Nalini Jaywant  was an Indian Film Actress who appeared in  Hindi Films  in the 1940s and 1950s.

Jaywant appeared in Mehboob Khan‘s  Bahen  (Sister) in 1941, a film about a brother’s obsessive love for his sister. It was the first film of Jaywant. It was She performed in a few more movies before filming  Anokha Pyar (1948). In 1950, she garnered fame when she became a top star with her performances opposite  Ashok Kumar  in  Samadhi  and  Sangram.  Samadhi was a patriotic drama concerning  Subhas Chandra Bose  and the  Indian National Army. The story is based on the true incident at INA. Shekhar (Ashok Kumar) falls in love with Lily D’Souza (Nalini Jaywant). She cheats him and they break up. Freedom struggle is going on and so wars keep happening. She and her sister apologise for spying on Indian Army and get on penalty. Subhas Chandra Bose saves them and asks them to spy on British Army. On the other hand, Ashok Kumar goes for a big war. Although the leading movie magazine of the day , Filmindia, called it “politically obsolete”, it enjoyed success at the box office, highest earning film of 1950.  Sangram  was a crime drama in which Jaywant played the heroine reforming the anti-hero.

She and Ashok Kumar further collaborated on films such as  Jalpari (1952),  Kafila (1952),  Nau Bahar (1952),  Saloni (1952),  Lakeeren (1954),  Naaz (1954),  Mr. X (1957),  Sheroo (1957) and Toofan Mein Pyar Kahan (1963).

Rahi (The Wayfarer) is a 1952 film starred Dev Anand and Nalini Jaywant. It was produced as a bilingual in Hindi as Rahi and in English as the The Wayfarer. The story revolved around an ex-army man played by Dev Anand, who takes up a job in a tea estate, only to get disillusioned with the management, and his situation. Nalini Jaywant played his love interest as a tea leaf picker. Her acting was appreciated in the film getting “great critical acclaim”.

Shikast (Defeat) is a 1953 film starred Dilip Kumar and Nalini Jaywant. The movie is loosely based on the Bengali Movie Palli Samaj.

Jaywant remained an important leading actress through the mid-1950s, appearing in such films as   Railway Platform  (1955)),  Nastik (1954),  Munimji (1955), and  Hum Sab Chor Hain (1956). The 1958 film  Kala Pani, directed by  Raj Khosla, was Jaywant’s last successful movie, for which she won the  Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award.  Bombay Race Course (1965) was the last film she made before retirement. After 18 years, she returned as a character actress in  Nastik  which marked her last film appearance.

In 2005 Naline Jaywant got Dadsaheb Phalke Academy Lifetime Achievement award.

Naline Jaywant played the main lead in total sixty films during her career of twenty five years between 1941 to 1965. Naline Jaywant’s pairing with Ashok Kumar and Ajit was widely appreciated. She acted in ten films with Ashok Kumar and the same number of films with Ajit. Film Nirdosh (1941) and Nand Kishor (1951) were bilinguals that were made in Marathi also. Naline Jaywant also acted in a Gujrati film Warasdaar, which was made in the year 1948. She sang a total of thirty-nine songs in nine films.

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.