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Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Bollywood Artist: Meena Kumari: Chaand Tanha Hai Aasmaan Tanha.....

1. Haan koi aur hoga toone jo dekha hoga,          Ham nahin aag se bach bachke guzarne wale 
2. Tukre Tukre Din beeta, dhajji dhajji raat mili jitna jiska aanchal tha, utni hi saugaat mili 
3. Hans hans ke jawan dil ke hum kyun na chune tukre, har shakhs ki kismat mein inaam nahin hota 
4. Chaand tanha hai aasmaan tanha, Dil mila hai kahan kahan tanha Raah dekha karega sadiyon tak Chodd jayenge ye jahan tanha 

This is what you can call as Meena Kumari alias Mahzabeen. She was an actress by profession but a poetess by heart. Started her career on stage and later in movies at an age of 6 years, when her age children started going to school. She used to repent on this till her last days for not able to attend schools/education and pushed to theater and movies at such a young age by her parents. Her parents name was Alibaksh and Iqbal Bano. 

Iqbal Bano (whose real name was Prabhawati) infact belonged to the family of Ravindra Nath Tagore. Prabhawati’s mother had got married in this family, but later due the to death of her husband, she had to leave that house. Meena Kumari’s parents were financially quite weak and hence the circumstances forced them to force Meena Kumari to get into movies at the age of six. 

Meena Kumari was born on 1st August 1933 and was named as Mahzabeen (as her forehead was resembling moon, Mahzabeen means a piece of moon “Chand ka tukra”).. She was the third girl child in the family after Khursheed and Madhuri and her parents were expecting a boy.   Her father was already connected to the Bombay Film world as a small time harmonium player, and a lyricist. He used to work as an extra in movies too as and when he used to get a chance. Meena Kumari’s mother was associated with stage.

Childhood Film Journey Her first movie was “Karjande Watan” by Digvijay Bhatt. She appeared in this movie as a child artist “Baby Meena Kumari”. And then there was no end for her for getting film after film and award after award. She performed perfectly in all roles assigned to her. And got many awards. Her first movie that made strong impression was “Baiju Bawra” with Bharat Bhushan. 

This movie was released in 1952 and it continuously ran in the theatres for 100 weeks. In 1953 she bagged the award of “Best Actress” and her prize at that increased 7 times of her charges from around 14000 to one lac. Her other famous movies are “Dayra, Parineeta, Sharda, Ek hi Raasta, Aarti, Dil Apna Au Preet Parai, Azaad, Kohenoor, Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam, Choti Bahu, Main Chup Rahoongi, Dil Ek Mandir, Kajal, Phool Aur Pathar, Phutpaath and Pakeeza. She really acted very well in these movies and bagged awards one after the other. At one time she got famous as the “tragedy Queen”. 

She married to a man Kamal Amarohi who was more than double of her age. She did this against the approval of her family. She got fascinated by Kamal Amarohi during their meetings in a hospital where she was admitted for some treatment at the age of 20. They stayed together for 13 long years before this marriage broke off as Kamal was probably getting jealous because of the immense progress of Meena Kumari in her career. Meena Kumari had a special place in her life for Dharmendra, Pradeep Kumar and Bharat Bhushan (Actors) and a Press Reporter Narender Rajguru. Pakeeza was started by Kamal Amarohi in 1958 and stopped many times in between before it got completed. 

Meena Kumari did not let her relationship effect this movie. Even after separation from Kamal Amarohi she agreed to complete this movie for him as she never wanted wrong for anybody in her life. In her last days when Pakeeza was near to completion Meena Kumari had become so weak and ill that she could not dance in the song “Thade Rahio, O Banke Yaar Re” and in place of her a side heroine was taken to complete this song. With the help of close ups of Meena Kumari and the dance done by that side heroine this movie was completed. On 4th February 1972 this movie was released and at the same time Meena Kumari decided to say Good Bye to this world. 

She died on 31st March 1972. Pakeeza became a super hit afterwards but then there was no Meena Kumari to get the awards. She had a great art of writing. In her will she desired that after her death all her writings be gone to Gulzar and he get them published in the form of a book. Gulzar gave a great tribute to this great writer, human being and actress by getting that job done perfectly in her memories. Meena Kumari died of Lever Psoriasis as she used to take lot of alcohol, Paan and Spicy food. At one place she wrote that the first and lat place from where she got love in her life is her mother. Elsewhere she could never find the love she wanted in her life.

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