Breaker of convention

Nadia was a figure ala Robin Hood who would take care of the oppressed and vanquish the evil.

A film review in Film India, September 1940 reads thus: “I am unequal to the job of reviewing a Wadia thriller as this the first one I have seen in the Indian thriller variety. To be on the safe side I took four experts along with me – my four children between 8 and 15 – and according to them Nadia was marvellous in Hunterwali. They also remembered how she fought then and how long and how well. They also knew the other stories Hurricane Hunsa and Punjab Mail and began a long discourse on Nadia’s exploits. I tried to take part in the discussion but not having seen the previous pictures I was brow beaten. My children told me I had missed a lot.

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After seeing Diamond Queen I guess they were right. When you see a Wadia thriller, your habits have to be re-organised. You must sit on the extreme edge of the chair, and keep your fists clenched in the boxing guard pose. In between you must jump up and shout, “Come on Nadia, give them right.” If you have a friend sitting close by, you must either shake him vigorously or slap his thigh tight or better still pinch him well. This must be done at least ten times during the entertainment effectively. The friend doesn’t mind it. He is in the same mood and returns the compliment with equal sincerity and vigour. In these thriller theatres, I think the chairs are unnecessary seeing that so little of them are being used. Cross poles would be more suitable.”

And at the end of it all the smallest one of eight turns round and tells you, “Papa, I love Nadia.” That is where the romance of the thriller begins. But as I saw the picture, I traced a suspicion of a theme underlying the mad melee of flights and thrills. As the producer himself told me, there seemed to be a method to this madness. The whole of it happens in Diamond Town but the town is the least part of it and out of the methodical chaos looms out a plea for better government by the rulers, an urge for democracy and even an argument for healthy and intellectual living. But the doses of instruction are given in such minute and palatable form that while you are being entertained, you don’t realise that you are also being taught. I think it is the right measure of instruction for the average audience – which is under 15 – that makes this type of entertainment popular.”

A better example of critical acclaim and audience appreciation may be difficult to find on Nadia today. For today’s audiences Nadia is merely a name, not someone who breathed life into films which laid the foundation for stunt, action and adventure films in the early days of sound. And yet acting had not been Fearless Nadia’s (so named by her audiences) first love.

The lady, born as Mary Evans in Perth, Australia was of Welsh-Greek descent and began her career as a circus artist. She also learnt ballet with a certain Madame Astoria’s troupe, which brought her to Asia. Nadia joined Wadia Movietone (headed by JBH Wadia, a lecturer turned film maker) as a chorus girl before going on to become a lead heroine making her debut with Noor-e-Yaman. Her best known films include the above mentioned Diamond Queen (1940) and Hunterwali (which had come previously in 1935), Lady Robinhood, and Jungle Goddess. She was a figure ala Robin Hood who would take care of the oppressed and vanquish the evil.

Nadia: B'wood's Robin Hood

Also, unlike her contemporaries, Nadia wasn’t the simpering, crying heroine who waited for her man to come home while she sat cooking the food. Instead, she chose to be the solution rather than be part of the problem. “Carrying a man on her shoulders, she could run the length of the top of a moving train, leap from a tree onto a horse and outchase her adversary, float down dangerous rapids or enter a lion’s cage barehanded,” mentions BD Garga in So Many Cinemas (Eminence Designs Pvt. Ltd.).

Nadia’s films were actually patriotic in nature and often a vehicle for women’s emancipation as well. In Diamond Queen she exhorts women to fight subservience and one of her dialogues is: ‘If India is to be free then Indian women should also be free.’ And though once in a while it was suggested that she was a lesbian, it isn’t correct. But Riyad, the son she bore to Homi Wadia - the younger brother of JBH and who had first directed her in Hunterwali is gay. In keeping with the family traditions, Riyad has become a filmmaker. In fact, he debuted with a feature film on his own mother titled Fearless – The Hunterwali Story in 1993 which premiered at the London Film Festival and has subsequently made Bomgay – a film on alternate sexuality among others.

Nadia died a quiet death in January 1996.