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Friday, June 4, 2021

Remembering Nutan ji


Nutan Samarth was born on June 4 1936 to poet Kumarsen Samarth and his actress wife Shobhana. Her aunt, Nalini Jaywant (Shobhana's maternal cousin) was a popular actress.
Nutan was  way ahead of her time, being crowned Miss India in 1951, she went on to become one of the few actresses bold enough to wear a bikini, which she did in 1958 in 'Dilli Ka Thug'. She acted as a child artiste, then as a leading lady, and then in character roles.
Nutan started her big screen debut as a child artist, at the age of 14, in Hamari Beti (1950). The movie was directed by her mother Shobhna Samarth. Shortly after the completion of 'Hamari Beti' Nutan was enrolled in La Chatelaine a finishing school in Switzerland. After her return, she acted in 3 more movies, before landing a landmark role in 'Seema' in 1955 that established her as a star in her own right.
She formed a popular screen couple with co-star Dev Anand and the two acted in four films together – Paying Guest (1957), Baarish (1957), Manzil (1960) and Tere Ghar Ke Samne (1963).
In the film Chhabili (19600 directed by her mother Sobhana Samarth, she sang two songs

In 1960 she starred Raj Kapoor in Manmohan Desai's Chhalia. She received Filmfare nomination for the role.

In 1963, Nutan starred in Bimal Roy's socio-realist Bandini as Kalyani, a young prisoner who was convicted after poisoning the wife of her lover (Ashok Kumar). The story follows her life in prison and how later she has to make a choice between her past love and a young prison doctor (Dharmendra) who fell in love with her. Nutan had to be persuaded to act in the film as she had quit acting post marriage.  Bandini was a major critical success, which was attributed by critics mostly to Nutan's portrayal, which is regarded as one of the finest performances in the history of Indian cinema. The film won the Filmfare Award for Best Movie and she received her third Best Actress Award. The Bengal Film Journalists' Association, while ranking the film as the third-best Indian film of the year, acknowledged her with the Best Actress (Hindi section) award.

Her fourth Filmfare Award came for Milan (1967).

She starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in 1973's Saudagar (1973), for which she received a sixth Filmfare nomination and a third BFJA award.

In 1978, she made an astonishing return to the screen as the righteous Sanjukta Chauhan in Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978). For this performance, she received an eighth Filmfare career nomination and won her fifth Filmfare best actress award, at the age of 42.

In the remaining 1980s she played roles in blockbuster films such as Meri Jung (1985), Naam (1986) and Karma (1986). Karma was notable for being the first time she was paired with actor Dilip Kumar.

For Mere Jung she won a Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her last film released while she was alive was Kanoon Apna Apna in 1989. She died in 1991 of cancer. Two of her films Naseebwala (1992) and Insaniyat (1994) were released after her death. She also gave a stellar performance as Kaliganj ki Bahu in TV serial Mujrim Hazir, her only role on small screen.
Nutan passed away on February 21, 1991 at the age of 54. During her lifetime, she was the recipient of six awards for her performances in Seema, Sujata, Bandini, Milan, Main Tulsi Tere Agan Ki, and Meri Jung.  She was awarded the Padma Shri in 1974 for her contribution to Indian cinema

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