The Most Exploited & Unlucky Woman-Meena Kumari

 

Veteran journalist Vinod Mehta wrote the biography of Meena Kumari in 1972. In this book, he wrote about the exploitation of Meena Kumari whoever came close to her. She was first exploited by her family. She started out as Baby Meena, a child artist and a breadwinner of the family. As a child, she wasn't interested in a film career, and would rather attend school. In spite of this, her parents started peddling four-year-old Mahjabeen(Real Name of Meena Kumari) to film studios for work opportunities so she was deprived of her childhood.

One of the major blows in Meena Kumari's life was the death of her mother. She was only 14 then. In the film Industry also she struggled initially, though she was getting work but paid poorly.It was only after Baiju Bawra in 1952 she got recognition.
On May 21, 1951, Meena Kumari was involved in a motor car accident while returning from Mahabaleshwar to Bombay. She was admitted to Sasoon Hospital in Poona, injured around the left hand. Kumari went through bouts of depression.This accident left Meena Kumari with a banded left pinky which remained banded throughout her life, and she used to cover her left hand with a dupatta or saree during shoots. During this time Kamal Amrohi used to visit her in the hospital. For four months this hospital affair continued and love blossomed.

She married at the age of 18 Kamal Amrohi at that time he was 34. It was his third marriage. After their marriage, Kamal Amrohi allowed Meena Kumari to continue her acting career, but on the condition that she should not remit anyone in her makeup room but her makeup artist and return home in her own car by 6:30 every evening. Meena Kumari agreed to all terms, but with passing time she kept breaking them.
Meena Kumari was a patient with chronic insomnia and was on sleeping pills for a long time.As an alternative to sleeping pills, she started drinking. She was interested in Urdu poetry, this brought her close to another poet Gulzar. Once she was slapped on the set of  Pinjre ke Panchhi,by Kamal Amrohi's assistant, Baqar when she allowed Gulzar to enter her makeup room. After this incident in 1964, they divorced.

Dharmendra was the next person in her life. He signed Purnima as her Hero, he was a fan of Meena kumari,it was his dream to act opposite Meenaji. When he was introduced to her, she was warm and friendly and welcomed him with kind encouragement. Coincidentally, at this particular moment of her life, Meena Kumari required a stable and devoted man: big and strong, someone on whom she could literally rest her head, and someone who was not too famous. 

Dharmendra was almost a daily visitor at Janki Kutir. Together they would open a bottle and spend a few hours. These were the good times. Meena Kumari insisted her Producers to take Dharmendra as his Hero, both of them worked in 7 films. Dharmendra established himself as a hero because of Meena Kumari. However, a much younger and already married Dharmendra had nothing to offer in terms of the love and security Meena was searching for. They were intimate for three years.
Meena Kumari had a strong love for children, she wanted her own child here too she was deprived by her husband Kamal Amrohi.

She died on 31st March 1972, On a Good Friday, Meena Kumari died, after a long and painful battle with cirrhosis of the liver. She had been admitted to St Elizabeth’s Nursing Home in Bombay on 28th March and died three days later surrounded by the people who had played an important part in her life, both personal and professional. Her sisters Khursheed and Madhu; her estranged husband Kamal Amrohi; and various luminaries of the film world, including Begum Para and Kammo, from whose house the Aab-e-Zamzam (holy water from Mecca) was fetched to be spooned into Meena Kumari’s mouth as she was dying.

Song from Baiju Bawra 1952

Song of Tamasha 1952

Song from Azaad 1955

Song from Yahudi 1958

Song from Dil Apna Preet Parai, 1960

do sitaron ka milan hai aaj ki raat from kohinoor

Song from Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan 1961

Song of Aarti (1962)

Song of  Dil Ek Mandir (1963)

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50 Years of Pakeezah

 

Pakeezah took 16 years to reach the celluloid. The film started on July 16, 1956, and was released on February 4, 1972. It was a dream project of Kamal Amrohi, he wanted his wife Meena Kumari to be Sahibjaan of Pakeezah. The mujra 'Inhin logon ne' was shot on July 16, 1956, interestingly at that time the script was not ready, nor the star cast was decided, even the hero was not decided, the next several years went in scouting for locations, deciding on a leading man, writing and rewriting various bits of the film.

Meena Kumari gave her best performance in this film despite her worsening health condition. She attended the premiere of the film at Maratha Mandir. The film was received lukewarm at the Box Office but when the news of Meena Kumari admitting to the hospital spread, it gained momentum.it was Meena Kumari's untimely death on 31 March 1972 which acted as an ultimate push and made it one of the top grosser of that year. Pakeezah was house-full for 33 weeks and even celebrated its silver jubilee in many cinema halls all over the country.

