Dead is the actress from my youth, my lover from platonic love, and from that killer personality

I didn’t know who she was, how old she was or where she stayed. I had taken her down from raggedy cinema and framed her in memories. With a ticket only 10 paise. The movie was Dev Anand’s Nanketan Films’ “Kalapani”. Now I don’t remember anything about the movie except the song and dance “Najar laagi raja torey bangle pe” and the presenter of the mujra Nalini Jaywant. Since then she was always been dancing in my mind’s eye. I was a teenager then. I never met her again, not even on the silver screen.
Sometimes the girl would freeze, but the moment I saw someone resembling her, she’s start again. I’d feel connected to her wherever I met her. The first girl I came close to was Kamli, and a girl from my village. The main attraction was her face, which was like Nalini Jaywant. Nalini means Kamalini, Kamli means Kamilini. Crazy similarity. And then the same dance in my head, the same beauty….
“Mein jo hoti raja, ban ki koyaliya,
Kuhuk rehti raja tere bangley pe.
Najar laagi raja tere bangley pe”.
Nalini Jaywant kept diving between countless Kamlis and my heart became a pond full of lotuses. And then an unfortunate evening in 1975. I heard that Kamli had been burned to death – honour killing? My feet took me to the remains of her house when I went to my village. I moved ahead looking for sings when something touched my foot. IT was a bracelet that may have come off while dragging the body. It was there only because the house had been labeled haunted. Now if I hear a girl’s name as Kamlini, Nalini or Kumudini, I look away from superstition and hope the tear doesn’t trickle down.
Kamli was burnt in 1975 and Nalini died on December 24, 2010. that is when I foind out she was born on February 18, 1926. She would’ve been 84. Staying alone in her bungalow in Chembur, she died a quiet death, like that of Parveen Babi and Lalita Pawar. Dead is the actress from my youth, my lover from platonic love, and from that killer personality. How would she have looked if she had died today? I saw Waheeda Rehman and she resembled Sheila Dixit and it was hard to believe that she was the epitome of beauty in movies such as “CID”, “Chaudvin ka chand”, “Neelkamal” and “Guide”. It is as good I saw her only once on the silver screen, and blessed you a hundred times. After your second husband passed away, you spend 25 years like a monk, alone. A young man took away her body from the Chembur bungalow saying he was a distant relative. Her closest relative was Shobhana Samarth. Nalini has prepared herself well for the career. She had taken training in kathak and singing and made her debut with Rabindra Nath Tagore’s play “Shrimati”. She was a cultured, complete woman.
Her first movie was “Radhika” (1941), then Mehboob Khan’s “Behen”, “Anokha pyaar” (1948), “Samadhi” (1950). Movies in which she acted include “Sangraam”, “Sholay” (the old one), “Nau bahar”, “Saloni”, “Raahi”, “Munim ji”, “Naaz”, “Aankhein (old), “Naujavan”, “Hindustan”, “Kavi”, “Nastik”, “Mukti”, “Kalapani”, “Hum sab chor hain”, “Shikast”, “Gunjan”, “Neelmani”, “Rajkanya”, “Phir bhi apna hai”, “Amar rahe pyaar”. She also worked in several movies based on English novels, not only in Hindi but Marathi and Gujarati, too. To her credit is acting as the heroine in Mukesh and Sunil Dutt’s first movies. These films are “Adaab arz”, “Railway platform”. She played Amitabh’s mother in “Naastik” and Hema Malini also had her act in a movie. These movies were “Bandish” and “Dard”.