Partition left an unforgettable scar on everyone who had seen it live. Migration, riots, deaths, and losing loved ones is something that can’t be described in the history books. One such person who was a live witness of the painful period was Sunil Dutt. The actor who was born in Jhelum, Pakistan, had to move to India due to the partition. On his birth anniversary, his younger daughter Priya Dutt shared an account of his life with a news portal and told everything about the doting father, loving husband, and the man of gold heart.
Recalling the evergreen love story of her father, Sunil Dutt and mother Nargis, Priya told Pinkvilla that the actor was in love with Nargis even before he entered the film industry. He used to spend hours outside her home just to catch a glimpse of Nargis. In 1957, Sunil Dutt got an opportunity to be cast opposite Nargis in Mother India. Recalling the fire that broke on the sets of the film, Priya told what her father once said, “I would have saved anyone else in her place. I fell in love with the woman she was.”
Call it fate or manifestation, the two got married the next year of the film’s release. The love bloomed like a spring flower. However, everything changed when the late actress was detected with cancer. Remembering the time, Priya said, “He forgot himself completely. He had no sense of hunger, or sleep. Nothing was about him anymore. It was only about her. When Namrata and I saw his condition, surviving only on cigarettes and coffee, we were alarmed. We learned to prepare Indian meals for him. We began taking turns in being with Mom at the hospital. But Dad didn’t want to leave Mom for a moment. He’d sit beside her and keep talking to her. He would talk to her even while she was in a coma.”
After Nargis lost his battle with the disease in 1981, Sunil Dutt left all lonely. But as they say, if you love someone, you can never give that place to anyone else. So, Sunil Dutt’s love for his wife didn’t let him think of a second marriage. He just spent his life in the memory of his late wife. If we say, in his words, “he didn’t find anyone like Nargis”.
