Yesteryears star Nimmi no more

NEW DELHI: Nimmi, who swept to stardom with her debut film, Barsaat, and went to earn acting plaudits in box-office winners such as Aan and Daag, passed away in Mumbai on Wednesday. She was 87.
The actor was brought to a suburban Juhu hospital after she complained of breathlessness. She died in the evening, family sources told PTI adding, that the Agra-born heroine of 1950s Hindi films was “unwell” for some time.
Among her other recognized films are: Amar, Aandhiyan, Deedar, Sazaa, Mere Mehboob, Akashdeep and Pooja Ke Phool.
In an interview for Rajya Sabha tv’s show, Guftagooo, Nimmi said that she was spotted by actor-director Raj Kapoor after she had gone to see the shooting of Mehboob Khan’s Andaz. Kapoor christened her Nimmi; her real name was Nawab Banu. During the shooting of Barsaat, she tied rakhi to Kapoor for a particular scene. He treated her like his sister thereafter.
Nimmi’s debut in Barsaat (1949) coincided with that of music director Shankar-Jaikishan, who composed some crackling melodies for the film. The teenager got to lipsync superhits such as Jiya beqarar hai.
Her rise was meteoric. A profile published in Stars of the Indian Screen (1952), edited by the legendary Baburao Patel, described her in the following way: “Delicately built and of little height, the most striking features about Nimmi are her beautiful eyes, her fascinating smile and well-shaped arched eyebrows…Nimmi has an indomitable spirit and one has only to see her flashing eyes to recognize the artist in her. Her eyes move fast and quick carrying with them a wealth of expression which is translated into emotion on the screen with lightning rapidity.”
Her performance in director Amiya Chakrabarty’s box-office hit, Daag, inspired by Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend (1945), earned her high praise. “Dilip Kumar and Nimmi are the stand-outs of the picture. Both act sympathetically with Nimmi displaying the more consummate act,” wrote The Times of India in its 1952 review.
Nimmi is also remembered as the spunky girl whose love for Dilip Kumar in Aan goes unrequited. “At one time, I would ask for Rs 3 lakh — equivalent of what any top actor was getting,” she told TOI in an interview in 2006.
Many songs lensed on her are Vividh Bharati's timeless favourites: Dil ka diya jala ke gaya (film: Akashdeep) and Tum na jaane kis jahan mein kho gaye (Sazaa), to name just two.
“Daughter of a well-known songstress Wahidan Bai, art seems to run in the family, because her mother also used to work in films. So did her aunt Jyoti…her father Janam Abdul Hakim Sahib was a well-to-do military contractor of Rawalpindi and she had a happy childhood,” the write-up in Stars of the Indian Screen (1952) said.
Her marriage with film writer S Ali Raza was also a blockbuster success. Raza, who wrote the dialogues of classics such as Mother India and Andaz, passed away in 2007.
With Nimmi’s demise, another fond chapter of Hindi cinema comes to an end. Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt fittingly tweeted, “You may win your heart’s desire, but in the end you are cheated of it by death.” Goodbye Nimmiji.”