Meena Kumari

All you want to know about Meena Kumari

Meena Kumari

Meena Kumari
Born Mahjabeen Bano
August 1, 1932(1932-08-01)
Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died March 31, 1972 (aged 39)
Bombay, Maharashtra, India

Meena Kumari or Mahjabeen Bano (August 1, 1932 - March 31, 1972), was a prominent Indian movie actress.

Contents

Childhood

Mahjabeen Bano was the third daughter of Ali Baksh and Iqbal Begum; Khursheed and Madhu were her two elder sisters. At the time of her birth, her parents were unable to pay the fees of Dr. Gadre, who had delivered her, so her father left her at a Muslim orphanage, however, he picked her up after a few hours.

Her father, a Sunni Muslim, was a veteran of Parsi theater, played harmonium, taught music, and wrote Urdu poetry. He played small roles in films like Id Ka Chand and composed music for films like Shahi Lutere.

Her mother, Prabhwati Devi, was the second wife of Ali Baksh. Before meeting and then marrying Ali Baksh, she was a stage actress and dancer, under the stage name, Kamini. After marriage, she converted from Hinduism to Islam, and changed her name to Iqbal Begum.

(It is said that Prabhwati Devi's mother, Hem Sundari, had been married into the Tagore family, but she was disowned by that family after being widowed.)

Career

Early work

When Mahjabeen was born, Ali Bakhsh aspired to get roles as an actor in Rooptara Studios. At the urging of his wife, he got Mahjabeen too into movies despite her protestations of wanting to go to school. Young Mahjabeen is said to have said, "I do not want to work in movies; I want to go to school, and learn like other children."

As Mahjabeen embarked on her acting career at the age of 7, she was renamed Baby Meena. Farzand-e-Watan or Leatherface (1939) was her first movie, which was directed for Prakash Studios by Vijay Bhatt. She became practically the sole breadwinner of her family during the 1940s. Her early adult acting, under the name Meena Kumari, was mainly in mythological movies like Veer Ghatotkach (1949), Shri Ganesh Mahima (1950), and fantasy movies like Alladin and The Wonderful Lamp (1952).

Breakthrough

Meena Kumari, (here with Rehman), performed a landmark role, as Choti Bahu, in Abrar Alvi's, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, 1962
Meena Kumari, (here with Rehman), performed a landmark role, as Choti Bahu, in Abrar Alvi's, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, 1962

Meena Kumari gained fame with her role as a heroine in Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra (1952). This heroine always negated herself for the material and spiritual advancement of the man she loved and was even willing to annihilate herself to provide him the experience of pain so that his music would be enriched. She became the first actress to win the Filmfare Best Actress Award in 1953 for this performance.

Meena Kumari highly successfully played the roles of a suffering woman in Parineeta (1953), Daera (1953), Ek Hi Raasta (1956), Sharda (1957), and Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi (1960). Though she cultivated the image of a tragedienne, she also performed commendably in a few light-hearted movies like Azaad (1955), Miss Mary (1957), Shararat (1959), and Kohinoor (1960).

One of her best known performance was of an alcoholic wife in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), which was produced by Guru Dutt. In one memorable scene, the heroine, Choti Bahu, dresses for her husband, providing a poignant presentation of a woman's expectations and sexual desire.

At that time, Meena Kumari herself was on a road to gradual ruin in her own personal life. Like her character, Choti Bahu, she began to drink heavily, though she carried on. In fact, in 1962, she made history by being nominated for three Filmfare Best Actress Awards for her roles in Aarti, Main Chup Rahungi, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. She won the award for her role in Aarti.

There are some eerie commonalities between the lives of Choti Bahu and Meena Kumari: The estranged marital relationship, the taking to drinking, the seeking of younger male company, and the craving to be understood and loved by all.

Later work

For four more years, Meena Kumari performed admirably in Dil Ek Mandir (1963), Kaajal (1965), and Phool Aur Patthar (1966). However, she relied more and more on intimate relationships with younger men like Dharmendra, and often dulled her senses with liquor. She spent the last years of her life playing the doomed woman. Because of heavy drinking, she increasingly lost her good looks, and began playing character roles in B grade movies like Jawab (1970) and Dushmun (1972).

She developed an attachment to writer-lyricist Gulzar and acted in his directorial debut, Mere Apne (1971), Meena Kumari presented a strong portrayal of an elderly woman who got caught between two street gangs of frustrated, unemployed youth and got killed, her death making the youth realize the futility of violence. In 1972, she recognized that she had a limited time left on this earth, and so she went out of her way to complete at the earliest the cult classic, Pakeezah (1972). Initially, after its release in February 1972, Pakeezah opened to a lukewarm response from the public; however, after Meena Kumari's death less than two months later, people flocked to see it.

