Nargis from the flames

Nargis from the flames



By Nirupama Dutt


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Nargis’ Bollywood reign





While filming on location for ‘Mother India’ there was a terrible fire, in which Nargis was trapped. Sunil heroically leapt into the flames to rescue her. The two fell in love



he was named Nargis after the narcissus flower. It was a name destined to become famous. Among Bollywood’s earliest stars, she was called the first lady of the Indian screen, the lady in white, and Mother India, after starring in the famous Mehboob Khan film of that name. She was given the highest award India has for acting, the Urvashi Award, as well as the Padma Shri. She was also nominated to the upper house of the Indian parliament. So it is a trifle amusing to hear her husband, Sunil Dutt, now India’s minister for sports, refer to her always as Mrs Dutt, as though her status as a respectable Indian wife was more than her glory as an actress.

Fate and atonement seem to have played a major role in the Nargis-Sunil love story. Nargis’ father, Uttam Chand Mohan, who was known popularly as Mohan Babu, belonged to the Husaini Brahmin clan, to which the Dutts also belong. He was of the Mohan sub-caste and his father Dalbir Chand Mohan was a prominent and wealthy member of the Hindu community in Navan Mohalla, Rawalpindi. Dalbir Chand had wanted his son to study medicine in England and become a successful doctor. This was during the 1920s, when Indians were entering the professions in floods.

But destiny had other designs on Mohan Babu. Travelling from Rawalpindi, Mohan Babu stopped to hear Jaddan Bai sing in a mehfil in Kolkata. It was love at first note. He approached his father, and like a dutiful son sought his permission to marry Jaddan Bai. For Dalbir Chand, the very idea of his son marrying a Muslim girl from the courtesan community was unthinkable. But Mohan Babu was so smitten by her that he chose to abandon his studies, his career and his home, and went to live forever with his lady love. Later, it is said, Mohan Babu repented of his harshness, and asked that Jaddan Bai come. This time it was her turn to refuse.

The Urdu writer Saadat Hasan Manto, in his pen sketch ‘Nargis: narcissus of undying bloom’, writes: “Nargis could only have become an actress given the fact of her birth. Jaddan Bai was getting on, and though she had two sons, her entire concentration was on Baby, Nargis, a plain-looking girl who could not sing. But Jaddan Bai knew that a sweet voice could be borrowed and if one had the talent, even the disadvantage of ordinary looks could be surmounted.” And this is precisely what happened. Nargis was photogenic, and soon developed an acting style that was highly popular in the late forties and fifties. Her most memorable roles were in films like Aag, Awara, Shree 420 and Barsaat, with the great Raj Kapoor, and the two became the ideal of romance from Mumbai to Moscow. But in their personal life, Nargis’ love for Raj was hopeless. He was already married, and she seemed fated to remain the other woman. After making Jagte raho in 1957 the two parted. Film journalist Bunny Reuben writes: “The break-up was inherent in the nature of the relationship, because in every such relationship marriage is the coveted end from the woman’s standpoint and the impossibility from the man’s.”

Finally free of Raj Kapoor and his camp, Nargis now signed on for Mother India, in which Sunil Dutt, an upcoming young actor was playing the role of her son. While filming on location there was a terrible fire, in which Nargis was trapped. Sunil heroically leapt into the flames to rescue her. The two fell in love, and were married in a quiet ceremony in March 1958. Nargis had become Mrs Dutt. But the end of the story came much later. On May 3, 1981, Nargis died of cancer and Sunil Dutt buried her, as was her wish, not with the Dutt clan of her father and husband, but by the grave of her courtesan mother, Jaddan Bai.