Nimmi

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Nimmi (born 18 February 1933) is a

former Indian screen actress who
achieved stardom in the 1950s and early
1960s in Hindi films. She gained
popularity playing spirited village belle
type characters, but has appeared in
diverse genres such as fantasy and
social films.Her best performances are
considered to be in the films Sazaa
(1951), Aan (1952), Bhai-Bhai (1956),
Kundan (1955), Mere Mehboob (1963),
Pooja Ke Phool (1964) and Akashdeep
(1965). She also appeared in Amar (1954
film) with Madhubala.
 Nimmi

Born Nawab Banoo

February 18, 1933
Agra, India

Occupation Actress

Years active 1949–1965

Spouse(s) S. Ali Raza 1965– 1

November 2007 (his
death)

Early life
Nawab Banoo was born in Agra, India.
She was born to a Muslim family, her
mother was a famous singer and actress
by the name of Wahidan who was well
connected within the film industry. Her
father, Abdul Hakim, worked as a military
contractor. Her name 'Nawab' was given
by her grandfather while her grandmother
added 'Banoo' to make it as Nawab
Banoo. As a young child, Nimmi had
memories of visiting Bombay, and her
mother being on good terms with
Mehboob Khan and his family, who were
prominent and influential within the
movie making business.
When Nimmi was only eleven years old,
her mother died suddenly. She was sent
to live in Abbottabad with her
grandmother. Nimmi's father stayed on in
Meerut where he worked. With the
partition of India and Pakistan in 1947,
among the multitude of migrants and
refugees were Nimmi and her
grandmother. As Nimmi's aunt Jyoti, who
was also once a leading film star had a
home in Bombay, that is where she and
her grandmother settled. Jyoti's husband
G. M. Durrani was also popular and
legendary Indian playback singer, actor
and music director.

Career
Through the connection with her mother
who had worked with him in the 1930s, in
1948, the famous film maker Mehboob
Khan, invited the young Nimmi to watch
the making of his current production
Andaz at Central Studios. She had shown
an interest in movies and this was an
opportunity to understand the film
making process. On the sets of Andaz,
Nimmi met Raj Kapoor who was starring
in the film.

At the time Raj Kapoor was filming his

production of Barsaat (1949). Having
already cast the famous actress Nargis
in the female lead role, he was on the
lookout for a young girl to play the
second lead. After observing Nimmi's
unaffected and shy behaviour as a guest
on the sets of Andaz, he cast the
teenaged Nimmi in Barsaat opposite the
actor Prem Nath. Nimmi played the role
of an innocent mountain shepherdess in
love with a heartless city man. As an
introduction to film audiences, she could
not have asked for a more illustrious
launch to her film career.

Barsaat, released in 1949, made movie

history. It was a phenomenal critical and
commercial success. Despite the
presence of established and popular
stars Nargis, Raj Kapoor and Premnath,
Nimmi had a very prominent and well
received role and was an instant hit with
audiences. The film's popular title song
Barsaat mein hum se mile tum as well as
three other ever-green classics, Jeeya
bekarar hai and Patli kamar hai were all
picturised on Nimmi. The film's climax
also revolved around the fledgling
actress. The huge success of Barsaat
made Nimmi a star and nationwide
sensation overnight.

Rise to stardom
A potrait of Nimmi

After Barsaat Nimmi never looked back

and was flooded with films offers. She
quietly polished her histrionic abilities
and developed a mannered but
effectively unique style of acting. The
diminutive actress quickly won a loyal
fan base with her intense and expressive
performances.
She worked with top heroes like Raj
Kapoor (Banwara), and Dev Anand
(Sazaa, Aandhiyan). To her great
advantage Nimmi formed a very popular
and dependable screen pair with Dilip
Kumar, after the success of films like
Deedar (1951) and Daag (1952). Aside
from Nargis with whom she co-starred
with in Barsaat and Deedar, Nimmi also
appeared alongside many notable
leading ladies including Madhubala
(Amar), Suraiya (Shama), Geeta Bali
(Usha Kiran), and Meena Kumari (Char Dil
Char Rahen (1959)).

A little known fact is that Nimmi was also

a singer and sang her own songs in the
film Bedardi (1951) in which she also
acted. However, she never continued
singing, and recorded songs only for this
film.

