Nadira or Farhat Ezekiel Nadira (English: Nadira or Farhat Ezekiel Nadira) (born: December 5, 1932, Israel; died: February 9, 2006) was one of the famous and beautiful actresses of Hindi films. Nadira looked full of confidence on the film screen. She was completely absorbed in her character. Nadira, who left the mark of her unmatched acting in more than sixty films, not only became her assistant but also became special in the films of many artists like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Meena Kumari, Rajkumar and Amitabh Bachchan. Actress Nadira was way ahead of her time. Despite having amazing beauty and a royal personality, she preferred to become a villain at that time, while other heroines were afraid of doing such roles.
Nadira was born on December 5, 1932 in Israel to a Baghdadi Jewish family. He was brought up like a boy. She used to play football with the boys of her street. He also liked playing Gilli Danda very much. Boy-like mischief and hooliganism remained in his nature throughout his life. She derived more pleasure from gossiping in male gatherings than from female friends.
Film debut: Nadira, who gained fame among the Hindi audience, worked in many films in her five decade long film journey, in which she played heroine, villain as well as character roles. Her acting career started with Mehboob Khan’s 1952 film ‘Aan’, in which she played the role of a spoiled princess. She also gave a bold scene in contrast to the timid heroines of that time. Dilip Kumar was his hero in this film.
Nargis was selected before her for the role of Princess Rajshri played by Nadira in this film, but fate was writing something else. Mehboob Khan wanted to complete this film as soon as possible. He asked Nargis to give him a date, but Nargis expressed her dilemma that she had signed Raj Kapoor’s film ‘Awara’. Mehboob Khan knew that Nargis could never avoid Raj Kapoor’s words. Mehboob Khan hid his pain of not casting Nargis in his film, but his wife Sardar Akhtar decided that she would provide an alternative to Nargis. After thinking a lot, his eyes fixed on ‘Farhat’ (Nadira). Mehboob also agreed on his name. I decided to bring her different kind of beauty to the world by giving her a role in my film ‘Aan’. Talked to her and it was decided that she would be the heroine opposite Dilip Kumar in ‘Aan’. Farhat was then getting a chance to work with the famous hero Dilip Kumar in this film, she started dreaming. Farhat was given a new name ‘Nadira’, who became a star overnight after the release of ‘Aan’.
It will be considered the success of actress Nadira that she got the opportunity to work with every big hero. Even the trio of that time could not ignore him. Nadira came with Dilip Kumar in ‘Aan Mein’ and with Dev Anand in ‘Pocketmar’. Raj Kapoor gave her a different role of ‘Maya’ in the film ‘Shree 420’. ‘Nagma’ with Ashok Kumar, ‘Sipahsaal’ with Shammi Kapoor, ‘Police’ with Pradeep Kumar and ‘Eleven Thousand Girls’ with Bharat Bhushan.
In 1954, he also worked with singer-actor Talat Mehmood in two films ‘Dak Babu’ and ‘Waris’. These films were successful. The special thing was that in these films, Nadira also sang many songs with Talat Mehmood and made people crazy with her voice. In this way Nadira worked continuously in films for thirty years. Throughout her career, Nadira also worked with some other actors, notable among them being Motilal, Agha, Anwar Hussain, Jairaj, Balraj Sahni, Utpal Dutt, Daljeet, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, Mithun Chakraborty and Rishi Kapoor.
After this, she worked in films like ‘Shree 420’ (1956), ‘Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai’ (1960), ‘Pakeezah’ (1971), ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ (1977) etc., in which she mostly played the role of a woman. Bhiliya, who tries to trap the hero with her actions.
Although actress Nadira mostly played villainous roles in films, with time she also adapted herself as a character actress. Despite this, her height was no less than that of any main heroine of the film. He also worked in Ismail Merchant’s English film ‘Cotton Mary’ (1999).
She had married twice, but both times she was deprived of marital happiness. His first marriage was to Urdu poet, lyricist and film producer Naqshab. This marriage had a very sad outcome. Then Nadira married a married man for the second time. But this relationship also lasted only for a week.
