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| image courtesy: google images |
Born to
Ali Baksh and Iqbal Begum, Mahjabeen
Bano (fondly known as Meena
Kumari), was dropped at a Muslim orphanage by her father, but was picked up a few hours later. Owing to the kind
of roles she played and given her real life experiences, she used to be called
as the ‘Tragedy Queen’ by the media.
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| image courtesy: google images |
For the film, ‘Leather Face’
(Farzande Watan), with Mehtab and Jairaj as the actress and actor, at Prakash
Studios, Meena Kumari was given the role of Jairaj’s daughter, when she
was very small of her age. She was neither scared nor excited by the surroundings
of a studio, which made Vijay Bhatt to cast her.
One of her best roles, in ‘Sahib Biwi Aur Gulam,’ produced by
Guru Dutt, she played the role of ‘choti bahu,’ an alcoholic wife. It is
believed that once during a scene where she was supposed to cry, she cried so hard
that it continued even when the shot was called over. No amount of consoling
helped to stop her from crying. She started to live the character, and put her
heart and soul into it.
Her longing ness for a soul mate,
so much so that she was even ready to destroy herself for that, a failed
marriage, pushed her towards alcohol. She became a heavy drinker, which led to
liver cirrhosis, and she died on 31st march 1972. She used to hide drinks in dettol
bottles. It was when her husband Kamal Amrohi, took some ‘dettol’ to apply on
his wound, he smelled whiskey and then he realized that Meena has been hiding
alcohols in dettol bottles.
It is said that her husband’s ill
treatment towards her further added to her agony. It was also rumored that Kamal Amrohi would not let Meena
Kumari to bear children with him But according to Tajdar Amrohi, Kamal
Amrohi’s son with his first wife, Kumari
had three miscarriages, of which two were abortions.
Sawan Kumar Tak (a film maker and
Meena Kumari’s ex-lover), revealed in an interview that once Kumari looked
closely into his eyes and said, “You are the first person in whom I have seen
God. You collect the blood that I vomit in your hands. Not once do you show
displeasure. Nobody has ever done this for me- neither my sisters, nor my
friends nor those who loved me. My bedsheet would get stained; I would change
it myself.”
Meena Kumari was very much
concerned about her image even when she was at the worst of her health.
According to Shammi ( Kumari’s friend and co-actor) in one of her interviews,
she said that Kumari didn’t want anyone to see her without make-up. She was given an injection and put off
to sleep. When she woke up, Shammi was surprised to see her with full make-up,
her hair well combed and ready to leave.
Meena Kumari started to actually
live the tragedy or grief stricken characters she played. Her sorrows and pain
used to come out in the form of poetries she used to write. She had an immense
interest in poetry. In a book named, ‘Meena Kumari’ by Vinod Mehta, in 1972, he
says, “my heroine (throughout the book, the
author calls her ‘my heroine’) was not an outstanding poet, nor a detached
poet, nor a penetrating poet, nor a classical poet. She was a learning poet who
translated her life into verse.”
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| Meena Kumari with the director Gyan Mukherji on the sets of the incomplete movie “Birhan” source: http://cinegems.in/meena-kumari-on-locations-off-screen-pics/ |
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| Meena Kumari and the Director Kamal Amrohi on the sets of “Pakeezah” (1972) during the picturisation of the song “Chalte Chalte..” source: http://cinegems.in/meena-kumari-on-locations-off-screen-pics/ |
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| Meena Kumari and Kishore Kumar on the sets of “Shararat” (1959) source: http://cinegems.in/meena-kumari-on-locations-off-screen-pics/ |
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