The amazing life of Hindi cinema star Fatima Rashid
Nargis was born into the tawaif tradition of Calcutta. Her mother, the Allahabad-based Hindustani classical music singer and courtesan Jaddanbai, did not teach her singing, to prevent her from falling into the tawaif tradition. Instead, she introduced her into the movie culture unfolding in India at the time. Her father was one Uttamchand Mohanchand (popularly known as Mohanbabu), a wealthy doctor born in a Mohyal brahmin family from Rawalpindi. Her only brother, Anwar Hussain, also became a film actor. Anwar Hussain was born to Jaddanbai and a different husband, and was raised in Muslim tradition like his mother.
Nargis married actor Sunil Dutt (himself a Mohyal from Jhelum, British India). Reportedly, Dutt had saved her life from a fire accident on the sets of Mother India. The couple married on 11 March 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.
Nargis was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment for the disease at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center 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 2 May 1981 and died on 3 May 1981. Her absence at the premiere of her son's debut film Rocky on 7 May 1981, where one seat was kept vacant for her, was a nationally famous event.
Nargis is buried at Badakabarastan in Marine Lines, Mumbai.