This movie is one among the very few Indian movies, that would never fade away with the passage of time, nor would its spellbinding appeal ever diminish, even as the Indian cinema transforms into the abyss of artificially styled pop culture

The story is About Sahibjaan Who Was Brought Up By Brothel Madame Nawabjaan.... She Grows Up & Becomes Popular Dancer/Singer... Forest Ranger Salim is Enthralled By Her Beauty & Innocence, Convinces Her To Elope With Him But Trials And Tribulations Await As She is Recognized By Men Wherever She Goes With Salim... When He Renames Her Pakeezah (Pure) Takes Her To A Priest To Be Legally Married, She Refuses, Returns To The Brothel..The Story Moves Further...

 The music of the film was recorded by the end of 1959. It was composed by Gulam Muhammad. Kamal Amrohi wanted this film to be a musical so 15 songs were recorded earlier.The shooting of the film was halted in 1964 due to mutual differences between lead heroine Meena Kumari and her director-husband Amrohi. In 1968, the composer of the film passed away. So, when the film was revived in 1969, Naushad was roped in to complete the background music for the film. Many exhibitors suggested Kamal Amrohi change the music according to the then-popular trend and style. To this Amrohi said that he would have readily done this if only Ghulam Mohammed was still alive but now he cannot betray a man, who gave him such melodious songs, after his death. So he kept his music intact but used fewer songs as planned to keep up with the fast-changing trend.

The music and dancing are of the highest possible quality. You may notice in the first dance scene the director has all sorts of things occurring in the background: another girl dancing, a drunk falling downstairs.

Songs of Pakeezah 1972

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Pakeezah was Meena Kumari's Swan Song

 

Pakeezah took 16 years to reach the celluloid. The film started on July 16, 1956, and released on February 4, 1972. It was a dream project of Kamal Amrohi, he wanted his wife Meena Kumari to be Sahibjaan of Pakeezah.

Pakeezah was conceptualised in 1954 as a Black & White venture. The mujra 'Inhin logon ne' was shot on July 16, 1956 , interestingly at that time the script was not ready, nor the star cast was decided, even the hero was not decided,the next several years went in scouting for locations, deciding on a leading man, writing and rewriting various bits of the film. 

By 1964, the film had still not been completed, while Meena Kumari had become a superstar, with films like Kohinoor (1960), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) and many others. That was also the year she and Kamal Amrohi separated, causing another blow to their already much-delayed dream production.

In the meantime, Meena Kumari got addicted to alcohol and her health got affected. She was not talking to Kamal Amrohi after her separation but she agreed to restart the shooting of this film after a gap of 5 years. It is said that Nargis and Sunil Dutt persuaded her to complete the film.

Kamal Amrohi, who was a poet also wrote 'Sochta hoon ek shahkaar banaoon/Ek insaan ko izraar banaoon', he initially naming it 'Daaman-e-Paak' (Pure entity), when Kamal Amrohi consulted a nujoomi (astrologer) at Unnao in UP, he suggested to give a name beginning with the PE letter of Urdu alphabet.

Pakeezah’s shooting commenced again in 1969. The first shot showed Meena Kumari in a shirt and a lungi walking along with a tent singing “Mausam Hai Ashiqana”. The shooting of the film kept getting delayed due to Meena Kumari’s painful illness. Her liver had bloated; she was unable to dance and found it difficult to even walk a few steps.

For the last song in the film –“Teer E Nazar Dekhenge”, Padma Khanna was appointed to act as her duplicate. Meena Kumari was not well those days but she wanted to complete the film. Padma Khanna in an interview that the fastidious Meena Kumari was fabulous in her attention to detail and that Meena Kumari had amazing directorial acumen. Meena Kumari had the final word on the sets even though the film was helmed by Kamal Amrohi. 

Meena Kumari gave her best performance in this film despite her worsening health condition. She attended the premiere of the film at Maratha Mandir. The film was received lukewarm at the Box Office but when the news of Meena Kumari admitting in the hospital spread, it gained momentum.

 it was Meena Kumari's untimely death on 31 March 1972 which acted as an ultimate push and made it one of the top grosser of that year. Pakeezah was house-full for 33 weeks and even celebrated its silver jubilee in many cinema halls all over the country.

