Golden Era of Bollywood: Vyjayanthimala-The Most Loved Actress of the Golden Era of Hindi cinema

This South Indian beauty was much more than an actress. A Bharatanatyam Dancer, Carnatic singer, dance choreographer and parliamentarian, the actress is celebrating her 81st Birthday today.On this occasion we remember the dance and songs she performed in Bollywood Films,Whether it is Man dole mera tan dole (Nagin) or Chadh gayo paapi bichhua (Madhumati) or Buddha mil gaya (Sangam) or Hothon pe aisi baat (Jewel Thief), Vyjayanthimala performed some superhit song and dance numbers in Hindi films.Most of her Dances and songs were appreciated by the audiences and were crowd puller.

Nagin in 1954 made her super star,the song Man Dole Tan Dole was a craze that time,the film became the highest grocer of that year.She got her first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Role in the next year release Devdas as Chandramukhi. but she refused to take as she felt that she was the heroine.
In the 1958 film Sadhana Vyjayanthimala got her first Best Actress Award. B R Chopra cast her in the film when Nimmi hesitated to play a prostitute. Vyjayanthimala played the mercenary prostitute with a no-holds-barred derring do and yet managed to evoke tears with the soul-stirring Sahir Ludhianvi number, Aurat ne janam deeya mardon ko, mardon ne usse bazaar deeya.Same year Madhumati released,she was among the top heroines now.

At her peak, Vyjayanthimala took off to do a series of much appreciated dance shows in Paris in 1959 besides working for top heroes like Dev Anand in Amardeep in 1957,Jewel Thief (1967), Dilip Kumar in Paigham (1959)Ganga Jamuna(1963) and Raj Kapoor in Nazrana (1961).Sangam (1964).For her role Radha, who caught between her husband and her former lover, Vyjayanthimala was awarded with Filmfare Best Actress trophy. She then co-starred Dilip Kumar for the sixth time in Ram Mukherjee's Leader. The film was comeback film for Kumar whose last film was Gunga Jumna also with Vyjayanthimala.
Vyjayanthimala married Chamanlal Bali in 1968. After marriage, she gave up her acting career and moved to Chennai.However between 1968 and 1970, she shot for those films which she had signed before her marriage, like Pyar Hi Pyar, Prince, Ganwaar. They have a son, Suchindra Bali. In 2007, she published her autobiography, titled Bonding, with Jyoti Sabarwal as co-writer.