Mehboob Khan was next to cast her in

his film Aan (1952). This prestigious
production was to be India's first full
feature in Technicolor. The film was
made with an extremely large budget.
Nimmi played one of the female leads.
The film also co-starred Dilip Kumar,
Prem Nath and introduced Nadira. Such
was Nimmi's popularity at this point that
when a first edit of the film was shown to
the film's financiers and distributors, they
objected that Nimmi's character died too
early. Therefore, an extended dream
sequence was added to give Nimmi more
prominence and screen time in the film.
Nimmi's character and her on-screen
death dance in Aan were very popular
with audiences.

Aan was one of the first Indian movies to

have a worldwide release. The film had
an extremely lavish London premiere
which Nimmi attended. The English
version was entitled Savage Princess. On
the London trip, Nimmi met many
western film personalities including Errol
Flynn. When Flynn attempted to kiss her
hand she pulled it away, exclaiming, "I am
an Indian girl, you cannot do that!" The
incident made the headlines and the
press raved about Nimmi as the
"...unkissed girl of India".

Although Nimmi was not the romantic

lead, she made a huge impact on
audiences and her character, Mangala,
emerged as the most popular in the film.
This was to such an extent that, when the
film was released dubbed in French it
was retitled Mangala, fille des Indes
(Mangala, girl of India) and Nimmi was
heavily promoted as main star of the
movie in the theatrical posters and
trailers for the French language release.
Nimmi further revealed in a 2013
interview, that at the London premiere of
Aan, she received four serious offers
from Hollywood, including Cecil B.
DeMille who greatly admired the film and
Nimmi's performance. Nimmi declined
these offers, choosing to focus on her
flourishing career in India.

After the great box-office success of Aan,

Mehboob Khan asked her to appear in his
next film Amar (1954). Nimmi played a
poor, milk maid seduced by a lawyer
(Dilip Kumar). The film also starred
Madhubala as Kumar's wronged fiancé.
Its controversial subject of rape was way
ahead of its time and although the film
was not a commercial success, Nimmi's
intense performance and the film were
applauded by critics. It remained the
favorite film of Mehboob Khan amongst
his own productions.

Nimmi also turned producer with the

popular film Danka (1954) which was
released under her own production
banner, and she gave a striking and off
beat performance.

Kundan (1955), produced by Sohrab Modi

co-starring newcomer Sunil Dutt, gave
Nimmi a memorable double role as
mother and daughter. Her sensitive
portrayal earned her further recognition
as a talented and spirited actress.
In Uran Khatola (1955), her last of five
films with Dilip Kumar, she starred in one
of the biggest box-office successes of
her career. The films songs have
remained popular to the present day.

Nimmi next had two big successes in

1956 with Basant Bahar and Bhai-Bhai. In
1957, at the age of 24, Nimmi received
the critic's award for best actress for her
role in Bhai Bhai. These films were also
notable for her songs which were dubbed
by Lata Mangeshkar. Nimmi was
fortunate throughout her career to have
some of the most popular and enduring
songs picturised on her, and appeared in
films with exceptional music scores.
By this point, with a largely consistent run
of success at the box-office, Nimmi had
firmly established herself as one of the
most bankable and popular leading
ladies in Hindi cinema.

Later career
In the late 1950s, Nimmi worked with
renowned directors Chetan Anand (Anjali
), K. A. Abbas (Char Dil Char Rahen) and
Vijay Bhatt (Angulimala). Prepared to
take risks, Nimmi took on controversial
characterizations, such as the prostitute
of Char Dil Char Raahen (1959). It was
during this phase that Nimmi became
very selective as she strove for better
quality projects and roles. However her
judgment was sometimes questionable
when she rejected films like B. R.
Chopra's Sadhna (1958), and Woh Kaun
Thi? (1963), both of which went on to be
big successes for Vyjayanthimala and
Sadhana, respectively.

She erred most with the film Mere

Mehboob (1963). Nimmi was first offered
the coveted female lead in the film which
was tipped for big box-office success. It
was to be shot in colour and on a very big
budget. Nimmi would be part of a large
star cast which included prominent
actors such as Ashok Kumar, Rajendra
Kumar, Ameeta, Pran, and comedian
Johnny Walker. Nimmi recalled in an
interview with Movie magazine : "Initially I
was offered Sadhana's role and Bina Rai
was to do my role. However I opted for
the role of the sister as I felt it was the
back bone of the story and had scope for
acting. Though it didn't turn out the way I
had visualised it." In rejecting the female
lead, opposite a hugely popular leading
man, Rajendra Kumar, for what was
ostensibly a character role, Nimmi lost a
valuable chance at making the
successful transition into the new phase
of films that were then evolving. The role
Nimmi rejected was played by Sadhana
and was instrumental in placing her
among the most successful heroines of
the 1960s. Nimmi did receive a Filmfare
award nomination for best supporting
actress for her performance and Mere
Mehboob went on to be one of the
biggest hits of 1963 at the box-office.

These detrimental choices were not

helped when in the 1960s, a new breed of
Mod actresses like Sadhana, Nanda,
Asha Parekh, Mala Sinha and Saira Banu
changed the concept of the Hindi film
heroine. Although she retained her star
status and continued to be credited
above the title, junior actresses like
Nanda and Mala Sinha were cast as the
romantic leads, while Nimmi's roles
alongside these actresses were more
unconventional parts such the blind girl
in Pooja Ke Phool (1964) and Ashok
Kumar's mute wife in Akashdeep (1965).
With the younger generation of actresses
emerging to dominate the industry,
although Nimmi's popularity as a star
began to fade, her performances had
matured considerably and critical
reviews in this final phase of her career
were largely positive.

At this point Nimmi opted for early

retirement and marriage, but not before
investing her best efforts into one last
film production. Director K. Asif had
started his version of the Laila-Majnu
love legend, Love & God even before
completing his magnum opus Mughal-e-
Azam (1960). Nimmi believed that Love &
God would be a fitting swan song to her
career and her claim to eternal fame just
as Mughal-e-Azam had immortalised its
leading lady, Madhubala. K. Asif had
problems casting the male lead before
finally selecting Guru Dutt as Nimmi's co-
star. However Guru Dutt's sudden and
premature death put a halt to the film's
shooting. Sanjeev Kumar was cast as his
replacement but the film was shelved
altogether when the director K. Asif died.

Nimmi had retired from films for over two

decades by the time K. Asif's widow
Akhtar Asif released Love & God on 6
June 1986 in incomplete form. The film
suffers badly from compromised editing
in an attempt to cover the fact that
several key scenes and a clear climax
were not filmed before Asif died. But the
footage that Nimmi completed before
the film was shelved showed she had
delivered a subtle and sensitive portrayal
and looked beautiful in Technicolor and
the period costumes.

Filmography
Barsaat (1949)
Wafaa, Raj Mukut, Jalte Deep (1950)
Sazaa (1951)
Deedar (1951)
Buzdil (1951)
Bedardi (1951)
Badi Bahu (1951)
Usha Kiron (1952)
Daag (1952)
Aandhiyan (1952)
Aan (1952)
Humdard (1953)
Alif Laila (1953)
Aabshar (1953)
Pyaase Nain (1954)
Kasturi (1954)
Danka (1954)
Amar (1954)
Uran Khatola (1955)
Society (1955)
Kundan (1955)
Char Paise (1955)
Bhagwat Mahima (1955)
Rajdhani (1956)
Bhai-Bhai (1956)
Basant Bahar (1956)
Anjali (1957)
Chotte Babu (1957)
Sohni Mahiwal (1958)
Pehli Raat (1959)
Char Dil Char Raahein (1959)
Angulimaal (1960) .
 Shamma (1961)
Mere Mehboob (1963)
Pooja Ke Phool (1964)
Daal Mein Kaala (1964)
Akashdeep (1965)
Love & God (1986)

References
Interview, Nimmi: "I have a dream to be
Queen", The Indian Express Newspaper,
Issue date: Friday, 30 May 1997.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express
Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Reuben, Bunny. Mehboob: India's
DeMille, South Asia Books
Raheja, Dinesh. The Hundred
Luminaries of Hindi Cinema, India Book
House Publishers.
Reuben, Bunny. Follywood Flashback,
Indus publishers
Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Willemen,
Paul. The Encyclopedia of Indian
Cinema, Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers.
Akbar, Khatija. Madhubala: Her Life, Her
Films, New Delhi: UBS Publishers'
Distributors
Lanba, Urmila. The Life and Films of
Dilip Kumar, Orient Paperbacks, India;
New e. edition
Ritu, Nanda. Raj Kapoor: His Life, His
Films, Iskusstvo
External links
Nimmi on IMDb
Petite powerhouse Nimmi

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