Bolly Flashback:  Nargis
Nargis (Fatima Rashid), born on June 1, 1929 in Calcutta, was an iconic Indian actress. Her mother was a classical singer involved in early Indian cinema.  In 1935 at the age of six, she appeared in a film ‘Talashe Haq’, receiving screen credit as “Baby Nargis”. As an adult, Nargis starred in many commercially successful films spanning the 1940s through the 1960s. She had the ability to be simple or chic with ease.  Some of her well-known films are: ‘Barsaat’ (1949), ‘Andaz’ (1949), ‘Deedar’ (1951), ‘Shree 420’ (1955), and ‘Chori Chori’ (1956). In 1957, she played the central figure in ‘Mother India’, one of the greatest Indian films of all time. Nargis won a Filmfare Best Actress Award for this film. In 1958, Nargis married Sunil Dutt and stopped acting in order to raise a family. Sunil and Nargis had three children, one of which is the well-known actor Sanjay Dutt. Together with her husband, she formed the Ajanta Arts Cultural Troupe which brought entertainment to Indian soldiers stationed in remote areas. Her last film was ‘Raat Aur Din’ in 1967. Playing a person with multiple-personalities, Nargis became the first actress to win a National Film Award for Best Actress. The National Film Awards instituted the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration in her honor. Nargis died on May 3, 1981, of pancreatic cancer.