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Vashi2Panvel.com: Navi Mumbai: February 9: A French proverb says, “It is not the most beautiful women whom men love most.” How true it is when we think of yesteryears’ actress Nadira, who passed away in Bhatia Hospital, Tardeo, today morning, after a prolonged illness.
The actress best known perhaps for her role as a vamp in Shree 420, gave Hindi cinema some unforgettable sequences like the song ‘mud mud ke naa dekh’ where she woos Raj Kapoor. A veteran of 63 films, she made her debut with the film ‘Aan’ in 1952 as a fiery princess Rajashri opposite thespian Dilip Kumar, directed by Mehboob Khan. An actress of Israeli origin, she took up films at a time when the silver screen was a taboo amongst most women. And being a beautiful fair skinned woman, she was an ideal candidate for films.

Born in 1932 Nadira’s real name, which only a very few people know, is Florence Ezekeil. She has two brothers, one of them in the US and another back home in Israel. The once beautiful lass of Bollywood lived all alone in a certain Vasundhara building, near the Mahalaxmi Temple in Mumbai, assisted only by a domestic help, and had very few friends in the industry.

In a career spanning five decades, she has been part of some of the great Hindi films of all time like `Shree 420’, ‘Pakeeza’, `Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi', `Amar Akbar Anthony' and recently in Pooja Bhatts `Tamanna'. Nadira also did a television serial with actor Milind Soman titled 'Margaritta' after which the two became quite close. She was last seen in 2000 in Mansoor Khan's "Josh" starring Sharukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai.

She is one of the few actresses of the olden golden days who has constantly shun away from limelight. If one even does an internet search or a survey about the actress, all one can find are a few news items regarding her illness and a list of some of her films. The fact that not much has been written about such a prolific actress who shed the image of a pativrata nari and decided to do unconventional roles, speaks volumes about the kind of image the audiences and the media prefer.

Apart from Dipti Naval, P M Rungta, Tanuja, Nimmi, Shyama and Milind Soman, Nadira was quite a hit amongst her young neighbours. On December 5th, 2005 Nadira celebrated her 75th birth anniversary with 12-year-old neighbour and little friends Abhay Chopra, Kaushal Agarwal, Sona and Rajesh Agarwal to name some. If you ask them, they would tell you about how she was a patient listener to all their problems, a great fan of music, someone with whom the children could play with and in short much like a grandmother to them.

All those who have worked with her agree on one thing that she was an extremely graceful lady who had immense respect for her work. In fact, she was a woman of substance – bold, truthful and beautiful. Though the vivacious actress managed to become all that today’s women only aspire to become, she was an embodiment of humility and grace all her life, which is perhaps why she went simply unnoticed.

A french proverb says, “It is not the most beautiful women whom men love most.” How true it is when we think of yesteryears’ actress Nadira, who passed away in Bhatia Hospital, Tardeo, today morning, after a prolonged illness.

The actress best known perhaps for her role as a vamp in Shree 420, gave Hindi cinema some unforgettable sequences like the song ‘mud mud ke naa dekh’ where she woos Raj Kapoor. A veteran of 63 films, she made her debut with the film ‘Aan’ in 1952 as a fiery princess Rajashri opposite thespian Dilip Kumar, directed by Mehboob Khan. An actress of Israeli origin, she took up films at a time when the silver screen was a taboo amongst most women. And being a beautiful fair skinned woman, she was an ideal candidate for films.

Born in 1932 Nadira’s real name, which only a very few people know, is Florence Ezekeil. She has two brothers, one of them in the US and another back home in Israel. The once beautiful lass of Bollywood lived all alone in a certain Vasundhara building, near the Mahalaxmi Temple in Mumbai, assisted only by a domestic help, and had very few friends in the industry.

In a career spanning five decades, she has been part of some of the great Hindi films of all time like `Shree 420’, ‘Pakeeza’, `Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi', `Amar Akbar Anthony' and recently in Pooja Bhatts `Tamanna'. Nadira also did a television serial with actor Milind Soman titled 'Margaritta' after which the two became quite close. She was last seen in 2000 in Mansoor Khan's "Josh" starring Sharukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai.

She is one of the few actresses of the olden golden days who has constantly shun away from limelight. If one even does an internet search or a survey about the actress, all one can find are a few news items regarding her illness and a list of some of her films. The fact that not much has been written about such a prolific actress who shed the image of a pativrata nari and decided to do unconventional roles, speaks volumes about the kind of image the audiences and the media prefer.

Apart from Dipti Naval, P M Rungta, Tanuja, Nimmi, Shyama and Milind Soman, Nadira was quite a hit amongst her young neighbours. On December 5th, 2005 Nadira celebrated her 75th birth anniversary with 12-year-old neighbour and little friends Abhay Chopra, Kaushal Agarwal, Sona and Rajesh Agarwal to name some. If you ask them, they would tell you about how she was a patient listener to all their problems, a great fan of music, someone with whom the children could play with and in short much like a grandmother to them.

All those who have worked with her agree on one thing that she was an extremely graceful lady who had immense respect for her work. In fact, she was a woman of substance – bold, truthful and beautiful. Though the vivacious actress managed to become all that today’s women only aspire to become, she was an embodiment of humility and grace all her life, which is perhaps why she went simply unnoticed.

Lakshmi Subramanian>