At the very outset, the authors make it clear that this is not a book for someone trying to understand the cinema of Nargis and Sunil Dutt. Instead, it is about the private lives of one of the most-loved couples of Indian cinema, seen through the memories of their two daughters and described as, “a sentimental journey through cherished memories”.

So, don’t expect to find any gossipy tit bits in this impressively-mounted book. It is a book that brings alive a family’s history, personal space, happiness and grief, which the Dutts went through with rare dignity in the face of the public glare on some of the most-harrowing experiences— the death of the lady of the house due to cancer even while her children were young, the son falling prey to drugs and later being charged with dangerous crimes.

Garnished with a large number of photographs retrieved from family albums that both Sunil and Nargis Dutt had meticulously maintained (the photographs in monochrome, include even recent photos that have apparently been made monochrome to create a sense of rekindling memories long gone by), the book recreates virtually the whole life of the senior Dutts, much of it through the eyes of their children.

Quite clearly, the book has been possible because of Sunil Dutt’s meticulous preservation of each and every document that had to do anything with him or his family, as also the nature of keeping notes on many matters. The narrative starts with a description of the completely diverse backgrounds the two actors came from and how fate brought them together.

The beginning

It is a known fact that they had fallen in love after Sunil Dutt rescued Nargis from a raging fire during the shooting of Mehboob Khan’s Mother India, but the book recounts how she nursed him back to recovery from the injuries suffered during the incident, and how they had to keep their affair a secret for several reasons for about a year— the most pressing of them being the imminent release of the film in which Sunil Dutt played the rebellious son, Birju, to Nargis’ character.

Nargis virtually retired from the world of cinema after marriage, choosing to act in only one film— Raat Aur Din that brought her, her only ‘Urvashi’, as the National Award for Best Actress was known in those days— even as Sunil Dutt’s career slowly took off. The book lovingly describes how the superstar Nargis gave up her career for a life of domesticity and social work on her own volition and how the still-struggling status of Sunil Dutt never affected their relationship, something that left many a skeptic who had doubted the longevity of their marriage surprised.

The book goes through all the ups and downs that the family went through, till the death of Sunil Dutt even as he had risen to become a Union Minister, not making any effort to hide unpleasant truths. It is a pure tribute to a superstar couple who never let their stardom affect their parental duties and responsibilities. And it should not be seen as anything beyond that.

For those who want an outsider’s viewpoint to the same story, there is, of course, Kishwar Desai’s book Darlingji, that came out almost simultaneously with this one.

(Mr And Mrs Dutt : Memories of our Parents; Lustre Press / Roli Books; by Namrata Dutt Kumar & Priya Dutt; Rs 695; pp 200)