Nargis – the legendary actress of bollywood.
Nargis is one of the most powerful actresses of bollywood who was responsible for popularising Indian films across the world. She provided evergreen hits with Raj Kapoor like Barsaat, Awara, Aah, Shri 420, Chori Chori, etc.
She stormed the silver screen with her performance in Awara, where she played the role of a lawyer who pleaded before the court of law about the innocence of Raj Kapoor, in a criminal case. In the same film she learnt advocacy from Raj Kapoor’s father Prithviraj Kapoor. She portrayed the theme of the film, that is human beings are products of the society and environment where they live, and a Barrister’s son can also end up being a criminal if he stays in a bad environment.
Nargis had given immortal lips in Lata’s romantic songs composed by Shankar Jaikishan like “ghar aya mera pardesi”, “ramaiya wastamaiya”, “aja sanam”, “yeh raat bheegi bheegi”, “rasik balma”, etc. Even in the films that were not produced or directed by Raj Kapoor, like Chori Chori, Nargis provided memorable performance. In that film she was the daughter of a rich person and to avoid an arranged marriage she left the house and was protected by Raj Kapoor who ultimately brought her back to her house. The story was similar to Hollywood film Roman Holiday, and Uttamkumar’s film Chawapawa, and later on Amir Khan’s film Dil Hai ki manta nahi, was made with the same theme. At the same time Nargis acted with other actors of the period including Babul, Andaz with Dilip Kumar, Adalat with Pradeep Kumar, Lajwanti with Balraj Sahani.
She became immortal with her majestic performance in Mehboob Khan’s film Mother India in 1957. She was the wife of Raj Kumar, in the film and after the death of the husband she worked as a peasant and brought up her two sons Sunil Dutt and Rajender Kumar and stayed in the right path. She received a number of awards for showing the struggle that is required on the part of a widow in a village in case her husband dies at an early age.
After marrying Sunil Dutt, she left films but as Member of the Parliament had contributed to social welfare of the country. She died out of cancer and did not see the success of her son Sanjay Dutt in bollywood films. If Meena Kumari is known for pardanashin aristocracy, Nargis is known for sublime personality and she is alive in her legendary films.
