Nargis was the director's first choice for the role of Radha, and despite only being aged 26 at the time, she played the new wife, young single mother and an aged mother of two sons. Nargis—the reigning queen of Hindi cinema at the time—had started her career in a leading role with Khan's "Taqdeer" (1943) and acted under his direction in "Humayun" (1945) and "Andaz" (1949). "Mother India" is generally regarded as Nargis's best performance and was her last major film before retirement after marriage.