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Talking of Darling ji
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Kishwar Desai has come up with “Darlingji”, a biography of Nargis and Sunil Dutt. ZIYA US SALAM speaks to her
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Photo: R.V. Moorthy
a Delicate weave Kishwar Desai’s husband Meghnad Desai (left) wrote the indroduction of her book
A few years of research on Nargis and Sunil Dutt, and Kishwar Desai cannot stop smiling. There is a reason: the editor-turned-author is the cynosure of all eyes, busy with photo shoots, launch parties and the like. All for the book “Darlingji:
The True Love Story of Nargis and Sunil Dutt” that she has painstakingly put together with an introduction by her husband, the one and only Lord Meghnad Desai. In fact, it was the husband with whom she intended to write a biography of Nargis, of course with help of Sunil Dutt.
Soaking in all the attention, Kishwar says, “I did not realise that I was such a shy person. I have just discovered I am such a nervous person. I will learn and be ready when the next book comes out.” The next book, on Saadat Hasan Manto, will take time. For the moment, all the attention is on Nargis and Sunil Dutt, who were just paid a pictorial tribute by their daughters Namrata and Priya Dutt.
Isn’t it too much of the same?
“I wanted to do justice to Sunil and Nargis Dutt. I wanted an authentic biography, not just a hagiography. Nobody wants to be honest, nobody wants to say the truth. I was lucky that Dutts were straightforward and open. Both the books were planned at the same time. There was so much material that Sunil Dutt had collected meticulously over the years. I wanted to write a long, proper biography, the other is a pictorial book only on their parents…There were certain things Namrata and Priya did not want to talk about for understandable reasons. I had to be an objective biographer. I wanted to give the highs and low, tribulations and triumphs. I wanted to give the picture and story of India through their story.”
Mother India
The book was released to coincide with the 50 years of Mother India – it was released on October 25, 1957.
“Nobody is talking of Mother India now but it is my own way to celebrate. In the book what comes through is Nargis is at the film’s premiere missing Sunil Dutt who is in Mandoli…how she wishes she were there. I have tried to figure out the stormy relationship between the two. I am full of admiration for Sunil, he was a progressive man in his own way but surrounded by many others. So he felt overwhelmed. The media was being nasty, people were pressuring him. He was a man of conviction, had his own fears, but talked it through with his to-be wife. The period needs to be put into perspective…Sunil Dutt’s was the normal insecurity of a man. He would have felt nervous, people would have said that he was taking advantage of her. It all had a happy ending.”
So, Kishwar has talked about Sunil Dutt’s fears when she was a top star, and he was just a beginner. She has also talked about the insecurities of Nargis’s brothers. As also her much-talked about association with R.K. Films. Uncomfortable territories all. But nowhere has she encroached upon human sensitivities. “I have been dispassionate without being insensitive. I did not want to sensationalise. We must respect people who have been through so much. All of us go through pain. We must not inflict it.” Soothing words, simply said.
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