Remembering Nutan

Today is Nutan’s birthday . Nutan , an actress par excellence was an equally nice human being. Very few could match her grace and poise. I am taken back to my childhood days, 1963 to be exact , when my sister a good 5-6 years older to me , back from school announced- Dev Anand aur Nutan , ( Shimla) aaye huey hain , Tere Ghar ke Samne picture ki shooting ke liye . I was just nine year old then , had heard of Dev Anand , but the name Nutan was ‘ new’ and unfamiliar to me. I did not ask further about the film or the actors , but however thought that Nutan was also a male actor like Dev Anand . It was much later that I saw the movie Sujata - with Sunil Dutt and Nutan in the lead roles and came to know that Nutan was an actress and not a male actor as I had figured in my mind. Later on I also happened to see movies like Bandini, Tere Ghar ke Samne,Anari , Paying Guest , Milan, Karma , Main tulsi tere Aangan ki , Seema , etc. etc . virtually with every leading hero of the times All movies are a living testimony to her acting abilities and strong screen presence. She could get easily and effortlessly into the skin of the role she was enacting , and it looked as if only she could have played that role. It is twenty years now since she left this world and particularly the film world, poorer by her absence .