

She had been conferred with a National Award for contribution to Indian Cinema.

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