Monday, 5 January 2015
Nargis Dutt:
Nargis Dutt (1 June 1929 – 3 May 1981), 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 career began in 1942 with Tamanna. During a career that spanned from the
1940s to the 60s, Nargis appeared in numerous commercially successful as well
as critically appreciated films, many of which featured her alongside actor and
filmmaker Raj Kapoor.
One of her best-known roles was that of Radha
in the Academy Award-nominated Mother India (1957), a performance that won her
Best Actress trophy at the Filmfare Awards. In 1958, Nargis married her Mother
India co-star, actor Sunil Dutt, and left the film industry. She would appear
infrequently in films during the 60s. Some of her films of this period include
the drama Raat Aur Din (1967), for which she got the inaugural National Film
Award for Best Actress.
Along with her husband, Nargis formed the
Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe, which roped in several leading actors and singers
of the time and held stage shows at border areas. In early 1970s, she became
the first patron of Spastics Society of India, and her subsequent work with the
organisation brought her recognition as a social worker, and later a Rajya
Sabha nomination in 1980.
Nargis died in 1981 of pancreatic cancer, a
few days before her son Sanjay Dutt made his debut in Hindi films. In 1982, the
Nargis Dutt Memorial Cancer Foundation was established in her memory. The award
for best feature film on national integration in the annual National Film
Awards ceremony is called the Nargis Dutt Award in her honour.
Early
life:
Nargis was born in Calcutta, Bengal
Presidency, India (now Kolkata, West Bengal), India into Punjabi family . Her
father was Uttamchand Mohanchand alias Mohan Babu, a wealthy Hindu Mohyal from
Punjab Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan).[7][8][9] 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.[10] She introduced Nargis
into the movie culture unfolding in India at the time. Nargis' maternal
half-brother, Anwar Hussain (1928–1988), also became a film actor. He was born
to Jaddanbai and a different husband.
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, (نرگس [ˈnərɡɪs])
is a Persian word meaning Narcissus, daffodil 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. Raj Kapoor is also known to have had a longtime romantic relationship
with her during the 1940s and 1950s. The couple starred in several films
together, including Awaara and Shree 420.
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. Baburao Patel of the film magazine Filmindia
(December 1957) described Mother India after its release as the greatest
picture produced in India and wrote that no other actress would have been able
to perform the role as well as Nargis. 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. The film was well received and Nargis' performance as a woman who
suffers from multiple-personality disorder, was critically acclaimed. For this
role 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.
In 2011, Rediff.com listed her as the greatest
actress of all time, noting, An actress with range, style, grace and an
incredibly warm screen presence, Nargis is truly a leading lady to celebrate.According
to M.L. Dhawan from The Tribune, In almost all her films Nargis created a woman
who could be desired and deified. The charisma of Nargis's screen image lay in
that it oscillated between the simple and the chic with equal ease.
She was also nominated to the Rajya Sabha
(Upper house of Indian Parliament) from 1980–81.[1][14] but fell ill and died
during her tenure.[15]
Personal
life:
Nargis dated actor Raj Kapoor, who was her
co-star in the films Awara and Shree 420. Raj Kapoor was already married then
and had children. After he refused to divorce his wife that Nargis decided to
end their years long relationship. Nargis married actor Sunil Dutt (himself a
Mohyal from Jhelum, Pakistan). 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 went on to
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 in 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 organization 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 the next day. Her absence at the premiere of her son's debut
film Rocky on 7 May 1981, where one seat was kept vacant for her, is a
nationally famous event.
Sunday, 4 January 2015
Indian Actress Madhuballa With Rare Pictures
Life Biography:
Madhubala (14 February 1933 – 23 February
1969) was an Indian Bollywood actress who appeared in classic films of Hindi
Cinema. She was active between 1942 and 1960. Along with her contemporaries
Nargis and Meena Kumari, she is regarded as one of the most influential personalities
of Hindi movies. She is also considered to be one of the most beautiful
actresses to have worked in the industry.
Madhubala received wide recognition for her
performances in films like Mahal (1949), Amar (1954), Mr. & Mrs. '55
(1955), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and Barsaat Ki Raat
(1960). Madhubala's performance in Mughal-e-Azam established her as an iconic
actress of Hindi Cinema. Her last film, Jwala, although shot in the 1950s, was
released in 1971. Madhubala died on 23 February 1969 after a prolonged illness.
Early
life:
Madhubala was born Mumtaz Jehan Begum
Dehlavi, on 14 February 1933 in Delhi, British India. Her father was Attaullah
Khan, a Yousafzai Pashtun from what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan and
her mother was Ayesha Begum. She belonged to an orthodox middle-class family
and was the fifth of eleven children. After her father lost his job at the
Imperial Tobacco Company in Peshawar, he relocated to Delhi followed by Mumbai.
