Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 26, 2014)

"Her tinkling laugh still rings in my ears,” says Lekh Tandon, when informed that 75-year-old Nanda had quietly succumbed to a heart-attack on March 25. The actor-director remembers her from the picnics at Guru Dutt’s Lonavla farmhouse where she held court with bestie Waheeda Rehman. The age-defying friendship started when the smiling face of ‘Baby’ Nanda on the poster of the Marathi film Shevgyache Shenga caught Waheeda’s eye every time she passed Plaza Cinema.

 After her father, actor-director Vinayak Damodar’s death at the age of 41, Nanda became a child artiste to support her mother and seven siblings.

 It was on the stairs of Central Studio that the two actresses first met. Nanda who was filming Naya Sansar greeted Waheeda who was shooting Kaagaz Ke Phool, but the actress was lost in thought and did not respond. The friendship of a lifetime might have been nipped in the bud, had the two not been cast together in Kala Bazaar.

 Mohan Churiwala, a close associate of Dev Anand, reveals that Nanda was not keen to play his chhoti behen. Her uncle V Shantaram’s Toofan Aur Diya in ’56, followed by Bhabhi in '57, had slotted her as the long-suffering sister/sister-in-law. Buzz is that the stream of de-glam roles almost triggered off a nervous breakdown.

 “Dev saab assured her that he'd cast her as his heroine in the next film and even though the writer of Hum Dono was pushing for Meena Kumari, he signed Nanda as the Major’s ailing wife, while Sadhana romanced the other Dev,” Churiwala says, adding that Dev was wowed by the fact that emotional Nanda continued to shed real tears 10 minutes after a rona-dhona was okayed in Kaala Baazar.

 But despite the tears, Nanda was all laughter off-screen. Vijay Anand’s longtime chief assistant Prem Prakash recalls how much she and her elder sister Meena laughed during the narration of Kala Bazaar, recalling the directior as an actor in Agra Road who had accidently dropped his glasses during a comic moment.

 After Hum Dono, Dev signed her for Teen Deviyan, whose English version, Oh Boy, Three Girls, that never released. These hits were followed by the song-less Kanoon and Aanchal which got her the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. Suddenly, she was an A-lister but she was always ready to work with newcomers. “She was lovely and innocent when we did Mera Kanoon Kya Hai, no airs or tantrums,” says Dharmendra.

 Another newbie was Shashi Kapoor. They worked in eight films together, the third Jab Jab Phool Khile turned the tables for him. Nanda too broke away from her 'gharelu' image with her turn as a glamorous ‘pardesi’.

 Dharmesh Darshan, who remade the film three decades later as Raja Hindustani, remembers her admitting at a private preview that she’d wondered what he'd do to her film. "But after watching it she said I’d made a better film and liked that I reinvented her role so that Karisma Kapoor was not just another pampered rich girl.”

 Later, she gambled with Yash Chopra's Ittefaq which saw her play an “immoral character”, who dies in the end of the film. Then after two more films with Rajesh Khanna, The Train and Joru Ka Ghulam, she announced her retirement in '72 when still at her peak. "She didn’t know how to play the politics and didn’t want to make compromises,” says Dharmesh.

 She made an exception for Manoj Kumar, playing a small role in his Shor, followed up with two flops, Chhalia and Naya Nasha, then disapeared, only to return in '82 with Prem Rog, Ahista Ahista and Mazdoor. In all three she played Padmini Kolhapure’s mother. “We had an emotional bond and I'd visit her at her Carter Road bungalow and later in Versova," says Padmini. Ironically, in real life Nanda never married or became a mother.

 Years ago, she'd planned a double wedding with Waheeda and insisted it would be a love marriage. She got engaged to filmmaker Manmohan Desai in 1992. They didn’t tie the knot in nearly two years. The relationship met a tragic end when on March 1, 1994, the director climbed the water tank on his terrace and jumped off.
There was talk of a property dispute between Desai and son Ketan, financial problems, his chronic back pain and depression following the debacle of Anmol, his last directorial. Whatever the reasons, the last time an inconsolable Nanda saw her 'Man' was at the hospital. She remained unmarried till the end. And elusive.

 She idn’t make public appearances and made this clear to Dev Anand when he invited her for the premiere of the re-released Hum Dono Rangeen. But she saw the coloured film with his family at a private screening at Ketnav Studio.

 During the interval she came out smiling, eagerly awaiting the second half when she comes into her own. She exited the screen teary-eyed and dropped by to visited her co-star at his office two lanes away. “Dev saab hugged her, then much to her surprise, got emotional and started crying. The tears hadn’t stopped even when I returned after seeing Nandaji to her car,” remembers Churiwala.

 May be he would have cried yesterday too, when he learnt that his chhoti bahen/biwi/premika was gone. Or perhaps he would've remembered her innocent face and spontaneous laughter and smiled.
---------------------------
The 75-year-old veteran actress passed away yesterday following a heart attack
MID-DAY (March 26, 2014)

Yesteryear actress Nanda, who is best remembered for her work in films such as Dhool Ka Phool (1959), Gumnaam (1965), Teen Deviyaan (1965) and Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965) and later for stellar performances in films like Prem Rog (1982), passed away on Tuesday morning at her Andheri residence.

According to a friend, she woke up on Tuesday morning as usual, took a bath and had her breakfast. “Post her breakfast, she decided to go back to her room to fetch her medicine. Soon after, she was foundunconscious near her washroom.”

Nanda was born on January 8, 1939 to Marathi film actordirector, Vinayak Damodar Karnataki. She began her film career as a child artiste at the age of eight. After doing some minor roles, it was Nanda’s uncle — actor- filmmaker V Shantaram — who gave her a big break by casting her in the hit film, Toofan Aur Diya (1956).

With over 60 films to her credit, Nanda spent more than four decades in front of the camera. She eventually started appearing in character roles with Raj Kapoor’s Prem Rog being her last celluloid outing. Nanda never married and is survived by two brothers.

She was engaged to filmmaker Manmohan Desai but he passed away before they could get married. Her last rites were performed at 4pm on Tuesday at the Oshiwara crematorium.