On Nargis’ birth anniversary, Filmfare’s Editor-in-Chief Jitesh Pillaai revisits Darlingji, Kishwar Desai’s intimate portrait of Nargis, the iconic star whose journey through fame, heartbreak and love remains as compelling as ever.
In his words:
That Nargis was the most consummate artist of all times is well established. Darlingji is a terrific book by Kishwar Desai. Like all other child stars of her ilk, Meena Kumari and Madhubala, Nargis too was pushed into movies by financial compunctions, though she was the daughter of the legendary chanteuse Jaddanbai.
The book also traces the life and times of Nargis’s grandmother, who was Hindu and converted later. Nargis’s fraught and combative relationship with her stepbrother Akhtar is described evocatively. A piqued Akhtar often beat her up when she threatened to stop working in the movies.
His own film Raat Aur Din (1967), was released ten years after it was launched.
Despite her standout performances in Mother India, Raat Aur Din, Adalat (1958), Andaz (1949), Lajwanti (1958), she wore her stardom lightly and sometimes too casually.
It’s almost as if she’s trying to placate a struggling Sunil Dutt by dismissing her achievements. She was particularly disdainful of the legendary Mehboob Khan’s attempt to conceal the fact that she was dating Dutt because it would hamper Mother India or KA Abbas’s attempt at a reconciliation between her and Raj Kapoor when she was shooting for Abbas’ Pardesi (1957) in Russia.
Darlingji is peppered with many anecdotes, all told in a vivid style while placing it in the backdrop of all the ferment India went through pre and post-partition.
The book really picks up when we reach the Nargis-Sunil Dutt love story which began on the sets of Mother India (1957). Nargis’ honesty in her letters to Dutt, be it her 9-year-old relationship with Raj Kapoor, her mother’s past life or her own attempts at suicide following heartache, is chronicled with feeling and sensitivity.
Nargis’ struggle with cancer at Sloanne Kettering is heartbreaking too.
What ultimately stays is the tenderness and love of a couple who braved all storms together. The author succeeds in creating a portrait of a vulnerable and sometimes broken artist who found real love at the right time. Fact is sometimes sharper yet sweeter than the fiction on screen. This book is a gentle reminder of that.
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