There, the family endured many hardships.
Madhubala's three sisters and two brothers died at the age of five and six. The
dock explosion and fire of April 14, 1944 wiped out their small home. The
family survived only because they had gone to see a film at a local theater.
With
his six remaining daughters to provide for, Khan, and the young Madhubala,
began to pay frequent visits to Bombay film studios to look for work. At the
age of 9, this was Madhubala's introduction to the movie industry, which would
provide financial help to her family.
Early
career:
Madhubala's first movie, Basant (1942), was a
box-office success. She acted as the daughter to a mother played by actress
Mumtaz Shanti. As a child actress she went on to play in several movies.
Actress Devika Rani was impressed by her performance and potential, and advised
her to assume the screen name 'Madhubala',[9] literally meaning 'honey belle'.
Her first lead role, at the age of 14, was with producer Kidar Sharma when he
cast her opposite Raj Kapoor in Neel Kamal (1947). This was the last film in
which she was credited as Mumtaz before assuming her screen name 'Madhubala'.
She achieved stardom and popularity in 1949 when she was cast as the lead in
Bombay Talkies studio's Mahal – a role intended for well-known star Suraiya.
Madhubala, with established actresses, screen-tested for the role before she
was selected by the film's director Kamal Amrohi. The film was the third
largest hit at the 1949 Indian box office. Following the success of Mahal,
Madhubala appeared in the box office hits Dulari (1949), Beqasoor (1950),
Tarana (1951) and Badal (1951).
Hollywood
interest:
In the early 1950s, as Madhubala became one
of the most sought-after actresses in India, she attracted interest from
Hollywood. She appeared in the American magazine Theatre Arts where, in its
August 1952 issue, she was featured in an article with a full page photograph
under the title: "The Biggest Star in the World - and she's not in Beverly
Hills".
Madhubala's immense popularity in India, and
explored her wide appeal and large fan base. It also speculated on her potential
international success. Academy Award winner American director Frank Capra,
while visiting Bombay for International Film Festival of India, was keen to
give her a break in Hollywood, but her father Ataullah Khan declined.
Stardom:
Madhubala's co-stars Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor,
Rehman, Pradeep Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Dev Anand
were the most popular of the period. She also appeared with Kamini Kaushal,
Suraiya, Geeta Bali, Nalini Jaywant, Shyama and Nimmi, notable leading ladies.
The directors she worked with, Mehboob Khan (Amar), Guru Dutt (Mr. & Mrs.
'55), Kamal Amrohi (Mahal) and K. Asif (Mughal-e-Azam), were amongst the most
prolific and respected. Madhubala also became a producer with the film Naata
(1955), in which she also acted.
During the 1950s, Madhubala took starring
roles in almost every genre of film being made at the time. Her 1950 film
Hanste Aansoo was the first ever Hindi film to get an "A" – adults
only – rating from the Central Board of Film Certification.[15] She was the archetypal
fair lady in the swashbuckler Badal (1951), and following this, an uninhibited
village beauty in Tarana (1951). She played the traditional ideal of Indian
womanhood in Sangdil (1952), and produced a comic performance as the spoilt
heiress, Anita, in Guru Dutt's satire Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955). In 1956, she
acted in costume dramas such as Shirin-Farhad and Raj-Hath, and played a double
role in the social drama Kal Hamara Hai (1959).
In the mid-1950s, her films including the
major ones like Mehboob Khan's Amar (1954) did not do well commercially.
However, she bounced back between 1958 and 1960 when she starred in a series of
hit films. These include Howrah Bridge, opposite Ashok Kumar where she played
the role of an Anglo-Indian Cabaret singer involved in Calcutta's Chinatown
underworld. In the song Aaiye Meherebaan from this film, she lip-synced a torch
song dubbed by Asha Bhosle which has remained popular to this day. Among other
successful films, she played opposite Bharat Bhushan in Phagun; Dev Anand in
Kala Pani; Kishore Kumar in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi; and Bharat Bushan again in
Barsaat Ki Raat (1960). Then in 1960, she appeared in the magnum opus
Mughal-e-Azam.
Madhubala acted in as many as seventy films
from 1947 to 1964, and only fifteen of which were box office successes. Dilip
Kumar regrets that "(h)ad she lived, and had she selected her films with
more care, she would have been far superior to her contemporaries ...Kumar also
points out that "actresses those days faced a lot of difficulties and
constraints in their career. Unable to assert themselves too much, they fell
back on their families who became their caretakers and defined everything for
them.
