Author: Kishwar Desai
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 442
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788172236977
Description
In the late nineteenth century, in a small village in northern India, a thirteen-year-old Brahmin widow meets a Muslim sarangi player and elopes with him. Many years later, their daughter Jaddanbai moves to Bombay and becomes a star of the early talkies. Ch?teau Marine, her home on Marine Drive, is famous for its evening mehfils and for the dreams, it nurtures: regular visitors include Dilip Kumar, Mehboob and Kamal Amrohi. It is also the home of Fatima, Jaddanbai's daughter, who will set the screen ablaze as Nargis, the most accomplished actress of her time.
Far removed from this world of glamour, a young boy named Balraj Dutt spends his teenage years attempting to rehabilitate himself and his family after the trauma of Partition. In 1950, at the age of twenty, he arrives in Bombay. And there his life takes an unexpected turn: he is given the lead role in a new film, and is soon on his way to becoming Sunil Dutt, the film star.
Then comes the moment that transforms both their lives: on 1 March 1957, during the making of Mother India, Nargis is trapped in a circle of flames and Sunil risks his life to save her. They recuperate together, and fall in love. Nargis has been in a long but futile relationship with the mercurial Raj Kapoor, and in Sunil she finally finds an anchor. Their relationship is stormy and secretive to start with, but it survives every crisis to culminate in a quite wedding on 11 March 1958. What follows are years of togetherness, including the joys of caring three children, Sanjay, Namrata and Priya but also days of pain and heartbreak: financial trouble, Nargis's illness, Sanjay's addiction to drugs.
Based on the diaries and letters of Nargis, Sunil and their daughter Priya, as well as on conversations and interviews with family and friends, Darlingji – as they often addressed each other – is a probing yet affectionate biography of two extraordinary people and their love for each other. Travelling as it does from the nineteenth century to the present, the book tells the larger story of the evolution of Hindi cinema, and of a society and a nation in the throes of change.
Contents
Introduction
Prologue
Dilipa
1880-1900
Jaddanbai
1910-1930
Sangit Movie-tone
1930s
Balraj Dutt
1930-1947
Chateau Marine
1930s-1940s
Nargis
1940-1950
Balraj / Sunil
1950
Raj Kapoor
1948-1955
Shree 420
1955-1957
Radha and Birju
1957
‘Pia’ and ‘Hey There’
1957
Pardesi
1957
Heartbreak Hotel
1957
Monroe And Presley
1957
Lajwanti
1957
Mother India
1957
Mrs. Dutt?
1957
Padma Shri nargis
1958
Dutt Sahib
1958
Pali Hill
1960-1970
Reshma Aur Shera
1969-1970
The Family
1970
Sloane Kettering
1980-81
Hard Times
1981
Sunil Dutt, MP
1984-87
The Last Days
198-2005
Epilogue
Filmography
Select bibliography
Acknowledgements
Picture Credits