Meena Kumari is a great legend of Bollywood. pause. No other actress has achieved the status that she did. Be it the height of his career, the time after his departure or even his first superhit film “Baiju Bawra” in the beginning. She has been bestowed with titles like “unique actress in history”, “artist of the highest calibre” and even “poetry on celluloid”, and she deserved every accolade. She was also an actress, singer and poet. Let us now take a look at some unheard stories of his life.
He presented his diaries to Gulzar
Meena Kumari had a close relationship with Gulzar. Gulzar made his directorial debut with “Mere Apne” and cast Meena Kumari in her first film. There was sometimes speculation in the media that they were together, even though they were just close friends. As Meena Kumari’s love for Urdu increased, she came closer to Gulzar. In fact, before her demise, she had gifted her diaries to Gulzar, which contained her poems written under the pen name ‘Naaz’. Later Gulzar published a collection of some of his poems.
He sympathized with Marilyn Monroe
It seems strange to think that a Bollywood legend, Meena Kumari, and a Hollywood sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe, could be similar in some way. Still, it is true. Kumari showed deep empathy with Monroe, as both were in tough industries that kept them in the spotlight, both battled addiction (Kumari was an alcoholic, Monroe was a drug addict) and both had marriages that were perfect on paper but failed (Kumari was married to Kamal Aarohi for 12 years and then separated, Monroe and Arthur Miller were married for 5 years). Both were contemporaries in their careers, and, sadly, both passed away in their 30s.
His dominance on Filmfare
Meena Kumari was the darling of award ceremonies, her stellar performances consistently earning her accolades and honours. Not only were many of his films sent as India’s official entries to the Oscars, but they also dominated the Filmfare Awards. She won the Best Actress Award at the first Filmfare ceremony in 1954 for ‘Baiju Bawra’ and won the award again the following year for ‘Parineeta’. Although she won her fourth and final Filmfare Award in 1966 for ‘Kajal’, the year 1963 was her biggest, where she received all three nominations and won for ‘Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam’.
Beginning of career as ‘Baby Meena’
Meena Kumari was born as Mehjabeen Bano, and started her career as a child artiste at the age of four. Most of her early films were with Vijay Bhatt, both as a child and as an adult. In fact, during the shooting of the film ‘Ek Hi Bhool’ in 1940, Bhatt changed Kumari’s name to ‘Baby Meena’. This was the pseudonym with which she worked as a child artiste, later becoming Meena Kumari as an adult.
He was almost left in an orphanage
As we know, Meena Kumari was not born in a wealthy family as both her parents were struggling to support the family. In fact, when he was born, his father did not have enough money to pay the doctor who delivered him, and left him in an orphanage. He changed his mind after a few hours, and that’s a good thing. Had it not been for the theatrical influence in her family, we may never have seen Kumari become the respected actress she is.