Mughal-e-Azam
and later work:
It was the film Mughal-e-Azam that marked
what many consider to be Madhubala's greatest and definitive characterization,
as the doomed courtesan Anarkali. Although the film took nine years to
complete, it was not until 1953 when Madhubala was finally chosen to play the
role. Bunny Reuben in his Book Dilip Kumar:
Star Legend of Indian Cinema claimed that
Dilip Kumar's role was instrumental behind this selection. Mughal-e-Azam gave
Madhubala the opportunity of fulfilling herself totally as an actress, for it
was a role that all actresses dream of playing as Nimmi acknowledges that as an
actress, one gets a lot of roles, there is no shortage of them, but there isn’t
always good scope for acting. With Mughal-e-Azam, Madhubala showed the world
just what she could do.
Madhubala
in Mughal-e-Azam:
However, by the late 1950s, her health was
deteriorating fast, and Director K. Asif, probably unaware of the extent of
Madhubala's illness, required long shooting schedules that made physical
demands on her, whether it was posing as a veiled statue in suffocating make-up
for hours under the studio lights or being shackled with heavy chains. It was
also a time when Madhubala's relationship with Dilip Kumar was fading out, and
"the lives of Madhubala and her screen character are consistently seen as
overlapping, it is because of the overwhelming sense of loss and tragedy and
the unrelenting diktat of destiny that clung to both and which neither could
escape".
Mughal-e-Azam was released on 5 August 1960,
and became the biggest grossing film at that time, a record that went unbroken
for 15 years until the release of the film Sholay in 1975. It still ranks
second in the list of all time box-office hits of Indian cinema. Madhubhala was
nominated for a Filmfare Award for her performance in Mughal-e-Azam.
In 1960 Madhubala was at the peak of her
career and popularity with the release of Mughal-e-Azam and Barsaat Ki Raat.
She did have intermittent releases in the early 1960s. Some of these, like
Jhumroo (1961), Half Ticket (1962) and Sharabi (1964), performed above average
at the box-office. However, most of her other films released during this time
were marred by her absence and subsequent lack of completion due to her prolonged
illness. These films suffer from compromised editing, and in some cases the use
of "doubles" in an attempt to patch-in scenes that Madhubala was
unable to shoot.[22] Her last released film Jwala, although filmed in the late
1950s, was not issued until 1971.
Personal
life and controversies:
In their 1962 book Self-Portrait, Harish
Booch and Karing Doyle commented that "(u)nlike other stars, Madhubala
prefers a veiled secrecy around her and is seldom seen in social gatherings or
public functions" , and went on to say that "(c)ontrary to general
belief, Madhubala is rather simple and unassuming" This is echoed in Madhubala's sister's
interview with the Filmfare: "(Madhubala) became a craze because she was
never seen in public. She wasn’t allowed to attend any function, any premiere.
She had no friends. But she never resisted, she was obedient. Being protective,
my father earned the reputation of being domineering". Dilip Kumar added,
"She was extremely popular ... and I think the only star for whom people
thronged outside the gates. Very often when shooting was over, there’d be a
vast crowd standing at the gates just to have a look at Madhu ... It wasn’t so
for anyone else. That was her personal effect on fans. Her personality was
vivacious." But, "she was aware of her beauty," reminisces B. K.
Karanjia, former Filmfare editor and a close friend of both Madhubala and her
father, "and because there were so many in love with her, she used to play
one against the other. But it was out of innocence rather than shrewd
calculation." Dev Anand recalled in a similar way: "(s)he liked to
flirt innocently and was great fun. However, with Dilip Kumar she had a long
association.
Dilip Kumar and Madhubala first met on the set
of Jwar Bhata (1944), and worked together again on the film Har Singaar (1949),
which was shelved. Their relationship began two years later during the filming
of Tarana (1951). They became a romantic pair appearing in a total of four
films together. Actor Shammi Kapoor recalled that "Dilip Kumar would drive
down from Bombay to meet Madhubala ... she was committed to Dilip ... he even
flew to Bombay to spend Eid with her, taking time off from his shooting stint
... "They even got engaged", said Madhubala's sister. But, Madhubala's father Ataullah Khan did not
give them permission to marry. Dilip Kumar said, "She was a very, very
obedient daughter", and who, in spite of the success, fame and wealth,
submitted to the domination of her father and more often than not paid for his
mistakes. "This inability to leave her family was her greatest
drawback", believed Shammi Kapoor, "for it had to be done at some
time." The Naya Daur (1957 film) court case happened in 1956 when Dilip
Kumar testified against Madhubala and her father in favor of the director B.R.
