Filmfare’s Editor-in-Chief Jitesh Pillaai takes a more in-depth have a look at the lives behind the legends of Madhubala and Meena Kumari, tracing the placing parallels between two of Indian cinema’s most enduring icons.
From childhood stardom and household pressures to like, heartbreak, exploitation and sickness, Jitesh Pillaai revisits the ladies past the glamour and the mythology, and asks what might need been totally different with just a little extra empathy and understanding.
In his phrases:
The most important star on the planet doesn’t reside in Beverly Hills, claimed one Hollywood journal about Madhubala. Meena Kumari, in the meantime, was celebrated as the largest Filmfare Award winner of her time. Why did two of the best actors ever to grace the Indian display must endure heartbreak, monetary losses and disrespect? What makes ladies give up to patriarchy? Can love actually make you so defenceless? Why did two of cinema’s largest feminine icons succumb to gaslighting and aggression?
They got here with remarkably comparable destinies. Born across the identical time, in 1933, Mumtaz Jehan (Madhubala) and Mehjabeen (Meena Kumari) went on to rule the display for over 20 years. Their trajectories and heartbreaks are uncanny.
Madhubala and Meena Kumari, each baby stars, have been dominated by wilful fathers, changing into the meal tickets for his or her households. Each fell for males who adopted an analogous sample, maybe on the lookout for robust father figures, and each have been in the end felled by sickness at across the identical age.
Meena Kumari was months in need of her thirty ninth birthday when she died in 1972. Madhubala was 36 when she died in 1969. Baby stars, as we now have seen within the instances of Meena Kumari and Madhubala, have been usually ruled by self-serving mother and father.
We see comparable patterns within the lives of Daisy Irani, Sarika, Neetu Singh and even Rekha. Poverty is commonly an underlying fault line, coupled with a lack of expertise and care from main caregivers.
Kids who develop up too quickly in an environment of deprivation and lovelessness create a parallel universe for themselves. They’re uncovered to grownup behaviour and compelled into precocious flights of fancy. The end result generally is a fragile sense of self, despair and, typically, harmful behaviour.
Let me hazard a guess. After years of abuse as a baby star after which as an grownup, Meena Kumari most likely seemed for a father determine. The Urdu-speaking dialogue author and director of Mahal, Kamaal Amrohi, made a deep impression on the 19-year-old. By 20, she had married him clandestinely. At that age, she was already just about worn out by a stubborn business.
Madhubala, dominated by an autocratic father from childhood, was chafing on the corners when she fell hook, line and sinker for her Tarana co-star, the ten-years-older Dilip Kumar. Each ladies, looking for refuge from autocratic fathers and what one can solely hazard was a dysfunctional household ambiance, seemed for a launch.
Amrohi, who fancied himself as a person of letters, had made Mahal and Daera earlier than embarking on his magnum opus, Pakeezah. Meena Kumari, misplaced in a world of photographs, self-pity and heady success, most likely realised that she had as soon as once more change into the proverbial golden goose, this time for her husband and his secretary, Baqar.
Extreme restrictions have been imposed on her: she couldn’t journey in her personal automotive, have guests in her make-up room or return dwelling after 6 pm. The free-spirited Meena Kumari inevitably rebelled. The egoistic Amrohi has, on many events, expressed disdain for Meena’s literary makes an attempt and derided her life after their separation, but he made certain she accomplished his magnum opus, Pakeezah.
Ditto for Madhubala. Regardless of being the Venus of the Indian display, an autocratic father insisted that she return dwelling by 6 pm. There have been to be no night time shoots, no out of doors schedules and no guests on the units. Whereas she went together with Ataullah Khan’s well-engineered plans, love hit arduous within the type of Dilip Kumar. And so started the inevitable tussle between parental opposition and love.
Whereas Meena struggled below a tyrannical husband who loathed the Bimal Roys and Guru Dutts of the world, Madhubala needed to work in substandard movies to maintain the wolf from the door. Other than Mr and Mrs 55, Barsaat Ki Raat, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Phagun, there was little of notice throughout this section.
