Are Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru/Gandhi family, and actor Sanjay
Dutt, son of film stars of yesteryear, Nargis and Sunil Dutt, related to
each other? Yes, if you believe IMDB, an Internet Movie Database site, owned by Amazon.com, a Fortune 500 company. Jaddan Bai,
mother of Nargis,Brahmin family but was abducted by a group of trained tawaifs. Jaddan Bai was born a Hindu, picked from a mela of dancing girls when she was a child and groomed a tawaif. Though Jaddan was born in Benares, she was brought up in Allahabad. Jaddan Bai, became a disciple of noted Thumri
singer Ustad Moijuddin Khan and the equally noted Ustad Barkat Ali
Khan, younger brother of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. Jaddan Bai became a
very famous singer, composer, actress and filmmaker and was a good
friend of Mehboob Khan who later became Nargis’s mentor.
was born in Benares, around the year 1900. She was
rumoured to be the illegitimate daughter of Motilal Nehru and famous
courtesan Daleep Bai. Her mother (before she became a courtesan) hailed
from a
Jaddan Bai had three children from three different
men. The story of the union of Jaddan and Mohanbabu is very interesting.
Uttamchand Mohanchand belonged to an orthodox Mohyal Brahmin family of
Rawalpindi. He was to go to England to study medicine but heard the
voice of Jaddan Bai and fell in love with her. His family refused to
accept Jaddan Bai as their daughter-in-law but that did not deter him
from marrying her and dedicating his entire life to her. Nargis was
named Fatima A Rashid by her father but she later adopted the name
Nargis for Hindi movies. Jaddan Bai’s two sons from different men,
Akthar Hussain and Anwar Hussain became film directors and actors.
