Early life and background
Nargis was born in May 3, 1929, Calcutta, the daughter of Allahabad-based Muslim singer, Jaddanbai and a Hindu Mohyal father of Rawalpindi, named Uttamchand Mohanchand. Her only brother, Anwar Hussain, also became a film actor.
Personal life
Nargis had been romantically linked with Raj Kapoor with whom she was cast in most of her films. However, the rumoured affair did not materialise and Nargis went on to marry actor Sunil Dutt. Reportedly, Dutt had saved her life from a fire accident on the sets of Mother India. The couple married on March 11, 1958 and had three children together: Sanjay, Namrata, and Priya. Sanjay Dutt went onto 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 at 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 organisation got her recognition as a social worker
Death
Years later, Nargis was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment for the disease at Sloan-Kettering Hospital 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 May 2, 1981 and passed away on May 3, 1981. Her absence at the premiere of her son's debut film Rocky on May 7, 1981, where one seat was kept vacant for her, was a nationally famous event.
