Photo Courtesy: upperstall.com
Nalini Jaywant was actress of 1940-50s, famous for her beauty and acting skills. Filmfare magazine had declared her as “most beautiful woman in movies of black and white Era“. She was only next to Madhubala in beauty and talent. She was also a versatile actress.
She was born on 18th February 1926 to Tamil parents. Her mother was a dancer in films. She had aunt in Mumbai named Ratan bai, who was a stage singer and great grandmother of Kajol. Her father was against her wish of becoming heroin.
But at one of the parties of her aunt’s daughter Shobhana Samarth, when she was just 14, she was noticed by Producer Chimanlal Desai. He was impressed by her beauty and finalised her for his next movie “Radhika”.
Then she acted in “Bahen” in 1941 and gained recognition for her films like Samadhi and Sangram, wherein her hero was none other than great Ashok kumar. she also acted in HUM SAB CHOR HAI in 1956. Famous music director O.P.Nayyar’s song of this film “Beiman balama man bhi jaa” was picturised in her. Her last movie was NASTIK in 1983, which was highly appreciated by critiques. Railway Platform was also a successful movie of Nalini, its music director was Madan Mohan and song writer was Sahir Ludhiyanvi.
She was married twice, first one was with son of producer Desai, it was not successful. Thereafter, She married actor Prabhu Dayal and remained married to him, till her death in 2010. Her death was not noticed by anyone until an ambulance carried her body after 3 days of her demise. Jaywant’s neighbours reported that she had secluded herself from society and had not been meeting people after Dayal’s death in 2001. Her relatives were also not in touch with her for long
We will always remember her acting.
