Flashback — Tracing Nanda's legacy: Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh recall about their 'recluse' friend

Nanda, who was part of the illustrious Mangeshkar family, never got her due. And she was herself partly to blame for it. Fixated on becoming another Meena Kumari she was typecast in weepy family-oriented roles of the all-sacrificing Choti Bahen, Beti and Badi Didi. These are actually the titles of three of her popular films where she was shown sacrificing her own happiness for the family.

Nanda did make a belated attempt to break out of her doleful image with her shocking murderous avatar in Yash Chopra’s Ittefaq and as a drug addict in Naya Nasha. But she is largely remembered for her sweet benign domesticated roles (I can’t recall one film where Nanda was cast as a working woman) humming and chugging her way into audiences’ hearts in Jab Jab Phool Khile and The Train.

Nanda died of a massive heart attack. She always feared dying alone in a hospital. So it must have come to her as a relief. She was 75. Known to be an incurable recluse Nanda spent the last two decades completely away from the limelight. Born in 1939 she was the daughter of the popular Maharashtrian actor Master Vinayak. She has one brother Jaiprakash Karnataki who is married to the actress-dancer Jayshree T.

Nanda began acting when she was a child. As Baby Nanda she was a natural-born scene-stealer. She graduated to adult roles with V Shantaram’s Toofan Aur Diya in 1956. But it was LV Prasad’s Choti Bahen in 1959 where she played the title role, that turned her into an overnight star. Tragically it also typecast her as the eternally weepy home-maker, the all-sacrificing daughter, wife and mother. Nanda tried hard to shake off the image with ultra-glamorous roles in Jab Jab Phool Khile, Ittefaq and Naya Nasha. But the image of the grieving diva who was cruelly labelled the Poor Man’s Meena Kumari, remained with Nanda till the end.

Nanda’s friends were a few. No one knows how she lived or what she did with her free time. Her last screen appearance was opposite Dilip Kumar as his wife in BR Chopra’s Mazdoor in 1982 and as Padmini Kolhapure’s mother in Prem Rog in 1983. In 1992 Nanda discovered belated love when she fell in love with filmmaker Manmohan Desai. However, her joy was short-lived. Desai died a sudden and shocking death from the terrace of his home. No one knew what happened. Not even Nanda.

Close friends say she was shattered and stricken by guilt that perhaps the pressure of commitment was too much to bear for Desai. After his death, she became double reclusive. With Nanda’s death, the aura of tragic grace that she wore like a sophisticated perfume would linger on.

I remember how heartbroken Nanda’s two best friends Waheeda Rehman and Asha Parekh were on her death.

Rehman had said to me, “We were friends for 55 years, from the time when we worked together in Vijay Anand’s Kala Bazaar. After marriage friends, specially women friends, tend to drift away as they’ve their husband and children to look after. But Nanda and I remained close friends even after my marriage. We were part of one group…Nanda, Jabeen, Shakila and I. Later Sadhana, Asha Parekh and Helen also became part of our circle of friends. Nanda and I were very different individuals, quite a study in contrasts. And yet we were very close friends. Or maybe we were close friends because we were so different, so we found those personality traits lacking in ourselves within each other. I’ve remained active in the public with various activities including the occasional film. She gave it all up, cut herself away completely from the limelight. The last films she did were Mazdoor, Ahista Ahista and Prem Rog. Usske baad ek baar bhi mud kar nahin dekha. Unhone bilkul tyaag dee.”

Waheedaji shared how reclusive Nanda was. “People wonder how two heroines could be so friendly. But let me tell you there was not an iota of professional insecurity between us. Both of us believed in destiny and that whatever work was meant to come our way would come. Yeh nahin ki ussne mera role le liya. Never like that. We were both very secure about our careers. And we were both firm believers in God and destiny. It happened many times in the past that producers who came to me with roles went to Nanda because we didn’t agree on certain issues. Nanda and I never discussed work. Our work never came into our friendship. We were both down-to-earth and very Indian. We didn’t quite fit into the glamorous image on screen. We both attempted glamorous roles. But we realised it’s better to do roles close to our personalities. For example, I’d look so odd if I played Zeenat Aman’s role in Manoranjan. Luckily for me, I could do something a little more adventurous than Nanda because I could dance.”

Asha Parekh describes Nanda as a gentle soul. “She was a sweet-tempered soft-spoken person whom you’d never find losing her temper or creating a scene. She loved being at home. And in recent years she had become more and more of a home-bird. She loved her family. The death of a brother some years ago left her shattered. She had two other brothers. And she liked to spend time with them.”

Sairaji recalls Nanda for her dignity and grace. “There was nothing crass or materialistic about her. She was happy to be who she was and with whatever she had. She wasn’t money-minded at all. As an actress, I saw her in two of her films Jab Jab Phool Khile and Choti Bahen. She had a serene quality to her on-screen. She was ready to marry Manmohan Desai and then tragedy struck. I don’t know what happened. Nanda Baaji used to say, ‘Dua karo jab mein jaaoon toh bina kisi taqleef ke.’ I also wished the same for Dilip Saab. _Jaana toh hum sab ko ha_i. Just pray that we remain healthy as long as we are here.”

Nanda’s Most Popular Songs

‘Yeh Samaa samaa hai yeh pyar ka’ (Jab Jab Phool Khile)

‘Ek pyar ka naghma hai’(Shor)

‘Ja re kare badra’ (Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke)

‘Kis liye main pyar kiya’ (The Train)

‘Allah tero naam’ (Hum Dono)

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.