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Today, October 19, 2020 is the 25th Remembrance Day of Baby Naaz, one of the super child artists of Hindi films who has enthralled the Hindi cinema buffs with her memorable roles. She was a destitute child in ‘Boot Polish’ (1954), the young Paro in ‘Devdas’ (1955), an orphan girl in ‘Do Phool’ (1958), a teenage daughter caught in the marital discord of her parents, Guru Dutt and Veena in ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (1959) and many more roles.
Baby Naaz’s life from her childhood days to teenager has been traumatic and unhappy. Baby Naaz’s undated interview which appeared in ‘Stardust’ magazine sometime in mid-1970 is an indication of how a child has been exploited by her mother by pushing her into Hindi films as a child artist depriving her of schooling and a good childhood to make the family’s life comfortable. In today’s world, Baby Naaz’s case would come in the ambit of child abuse by her mother. From the age of 4, she has been the bread winner for her family when she started performing as a dancer on the road side stage shows. At the age of 8, she became a child artist in Hindi films which continued till her adulthood. In this process, Baby Naaz struggled with her 3-4 shifts of shooting a day depriving her of a normal childhood.
Based on Naaz’s interview mentioned above and also on Khalid Mohamed’s article in ‘The Daily Eyes’- July 8, 2020 and an article which appeared in December 29, 2017 issue of ‘Jansatta’, the life story of Naaz has been sumarised below:
Baby Naaz, (Real name: Salma Baig) was born in Mumbai on 20/08/1944 in a poor family. Her father, Mirza Dawood Baig was a story writer who was trying his luck to sell his stories for Hindi films but was unsuccessful. He remained unemployed beside being a sickly person. Baby Naaz’s mother was an ambitious lady who pushed Baby Naaz to Hindi films as a child artist so that with her income, she can run the house and have a comfortable life. Her father was against his daughter working in the film. But due to the extreme financial problem faced by the family, he reluctantly agreed to his friend, Lekhraj Bhakri’s request to let her do a childhood role of Suraiya in ‘Resham’ (1952). Salma Baig was given a screen name, ‘Baby Naaz’.
Due to her busy shooting schedules, Baby Naaz could not attend the school regularly for which she was rusticated. For the same reason, she had no time for enjoying her childhood. On the other hand, there was constant fights between her father and mother. Deprived of a normal childhood with love and affection from her parents, Baby Naaz twice attempted suicide by jumping into a well at the age of 10 but was saved by her maid servant.
When Naaz was 12, her parents separated and she started living with her mother. About 4 years later, her mother remarried to a film cameraman and shifted to her husband’s house. Slowly, she realised that she was the sole bread winner not only for her mother but also for her lover who had now become her step-father.
Baby Naaz came into limelight as a child artist in ‘Boot Polish’ (1954) in which she played the role of a destitute child along with Master Rattan. She enacted the emotional scenes as well as comedy acts very well. The film was shown in Cannes’ International Film Festival in 1955 where both Baby Naaz and Master Rattan were tied to receive the special commendations from the Jury. With this, Baby Naaz became the most sought-after child artist and worked in a spate of films during 1954-59. Around 1960 onwards, Naaz started getting roles as a major, mostly as a character actor though in a few films, she had also got the lead roles in ‘B’ grade films.
During the shooting of ‘Mera Ghar Mere Bachche’ (1960), Naaz became close to Subbiraj, a nephew of Prithviraj Kapoor. Both of them had the second lead roles and decided to convert their closeness into a marriage. However, families from both sides were against this marriage. Their courtship continued for 5 years. It was during the shooting of ‘Dekha Pyaar Tumhaara’ (1963), in which they were in the lead roles, they got married during the outdoor shooting of the film in Pratapgarh Fort. They returned to Mumbai as a married couple.
After the marriage, Naaz felt for the first time that she had got the love and affection which she had missed in her childhood. After the marriage, Naaz had to cut down her assignments in the films due to household responsibilities. In the 1970s, she started working with Kalyanji-Anandji for their musical programmes as a compere. In the 1980s, she almost stopped acting in the films as she had become a dubbing artist for some actresses from the south especially for Sridevi.
After a traumatic childhood and teens, Naaz was happy with her married life. When the time came for her to enjoy a life of contentment with her husband and two children, a tragedy struck in her life. In 1995, Naaz was diagnosed with cancer which was on a terminal stage. She breathed her last on October 19, 1995 when she was 51.
Baby Naaz worked in around 125 Hindi films during 1952-86 of which she worked as a child artist in about 50 films. In the 1960s, Naaz got opportunity to work as a lead/second lead actor in ‘Lambe Haath’ (1960), ‘Mera Ghar Mere Bachche’ (1960), ‘Gangu’ (1962), ‘Dekha Pyaar Tumhaara’ (1963), ‘Chaar Darvesh’ (1964), ‘Rocket Girl’ (1965) and Chhaila Babu’ (1967). However, these films did not do well at the box office.
After her marriage in 1963, Naaz restricted her film appearances by choosing the films in which the roles interested her. I find that post-marriage, most of the films in which she acted belonged to big banners and under good directors like M Sadiq in ‘Bahu Begum’ (1967), Sateyn Bose in ‘Raat Aur Din’ (1967), Lekh Tandon in ‘Jahaan Pyaar Miley’ (1969), Manmohan Desai in ‘Sachcha Jhootha’ (1970), Dulal Guha in ‘Dushman’ (1972). Hrishikesh Mukherjee in ‘Phir Kab Milogi’ (1974), Asit Sen in ‘Bairaag’ (1976), B R Chopra in ‘Karm’ (1977), Basu Chatterjee in ‘Sheesha’ (1986) etc.
On the occasion of the 25th Remembrance Day of Naaz, I present a song from ‘Gangu’ (1962) which was one of her films with a lead role for her. The film was directed by Promod Chakravarty. The song is ‘kya kaha zara phir kaho’ which is a duet sung by Subir Sen and Geeta Dutt. The song is written by Prem Dhawan is picturised on Chandrashekhar and Naaz which is set to music by Kalyanji-Anandji.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Kya kaha zara phir kaho (Gangu)(1962) Subir Sen, Geeta Dutt, Lyrics-Prem Dhawan, MD-Kalyanji Anandji
Lyrics
kya kaha zara phir kaho
aji kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho
koi sun lega aji chup raho
tum na kaho to nigaahen kahengi
tumhaari ye bahki adaayen kahengi
tum na kaho to nigaahen kahengi
tumhaari ye bahki adaayen kahengi
youn na sataaya karo..o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho
koi sun lega aji chup raho
ki hai mohabbat to kaisa chhupaana
na ho jaaye dushman kahin ye zamaana
ki hai mohabbat to kaisa chhupaana
na ho jaaye dushman kahin ye zamaana
duniya se youn na daro..o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
kya kaha zara phir kaho
aji kya kaha zara phir kaho
koi sun lega aji chup raho o
koi sun lega aji chup raho o