Helen (English: Helen) (born October 21, 1939, Myanmar) is an actress of the 70s and 80s in the Hindi film industry, who created her own unique identity among the cinema audience with her dance, for which even today people do not forget her. Have found.
Helen’s real name is Helen Richardson Khan. Helen was born on 21 October 1939 in Burma (present-day Myanmar). After World War II, Helen and her family came to Mumbai. Helen’s father was Anglo-Indian, his father died in the Second World War and Helen’s mother’s name was Burmese and she worked as a nurse. Due to poor financial condition of the family, Helen left school and started helping in the family work. She also received education in classical dances like Manipuri, Bharatnatyam, Kathak etc.[1]
Helen was first seen as a chorus dancer in the films “Shabistaan” and “Awara” in 1951. Actress Helen, known as Bollywood’s first item girl, introduced item numbers to Bollywood when it was in its initial phase. The credit for bringing her into films goes to Kukku, who herself was seen as a dancer in films in those days. The film ‘Howrah Bridge’, released in the year 1958, proved to be an important film in Helen’s career. The song ‘Mera Naam Chin-Chin Chu’ filmed on him in this film became very famous among the audience in those days.
In the sixties, Helen started struggling to make her mark as an actress. During this time, she got a chance to work with actor Sanjeev Kumar in the film ‘Nishan’, but unfortunately this film could not run in the theatres. In the sixties and seventies, Asha Bhosle was considered the voice of the famous dancer actress Helen in Hindi films. Asha Bhosle sang the songs ‘O Haseena Zulfon Wali’ for Helen in ‘O Haseena Zulfon Wali’ in the film Caravan, ‘Aao Na Gale Laga Lo Na’ in Mere Jeevan Saathi and ‘Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Deewana’ in Don. .
Helen acted in approximately 500 films in her five decade long film career. Even after so many years, his style of dance is not forgotten. R in the film ‘Sholay’ released in 1975. The song ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ filmed on Helen under the music direction of D. Burman still forces cinema lovers to dance. However, in the seventies, due to heroines playing villainous roles and dancing, Helen’s work in films reduced to a great extent.
In the year 1976, Helen was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for her powerful performance in the film ‘Lahu Ke Do Rang’ directed by Mahesh Bhatt. Impressed by ‘Helen’s dancing style’, Bollywood’s famous actress Sadhna once said, “A dancer like Helen has neither been born before nor will be born later.”