Meena Kumari (English: Meena Kumari, born-1 August 1932; died- 31 March 1972) was a famous actress of the film world. Her full name was ‘Mahjabeen Bano’. Meena Kumari has been very famous among the audience for her painful voice and emotional acting. Her ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’, ‘Pakeezah’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Bahu Begum’ and ‘Mere Apne’ are heart touching artistic films.
Meena Kumari was born on August 1, 1932 in Mumbai, Maharashtra in a middle class Muslim family. Her father’s name was Ali Baksh and mother’s name was Iqbal Begum (original name was Prabhavati). Meena Kumari’s original name was ‘Mahjabeen Bano’. When she was born, her father Ali Baksh and mother Iqbal Begum did not have money to pay the doctor. The situation was such that both of them decided to leave the child on the stairs outside an orphanage and they did. But, the father did not agree and he ran back and picked up the child in his arms and brought her home. Somehow, fighting the difficult circumstances, he raised her.[1] Meena’s father used to work in a Parsi theatre and her mother was a dancer. Due to the poor financial condition of the family, Meena Kumari had to leave school in her childhood. In the year 1939, she got a chance to work as a child artist in Vijay Bhatt’s film ‘Leatherface’.
Meena Kumari, who was searching for her identity, had to struggle in the film industry for almost ten years. Meanwhile, her films like ‘Veer Ghatotkach’ (1949) and ‘Shri Ganesh Mahima’ (1950) were released, but she did not get much recognition from them. In the year 1952, Meena Kumari got a chance to work in ‘Baiju Bawra’ under the direction of Vijay Bhatt. After the success of this film, Meena Kumari became successful in making her mark in the film industry as an actress.
On 24 May 1952, Meena Kumari married Kamal Amrohi. According to Vinod Mehta, who wrote Meena Kumari’s biography ‘Meena Kumari – A Classic Biography’, “Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi’s love began with sweet lime juice. When Kamal Amrohi reached Pune’s hospital to see Meena Kumari, her younger sister complained to him that Apa was not drinking juice. Kamal took the glass in his hands, lifted Meena’s head from the bed and took the glass to her mouth. Meena finished all the juice in one swig. Every week Kamal would drive from Sion to Pune to meet Meena. Then he started feeling that one day in a week was not enough. On the days they did not have to meet, they would write letters to each other… One letter every day. But no stamp was put on those letters. They would give those letters to each other with their own hands.”[2]
As an actress, Meena Kumari ruled the Indian film industry for 32 years. Meena Kumari, who was very emotional and always ready to help others, spent her life sharing happiness with others and bearing the sorrows of others. According to Kamal Amrohi’s son Tajdar Amrohi, “People never addressed Meena Kumari as a beautiful face, as Madhubala was called – ‘Venus of the Indian Screen’, people also called Nargis – ‘First Lady of Indian Screen’. Meena got the title of ‘Tragedy Queen’ and she made ‘tragedy’ her blanket and bed. People thought that whatever characters she was playing in films, she was playing the same role in real life too. The interesting thing was that along with the people, she herself also started thinking like this.
The audience got to see new dimensions of Meena Kumari’s acting in the film ‘Sharada’ released in 1957. In this film, Meena Kumari played the role of actor Raj Kapoor’s lover as well as his stepmother. Although in the same year all the awards were given to film actress Nargis for the film ‘Mother India’, but the ‘Bombay Journalist Association’ nominated Meena Kumari for the best actress of that year.
Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari may have been separated from each other as husband and wife, but as an actress she was always available to work in Kamal Amrohi’s films. This is the reason why despite being separated from Amrohi for 5 years, she decided to complete the shooting of his film ‘Pakeezah’. Just as Shah Jahan immortalized Mumtaz Mahal forever by building the Taj Mahal, Kamal Amrohi created the Taj Mahal for Meena Kumari by making ‘Pakeezah’ and immortalized her. Whenever the history of Indian films will be written, ‘Pakeezah’ will definitely be mentioned. Raj Kumar sahab, Ashok Kumar and Nadira also contributed to this film, but three names will always remain alive – Meena Kumari, Kamal Amrohi and Pakeezah. When ‘Pakeezah’ was released in 1972, the audience was mesmerized by Meena Kumari’s performance in the film and this film is still remembered for Meena Kumari’s lively performance.[2]
In Meena Kumari’s film career, her pairing with film actor Ashok Kumar was quite famous. Films starring Meena Kumari and Ashok Kumar include films like ‘Tamasha’, ‘Parineeta’, ‘Baadaban’, ‘Bandish’, ‘Bheegi Raat’, ‘Shatranj’, ‘Ek Hi Raasta’, ‘Savera’, ‘Farishta’, ‘Aarti’, ‘Chitralekha’, ‘Benazir’, ‘Bahu Begum’, ‘Jawab’ and ‘Pakeezah’. Known as the ‘Tragedy Queen’ in the English film world, Meena Kumari’s pairing with ‘Tragedy King’ Dilip Kumar was also quite popular. The pairing of Meena Kumari and Dilip Kumar worked together in films like ‘Footpath’, ‘Azad’, ‘Kohinoor’ and ‘Yehudi’.
To avoid monotony in acting and establish herself as a character actress, Meena Kumari presented herself in various roles. After this, Meena Kumari also ruled the hearts of the audience through many superhit films like ‘Jawab’ and ‘Dushman’ in character roles.
In her last days, Meena Kumari was admitted to ‘St. Elizabeth Nursing Home’. Her last words in room number 26 of the nursing home were – “Aapa, Aapa, I don’t want to die.” As soon as her elder sister Khurshid supported her, she went into a coma and never recovered from it. This great actress Meena Kumari, who ruled the hearts of the audience with her serious acting for almost three decades, died on March 31, 1972.