Meena most likely realised that her marriage to Amrohi was a mistake and that her illusions of affection had been shattered inside a yr or two. She however remained within the marriage for 11 years earlier than strolling out for good, not earlier than going to the police and complaining that she had cause to imagine her life was below menace.
Regardless of the Kamaal Amrohi connection, Madhubala and Meena Kumari remained cordial in direction of one another. Madhubala known as Meena after seeing her double position in Sharada. And when a critically ailing Meena Kumari heard that Madhubala was dying, she left her sickbed to go to her.
Madhubala was in no higher place when the chilly struggle between her beau, Dilip Kumar, and her father escalated right into a full-blown affair, culminating within the Naya Daur courtroom case. It grew to become a public humiliation, and the lovers parted methods perpetually.
Pakeezah got here unstuck, as did Mughal-e-Azam. The fates of each movies hung within the stability. Pakeezah was stalled for years due to the husband-wife separation, whereas Mughal-e-Azam was delayed by the lovers’ tiff, amongst different mounting bills.
Meena Kumari ultimately walked out of Amrohi’s Rembrandt Home and sought refuge in alcohol and a string of relationships, together with these with Dharmendra and Sawan Kumar Tak, in addition to an unknown Rahul. Madhubala swiftly married the ill-matched genius Kishore Kumar. Each choices proved pricey.
Kishore Kumar took Madhubala overseas to discover whether or not coronary heart surgical procedure was potential, however they returned after it was dominated out. He ultimately left her at her father’s dwelling. He went on to marry a number of extra instances.
Nonetheless in full bloom, Madhubala was bedridden for 9 years after Mughal-e-Azam. Dilip Kumar discovered marital happiness with the 20-years-younger Saira Banu.
After a short lived truce, Pakeezah resumed manufacturing, taking an enormous toll on Meena Kumari’s well being. Equally, Mughal-e-Azam took a heavy toll on Madhubala’s already fragile coronary heart. Madhubala, as was her wont, by no means made it to the premiere, which was a serious public occasion. Meena Kumari made it to her huge night time and died two weeks later.
Meena Kumari made 55 movies whereas married to Amrohi, incomes round Rs 2 lakh per movie, but she was reportedly given a meagre month-to-month stipend. When she rebelled, it was met with bodily abuse, a truth testified to by colleagues together with Nargis and Pradeep Kumar. Misplaced in a blur of alcohol and hangers-on, she died with nobody to clear her hospital invoice of Rs 3,500 on the Elizabeth Hospital.
Years later, Kamaal Amrohi Studios, in line with a newspaper report, was offered for round Rs 210 crore. The cash was shared equally by her step-siblings. The irony is tough to overlook.
Madhubala died in equally straitened circumstances. Her father had invested in a number of movie productions that failed. Imprecise rumours circulated that individuals had seen her taking a taxi and the once-haughty Ataullah Khan ready in a bus queue. There was additionally speak of bodily abuse by the hands of her lover, husband and father.
Bear in mind, these have been highly effective ladies who have been feted by presidents and prime ministers. A besotted Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was reportedly an everyday customer to the Mughal-e-Azam units.
Meena Kumari was felled by cirrhosis of the liver. Madhubala succumbed to a weak coronary heart. Did patriarchy and an insular mindset hasten their decline?
As photographs of Mohe panghat and Thade rahiyo proceed to brighten these queens in our reminiscences, we can not assist however surprise, regretfully, what just a little empathy, understanding and concern from the lads who formed their lives might need modified.
As I write this, two commissioned sequence on Madhubala and Meena Kumari have gotten off the bottom. Will we get an edgy biopic warts and all, or will it’s but once more the identical fuzzy, time-worn clichés concerning the Venus of India and “Chhoti amma” being trotted out? Your guess is pretty much as good as mine.