Song of Pakeezah 1972

Meena Kumari- The Chhoti Bahu of 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam'

The character of Chhoti Bahu in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam is a lonely suffering wife, who took to alcohol to please her philandering husband. This role was played by Meena Kumari and is considered one of the most brilliant portrayals in Hindi cinema by any actress.
The film was based on the 1953 Bengali novel, Saheb Bibi Golam by Bimal Mitra. Guru Dutt was very sure that Meena Kumari is the only actress of that time who could do justice to that role, So he approached her to do this role. Meena Kumari was very busy and had no dates for Guru Dutt that was in 1958.
Waheeda Rehman wanted to play the role of Chhoti Bahu. She even did a screen test, but the photographer V.K. Murthy realized that she was too young for the mature role. So the role of Jaba was given to her.
Guru Dutt then tried an Indian girl living and acting in London but "she was entirely unsuitable". Desperate, he completed the entire film by 1961 except for the role of Chhoti Bahu. 
Before selecting another heroine, he once again contacted Meena Kumari he went to her home and offered the role again. By now, the rift in her relationship with Amrohi had widened and she was taking on more films. When Guru Dutt arrived at her home, he found she was away shooting and left the script with her sister, Khursheed Bano. When Meena Kumari returned, she was shocked to find the script of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. She started reading it immediately and called Dutt at 2 a.m. to tell him that she would play the role of Chhoti Bahu.
Meena Kumari had one request for the legendary filmmaker. She asked for the film to be shot in a linear way, as the story progresses so that she could map the changes in her character. This was the first time both of them had shot a film in this way, from start to finish, exactly in keeping with the timeline of the script.
The film was shot at Dhankuria Mansion near Calcutta, but Meena Kumari didn't come to the haveli, its interiors were recreated on a set in Bombay. She gave consecutive forty five days for the shooting of this film.
 As the film progressed, she devoted herself to this character. Vinod Mehta who wrote the Biography of Meena Kumari quotes a passage from her diary where she writes, "This woman is troubling me a great deal. All-day long-and a good part of the night-it is nothing else but Chhoti Bahu's helplessness. Chhoti Bahu's sorrows, Chhoti Bahu's smiles, Chhoti Bahu's hopes, Chhoti Bahu's Tribulations, Chhoti Bahu's endurance, Chhoti Bah's ... Chhoti Bahu's... Chhoti Bahu... Oh! I am sick of it."
The character of Chhoti Bahu was seen as a gamble for Meena Kumari given that the traditional representation of an Indian woman up until that point was of a virginal woman. A woman who could drink herself to self-destruction? 
She won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for this role. In fact, she was nominated for all the three nominations for this category No one before and after this got all the nomination for a particular category. 

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Meena Kumari

                                                     Chhoti Bahu of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam

Song of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962

Song of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962

Scene of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962

Scene of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962

Story Behind the Song "Chalo Dildar Chalo"

This immortal song from Pakeezah(1972) was originally a solo sung by Lata Mangeshkar, intended for use as a dancing number, the fascinating solo version was cut from both the film and record released, later a romantic version, a duet was recorded. You may have noticed it or not, Rafi sab has sung but just a single line in it which is the Mukhda. Amazing how a single line sung by Rafi sab had made it an immortal Rafi song.
This was the only song in this film having a male voice. All the other songs were female solo. The music of this film was given by Ghulam Mohammad. He composed a total of 15 songs for the film out of which only six were used. The remaining songs were released in 1977 in an album called "Pakeezah Rang Barang". This album was released exclusively by Saregama in 1977.
This film took 16 years to complete. The mahurat of the film happened on July 16, 1956, and the film got released in Feb 1972. The music of the film was recorded by the end of 1959. Kamal Amrohi wanted this film to be a musical so 15 songs were recorded earlier.
The shooting of the film was halted in 1964 due to mutual differences between lead heroine Meena Kumari and her director-husband Amrohi. In 1968, the composer of the film passed away. So, when the film was revived in 1969, Naushad was roped in to complete the background music for the film. Many exhibitors suggested Kamal Amrohi change the music according to the then-popular trend and style. To this Amrohi said that he would have readily done this if only Ghulam Mohammed was still alive but now he cannot betray a man, who gave him such melodious songs, after his death. So he kept his music intact but used fewer songs as planned to keep up with the fast-changing trend.
In 1969 the shooting of the film resumed after a gap of five years. By this time Meena Kumari's health got deteriorated. She was suffering from Liver Cirrhosis. Few songs were yet to be picturized. Her condition became so bad that during the filming of the grueling emotional Mujraa “Teer-e Nazar,” Meena Kumari collapsed.  Keeping in mind her medical condition, a body double was brought. Actress Padma Khanna played her body double in this song as she was an adept Kathak dancer which was an urgent requirement of the song. Meena Kumari personally trained her for the scene, and the song was filmed with the majority of the dancing done under a veil in order to hide her face. 
Similarly in this song too Padma Khanna acted as Meena Kumari. Her face was actually never shown in the song.

