Remembering Meena Kumari on her death anniversary

Was Meena Kumari the greatest actress of Hindi cinema? Many think so. The reputation is founded on mainly on two films Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Pakeezah, and we could add one more Sharda to it.

Meena Kumari loved the scent of mogras. If you wanted her as a friend, you could try giving her mogra flowers. You would have seen her face light up with pleasure. She was not much into worldly things and gave away all her possessions to her relatives and died in the servant’s quarter of a mansion she gifted to her sister.

Though she played a dancer in her most celebrated film Pakeezah, she couldn’t dance to save her life. But she loved to sing and has recorded an entire album of her own poetry I Write I Recite composed by Khayyam .

In her films, she wanted only Lata Mangeshkar to sing for her. Lataji recalling her association with the legendary actress, once said, “I remember one day she called and introduced herself. She wanted me to come and sing in her house. I declined saying I don’t sing for private functions. She never held that incident against me. She often used to land up at the recording studio for my songs. One day, for a recording for Hemant Kumar, I had washed my hair and left it open. Meena Kumari, who was very proud of her hair, looked at my hair and exclaimed, ‘Kitne lambe baal hain aapke!’ I told her I had never cut my hair in my life. My voice used to match her to perfection. What an artiste and what a fine human being! During the making of Pakeezah (which went on for a good 20 years), Kamal Amrohi, who used to treat me like a daughter, invited me home for song rehearsals. Meena Kumari was practicing her steps for my songs in Pakeezah. Meena turned to me and said, “When you sing, I don’t have to make any effort to act.” I cherish that compliment. Sadhana had said something similar to me once. Meena Kumari often called to chat. She seemed very unhappy with her life. I met her at the Filmfare awards in 1968. She had became thin and pale. That year I had given up the awards, and she said, ‘It’s like the queen abdicating her throne.’ Later I came to know that she was extremely ill. When I reached her place with flowers, she looked very ill. She looked at me and said, ‘Allah, aap yahan aaye, main badi khush-kismat hoon.’ We chatted. She asked me for tea, though I sensed she was in no position to offer me anything except her warmth in that condition. She passed away a little later. And then Pakeezah became a legend. Meena Kumari was so ill she couldn’t dance for the film. But I cherish my songs for her in that film."

Not much of a dancer, Meena Kumari was too frail to even stand straight for the climactic song and dance in Pakeezah (Aaj hum apne duawon ka asar dekhenge). Kamal Amrohi had to get a body-double Padma Khanna to dance for Meena Kumari.

She had injured the little finger of her hand in a car accident early in her life. In all her films she kept the left hand with the injured finger covered with her saree or a dupatta.Directors would tell her to not hide the finger as it took nothing away from her beauty and screen presence. But she remained self-conscious about her injury till the end. She was rumoured to have shared intense romantic relationships with Gulzar and Dharmendra, though neither men has ever spoken about this association. But she agreed to do Gulzar’s Mere Apne for almost no fee. As for Dharmendra , proof of Meenaji’s extra-marital relationship lies in her ex-husband’s film Razia Sultan where he cast Dharmendra and then painted him black from head to toe on screen. It is said this was Amrohi’s revenge on the man who snatched his wife’s attention and affection. Meena Kumari supported the young struggling Dharmendra financially and emotionally. A formidable actress and a big box-office draw, she insisted that producers who wanted her for their films sign Dharmendra opposite her. Some of these films that she did only to boost Dharmendra’s career, like Chandan Ka Palna, Main Bhi Ladki Hoon, Baharon Ki Manzil and Purnima, were so awful that they brought her reputation down by many pegs.

Meena Kumari’s most celebrated film is Pakeezah. But her finest film and performance was in Guru Dutt’s Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. The legendary actress played the neglected alcoholic wife of a feudal family. The role was offered to famous photographer Jitendra Arya’s wife Chhaya Arya. