New Delhi: A Raj Kapoor film always felt incomplete without his muse, Nargis. The 'First Showman of Bollywood' is said to have been in an affair with the celebrated actress until she married Sunil Dutt in 1958. It is said that Raj Kapoor was quite devastated post her marriage, even though she had waited and stood by him for many years before that.
Nargis and Raj Kapoor
Reportedly, Nargis also consulted politician Morarji Desai on the possibility of her tying the knot with Kapoor. However, Kapoor looked upon this as a 'betrayal' according to Madhu Jain's book, The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema.
The book quoted Kapoor as saying to journalist Suresh Kohli, "The world tells me I let Nargis down. It was she who betrayed me."
The 'betrayal'
"He broke down and cried in front of his friends and colleagues when he found out that she had married Sunil Dutt. Raj Kapoor took it very badly: he would reportedly burn himself with cigarette butts to check if he was not dreaming, wondering how she could have done this to him," as per the book.
Krishna Raj Kapoor knew about Raj & Nargis
Raj Kapoor took Nargis' marriage rather badly. Krishna Raj Kapoor also knew about this. She told the author of the book Bunny Reuben, "Night after night he’d come home drunk… He’d come and collapse almost unconscious in the bathtub weeping bitterly. Night after night. Do you think I thought he was weeping for me? No. Of course not. I knew he was weeping for her.”
“Nargis was his only true love. He never spoke against her publicly. He blamed her brothers for driving a wedge between them.’ In private, he often babbled about what he termed ‘a great betrayal’” A 'friend' was quoted in the book.
As per reports, Kapoor spoke about this 'betrayal' two decades after it happened to Suresh Kohli in depth 'as if it had just happened the week before’. Despite this, Kapoor kept Nargis on the hook for years, telling her that he would marry her one day.
Morarji Desai
On the other hand, Nargis was getting 'restless' and wanting to be 'wife and a mother-Mrs Raj Kapoor', the book noted, adding, "So important was the sanctity of marriage for Nargis that she apparently even cornered Morarji Desai, then Home Minister in Bombay and asked him for his advice on how she could legally marry the actor. Kapoor was a Hindu and already married.”
However, when Nargis signed 'Mother India' and Sunil Dutt saved her during the fire scene, the two fell in love and married on the film's set in 1958.
In fact, Krishna Raj Kapoor invited Nargis to Rishi Kapoor's wedding and made sure he was comfortable, Rishi Kapoor addressed this in his autobiography 'Khullam Khulla'.