Meena Kumari
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| Meena Kumari | ||||||
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| Image:Meena Kumari.jpg Meena Kumari | ||||||
| Birth name | Mahjabeen Bano | |||||
| Born | August 1 1932 Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India | |||||
| Died | March 31 1972 (aged 39) Bombay, Maharashtra, India | |||||
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Mahjabeen Bano (August 1, 1932 - March 31, 1972), commonly known as Meena Kumari, was a prominent Indian movie actress.
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[edit] 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.)
[edit] Career
[edit] Early work
When Mahjabeen was born, Ali Bakhshi 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).
[edit] Breakthrough
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. Her performance fetched her a Filmfare Best Actress Award in 1953.
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).
Probably the best performance of Meena Kumari as a tragedianne was in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), which was produced by Guru Dutt. In one memorable scene, the heroine, Choti Bahu, dresses for her husband, providng 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 Rahoongi, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. She won the award for her role in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam.
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.
[edit] Later work
For four more years, Meena Kumari performed admirably in Dil Ek Mandir (1963), Kajal (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 (1971).
In Gulzar's 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Relationship with Kamal Amrohi
In 1952, on the sets of one of her films, Meena Kumari fell in love with --and then married-- film director Kamal Amrohi, who was 15 years senior to her and was already married. She wrote about Amrohi:
Dil saa jab saathi paya
Bechain bhi woh saath le aaya
Soon after marriage, Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari made a movie named Daera (1953), which was based on their love story. They also planned another movie, Pakeezah. However, it took 16 years (1956 to 1972) before Pakeezah reached the silver screen. (The scenes in Pakeezah's popular song, Inhi logo 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 Sayyed. They raised Kamal Amrohi's son, Taajdaar, who was highly attached to his chhoti ammi (younger mother), Meena Kumari.
Because of their strong personalities, Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi started, however, to develop conflicts, both professionally and in their married life. Their conflicts, separation, and ultimate divorce in 1964 highly impacted Meena Kumari, who, once a happy woman, became depressed and took to heavy drinking.
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
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
[edit] Partial filmography
- Baharon Ki Manzil (1968 film) (1968)
- Baiju Bawra (1952 film) (1952)
- Footpath (1953)
- Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
- Pyar Ka Sagar (1961 film) (1961)
- Phool Aur Patthar
- Mere Apne
- Pakeezah
- Dushmun
- Parineeta
- Kaajal
- Dayra
- Kohinoor
- Dil Ek Mandir
- Chitralekha
Bahu Begum
[edit] Awards
[edit] External links
- Meena Kumari at the Internet Movie Database
- Meena Kumari at Manas: Culture of India
- Collection of verses by Meena Kumari
- A Film Distributor's Impressions of Meena Kumari
Cinema of India | |
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