Throughout her life, Meena Kumari had a love-hate relationship with movies.

Besides being a top-notch actress, she was a talented poetess, and recorded a disc of her Urdu poems, I write, I recite with music by Khayyam.

Death

Three weeks after the release of Pakeezah, Meena Kumari became seriously ill, and passed away on March 31, 1972 of cirrhosis of the liver. At her death, she was in more or less the same financial circumstance as her parents at the time of her birth: It is said that when she died in a nursing home, there was no money to pay her hospital bills.

Relationship with Kamal Amrohi

In 1952, on the sets of one of her films, Meena Kumari fell in love with and married film director, Kamal Amrohi, who was fifteen years elder than her and was already married. She wrote about Amrohi:

Dil saa jab saathi paya
Bechaini bhi woh saath le aaya When I found someone like my heart
He also brought sorrow with him

Soon after marriage, Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari produced a film called Daera (1953), which was based on their love story. They also planned another film, Pakeezah. However, it took sixteen years (1956 to 1972) before Pakeezah reached the silver screen. (The scenes in Pakeezah's popular song, Inhi logon ne, were originally filmed in black and white, and were later reshot in color.)

It is said that Amrohi did not want children with Meena Kumari because she was not a Syed. They raised Kamal Amrohi's son, Tajdaar, who was greatly attached to his chhoti ammi (younger mother).

Due to their strong personalities, however, Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi started to develop conflicts, both professionally and in their married life. Their conflicts, separation in 1960, and ultimate divorce in 1964 highly impacted Meena Kumari, who, once a happy woman, became depressed and found solace in heavy drinking.They remarried, but Meena Kumari had become an alcoholic by then.

She expressed her sorrows prominently in her poetry. About Kamal Amrohi she wrote:

Tum kya karoge sunkar mujhse meri kahani
Belutf zindagi ke kisse hain pheeke pheeke Why do you want to listen to my story: <bt /> Colourless tales of a joyless life

At the time of the divorce, she wrote:

Talaak to de rahe ho Nazare kahar ke saath
Jawani bhi mere lauta do Mehar ke saath You are divorcing me with rage in your eyes/ Return to me, also, my youth along with the bridal-price!

Partial filmography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Awards

Nominations

  • 1958 Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress - Sahara (1958 film)
  • 1959 Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress - Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan
  • 1962 Filmfare Nomination as Best Actress - Main Chup Rahungi

Biography

One of the first biography of Meena Kumari was written just after her death by Vinod Mehta in the year 1972. It was simply titled Meena Kumari.

References

  1. ^ 1st Filmfare Awards 1953

External links

v • d • e
Filmfare Best Actress Award
1954-1960

Meena Kumari (1954) · Meena Kumari (1955) · Kamini Kaushal (1956) · Nutan (1957) · Nargis (1958) · Vyjayanthimala (1959) · Nutan (1960)
1961-1980

Bina Rai (1961) · Vyjayanthimala (1962) · Meena Kumari (1963) · Nutan (1964) · Vyjayanthimala (1965) · Meena Kumari (1966) · Waheeda Rehman (1967) · Nutan (1968) · Waheeda Rehman (1969) Sharmila Tagore (1970) · Mumtaz (1971) · Asha Parekh (1972) · Hema Malini (1973) · Dimple Kapadia & Jaya Bachchan (1974) · Jaya Bachchan (1975) · Lakshmi (1976) · Raakhee Gulzar (1977) · Shabana Azmi (1978) · Nutan (1979) · Jaya Bachchan (1980)
1981-2000

Rekha (1981) · Smita Patil (1982) · Padmini Kolhapure (1983) · Shabana Azmi (1984) · Shabana Azmi (1985) · Dimple Kapadia (1986) · no award (1987) · no award (1988) · Rekha (1989) Sridevi (1990) · Madhuri Dixit (1991) · Sridevi (1992) · Madhuri Dixit (1993) · Juhi Chawla (1994) · Madhuri Dixit (1995) · Kajol (1996) · Karisma Kapoor (1997) · Madhuri Dixit (1998) · Kajol (1999) · Aishwarya Rai (2000)
2001-present

Karisma Kapoor (2001) · Kajol (2002) · Aishwarya Rai (2003) · Preity Zinta (2004) · Rani Mukerji (2005) · Rani Mukerji (2006) · Kajol (2007) · Kareena Kapoor (2008)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meena_Kumari"

Comments to date: 1. This is page 1 of 1.

 India    from  Delhi, India

6:04 am, Fri 30th May 2008

It is very said that a talented, soft hearted, emotional lady left the earth like this.

kash, main unhe dekh pati, unhe chhu pati, unse batein kar pati.



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