Remembering Nutan

                                                                                    

June 4^th happened to be the birth anniversary of Nutan, and I remembered her with some emotions for her beauty which was almost ethereal, for her enriching contribution to Hindi cinema.

To my mind, Mother India, Sujata, Sahib Bibi aur Gulam and Bandini were four movies that gave stature to Hindi cinema.  More importantly, they supplied the cinema its missing facet – the movies with women at the centre stage.  Nutan appeared in two of these – Sujata and Bandini.  Mother India centred around Nargis and Meena Kumari was the essence of Sahib Bibi and Gulam.

But Nutan is my favourite.  Her persona had a quiet dignity and a natural poise. Her face had a vulnerable innocence and possessed speaking eyes that gave her an irresistible cine presence. Her dusky aura seemed well merging with the black and white cinema.

What set Nutan apart as an actress was her ability to convey the character with minimal histrionics and bodily expressions.  She had an uncanny gift of speaking through her eyes and had a silence that was eloquent.

No wonder Bimal Roy, arguably the best Hindi film director ever and one who understood the power of the unsaid better than anyone else ( a contrast to and in bold relief from the incessant chatter of RK films ) , relied upon Nutan to deliver two of his master-pieces – Sujata and Bandini.

In Sujata, there is a love scene of about four minute’s duration, which has a Bhatiyali ( a boatman’s song ) for its articulation -  sun mere bandhu  re……….The night, the diffused glimmering lights, the rains, a river in flow, all swept by a strong breeze – should have been enough to turn a passion of love into an overwhelming embrace. But Sujata ( Nutan ) in her expression becomes one with the elements in ecstasy.  There was no trace or suggestion of carnal in it. It was a sublime fusion of creative geniuses of Nutan and Bimal Roy.

The ‘poison’ scene and the denouement of Bandini are permanent imprints in the sands of Hindi cinema. The ‘poison’ scene : With no words uttered, Kalyani ( Nutan ) becomes the physical form of pain, poignance and wretchedness that must characterize mutation of innocence into a consuming murderous intent. The ascending sound and spark of a welding process in the background symbolized the precipitating tumult within her. The scene is yet to find a parallel in its genre.  This scene culminating into a murder immortalized Nutan.

The final scene of Bandini is a class act.  The chance in life throws Kalyani in an existential predicament – to chose between her first love and the one who has pledged a whole new world to her.  Her desperation, her restlessness, her helplessness linked to her inability to decide grows by the moment, to reach a crescendo with the final-call siren from the look-sick steamer, when it snaps in an overcoming emotion to streak and to be at the feet of an ebbing, disease-stricken old flame.  For sheer visual impact and intensity, Paro ( in Devdas of Bimal Roy ) will come the nearest, when she runs for Devdas realizing that he is dead.  The scene in Bandini gets reinforced in its emotional contents with a lilting musical narrative of the predicament in the peerless voice of Burman.  Without a doubt, Nutan’s performance  set a new and higher threshold of acting standards. 

Nutan won awards for these two films, as also for Seema, Milan and Mein Tulsi Tere Angan Ki.  She was superb in romantic pairing with Devanand  in Paying Guest, Tere Ghar Ke Samne and with Rajkapoor in Kanaihya and Anari. Her singing talent, though evident in Chabili……..  O mere ham safar ……. remained largely unexplored. 

She died young at the age of 55, to be in the top league of Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nargis and Smita Patil, who all died young.