Song of Pakeezah 1972

                    Chalo Dildar Chalo - Lata Solo version not in the film

The Great Nurses of Bollywood

12 th May was the International Nurse Day, this inspired me to look into the role of Nurse played by various heroines of Bollywood. In the silent era heroines like Ruby Myers played the part of a Nurse. During. the Golden Era Meena Kumari played the role of a nurse in Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi in 1960. It was one of the noted acting performances of lead actress Meena Kumari's career.

Other notable Nurses of Bollywood were Sadhna in Prem Patra (1962), Nutan in Bandini (1963), Waheeda Rehman in Khamoshi (1970), Lalita Pawar in Anand !971, and Aishwarya Rai in Guzaarish 2010. 

 Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi  Writer-director Kishore Sahu’s 1960 superhit Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai, is a doctor-nurse romance  Kauna (Meena Kumari) joins Malhotra Hospital that opens on a waterfront as a nurse, where Sushil (Raj Kumar) is the resident surgeon. Cupid strikes at the very first meeting in the operation theatre. After a song on the beach with other nurses, Karuna runs into an injured young girl and reaches her home, realizing she is the surgeon’s sister. On learning her story, the mother invites her to visit the household. Her proximity at home and at the hospital adds fuel to fire,  On the other front, her dedication to her duty and care towards patients in the ward, especially Girdhari (Om Prakash), and another wayward patient, Nathu, makes her win everyone’s heart. Meena Kumari was nominated for the Best Heroine Award for this role. 

Prem Patra  Produced and directed by Bimal Roy. It stars Shashi Kapoor and Sadhana.

While studying in medical college Arun Kumar Mathur (Shashi Kapoor) has a misunderstanding over a love letter with Kavita Kapoor (Sadhana). Arun's marriage is arranged with Saroj Chowdhary (Seema Deo), who also happens to be a distant relative of Kavita.

 Arun loses his vision in an accident, Saroj is unable to go to take care of him, and Kavita takes her place. Unwilling to reveal her identity, Kavita lets him think it is Saroj. Sadhana plays the role of a nurse quite efficiently

Bandini 1963  The film was directed and produced by Bimal Roy, Bandini stars Nutan giving one of the finest performances of her career, along with Ashok Kumar and Dharmendra as leads, and explores the human conflicts of love and hate intertwined in the mind of Kalyani (Nutan).

The film is set in Bengal in the 1930s, during the British Raj, where Kalyani (Nutan) is the daughter of the postmaster (Raja Paranjpe) of the village, who falls in love with a freedom fighter, Bikash (Ashok Kumar), who later leaves her in the village promising to come back but never does. Society treats them harshly. Broken by her father's misery and that of her own, Kalyani moves to the city, to the singing of the sad song "O Jaanewale Ho Sake To Laut Ke Aana". In the city, she works as a caretaker of an obnoxious and mentally unstable woman, who turns out to be the wife of Bikash. Kalyani learns that her father came to the city looking for her and died in an accident. That prompts her to poison her lover's wife, identifying her as the cause of her miseries in a moment of insane rage. Nutan recieved the Best Actress Award for her role.

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Khamoshi 1970 film directed by Asit Sen, starring Waheeda Rehman and Rajesh Khanna.The film is considered Waheeda Rehman's finest acting feat, as she carries the entire film through her powerful yet understated acting; she received a Filmfare nomination for it. 

Colonel Sahab (Nazir Hussain), a world war II veteran doctor, is head of psychiatry ward. Nurse Radha (Waheeda Rehman) in the same ward is a heart-broken after a civilian patient, Dev Kumar (Dharmendra), whom she cured by pouring out her love and affection, left the hospital. But she had been unable to keep her heart separate from her professional work and had fallen in love with that patient. Now Arun Choudury (Rajesh Khanna), a writer and poet enters as a patient, suffering acute mania after being rejected by his lover, Sulekha, a singer. After refusing to take his care, Radha relents and starts nursing him. In between while caring for Arun, she reminisces about her past and tells a story of how she took care of injured brave army soldiers when she was posted in Ladakh during the Sino-Indian war of 1962.

Guzaarish is a 2010 Indian romantic drama film written, composed and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The film stars Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai in lead roles The film narrates the story of a paralyzed magician-turned-Radio jockey who files a petition in court seeking permission to end his life.

Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan) is a former magician who is a quadriplegic. He becomes the Radio Jockey of an FM Station called Radio Zindagi. His show spreads magic, hope, and laughter through his irrepressible wit and humor to every listener and caller, making it difficult to imagine that this is a man who has been immobilized with a spinal injury for the last fourteen years. Sofia D'Souza (Aishwarya Rai) is his nurse who has been accompanying him for the past twelve years.

Aishwarya Rai was nominated as the Best Actress for this film.