Nargis

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For the town in France, see Nargis, Loiret.

Nargis in Awaara (1951)

Nargis (Hindi: नर्गिस, Urdu: نرگس), June 1, 1929 - May 3, 1981, was an Indian actress best known for her role as Radha in the Oscar-nominated film Mother India.

Nargis was born Fatima Rashid, the daughter of the Allahabad-based singer, Jaddanbai and Uttamchand Mohanchand (also called Mohanbabu), a Mohyal Brahmin from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Jaddanbai was involved in the earliest Indian cinema as a singer, dancer, actress, and even director and composer. Her daughter Fatima was recruited to the cinema at an early age. Nargis made her first film appearance in 1935, in Talashe Haq. The six-year-old was credited as "Baby Nargis". Nargis, her stage name, means "Narcissus", the flower.

Nargis appeared in numerous movies after her 1935 debut; she won lasting fame for her later, adult, roles. She starred in many popular Hindi-Urdu movies of the 1950s such as Andaaz and Awaara. Nargis often appeared opposite the director and Bollywood star Raj Kapoor. She is said to have been his real-life love interest as well as his favorite heroine. The affair was doomed to remain an affair, however, as Kapoor made no move to divorce his wife.

Eventually Nargis married the actor Sunil Dutt (himself a Mohyal from Jhelum (Pakistan)). It is a well-known story that while shooting for Mother India (1957), Nargis was trapped amidst lit haystacks. As the flames got higher and higher, Sunil Dutt, who played her rebellious son Birju in the film, ran through the fire and rescued her. Later, Dutt proposed to her, and they married on March 11, 1958. The marriage produced three children: Sanjay, Anju, and Priya.

Nargis died of pancreatic cancer in 1981, the same year Sanjay first appeared in movies.

She was a recipient of the Padma Shri award in 1958.