Chopra in open court. This struck a fatal blow to the Dilip-Madhubala
relationship as it ended any chance of reconciliation between Dilip Kumar and
Madhubala'a father. Reflecting on this, while Dilip Kumar said he was
"trapped", Shammi Kapoor felt "this was something which went
beyond him (Dilip) and he couldn’t control the whole situation ..."However,
Madhubala's sister Madhur Bhushan claimed that "(Madhubala) said she would
marry him (Dilip), provided he apologised to her father. He refused, so
Madhubala left him. That one 'sorry' could have changed her life."
Madhubala married Kishore Kumar in 1960, and
according to Leena Chandavarkar (Kishore's fourth wife): "When she
realized Dilip was not going to marry her, on the rebound and just to prove to
him that she could get whomsoever she wanted, she went and married a man she did
not even know properly." B. K. Karanjia assumed that "Madhubala may
have felt that perhaps this was her best chance" because by this time she
became seriously ill, and was about to stop working completely; however, he
added that "it was a most unlikely union, and not a happy one
either." Madhubala’s illness was
known to Kishore, but like all the others, he did not realize its gravity;
Ataullah Khan did not approve of his son-in-law at all, but he had lost the
courage to disapprove. Ashok Kumar reminisced in a Filmfare interview:
"She suffered a lot and her illness made her very bad-tempered. She often
fought with Kishore, and would take off to her father's house where she spent
most of her time." Madhubala's sister echoes this view albeit in a
slightly different tone: "After marriage they flew to London where the
doctor told her she had only two years to live. After that Kishore left her at
our house saying, ‘I can’t look after her. I’m on outdoors often’. But she
wanted to be with him. He’d visit her once in two months though. Maybe he
wanted to detach himself from her so that the final separation wouldn’t hurt.
But he never abused her as was reported. He bore her medical expenses. They
remained married for nine years."
However, Madhubala's love-life continued to
be the subject of media speculation. Mohan Deep wrote an unofficial biography
of Madhubala titled Mystery and Mystique of Madhubala, published in 1996, where
he claims that Kishore Kumar regularly whipped Madhubala, who would show her
lashes to Shakti Samanta. Mohan Deep also questions whether Madhubala was
really ill or whether her ailing was a fiction. Shammi Kapoor, a long-term
colleague of Madhubala, refuted Mohan Deep's claims, which he described as
being "in bad taste". Paidi Jairaj, and Shakti Samanta, both of whom
worked with Madhubala, rejected Deep's biography emphasizing the glaring
difference between fact and fiction, and film journalist M.S.M. Desai, who had
worked as a journalist on Madhubala's sets, questioned Deep's method of
research saying, "Mohan Deep was not around at the time of Madhubala, so
how is he capable of writing about her without resorting to hearsay?"
Final
years and death:
Madhubala had ventricular septal defect (hole
in her heart) which was detected while she was shooting for Bahut Din Huwe in
Madras in 1954. By 1960, her condition aggravated, and her sister explains that
"due to her ailment, her body would produce extra blood. So it would spill
out from the nose and mouth. The doctor would come home and extract bottles of
blood. She also suffered from pulmonary pressure of the lungs. She coughed all
the time. Every four to five hours she had to be given oxygen or else would get
breathless. She was confined to bed for nine years and was reduced to just
bones and skin".
In 1966, with a slight improvement in her
health, she made a valiant attempt to complete her work in Chalak opposite Raj
Kapoor, which needed only a short spell of shooting, but she could not even
survive that strain. When acting was no longer an option Madhubala turned her
attention to film direction. In 1969 she was set to make her directorial debut
with the film Farz aur Ishq. However the film was never made as during
pre-production, she died on February 23, 1969, shortly after her 36th birthday.
She was buried with her personal diary at the Santa Cruz Muslim cemetery by her
family and husband Kishore Kumar. Her tomb was built with marble and
inscriptions included aayats from the Quran and verse dedications.
Controversially, her tomb was demolished in 2010 to make space for new graves.Prithviraj
Kapoor visiting the grave of Madhubala in 1969
Madhubala's strong presence in the public
memory has been evidenced by all recent polls about top actresses or beauties of
the Indian cinema. Every year, on her birthday, numerous articles are printed
and television programmes aired to commemorate her, to the present day. Her
posters are still in demand and sold alongside contemporary actresses, and
modern magazines continue to publish stories on her personal life and career,
often promoting her name heavily on the covers to attract sales.Many believe,
however, Madhubala remains one of the most underrated actresses as "her
beauty attracted more attention than her talent."
In 2004, a digitally-colorized version of the
original Mughal-e-Azam was released, 35 years after her death. In 2012, her
1962 release Half Ticket was also remastered, digitally coloured and
re-released.
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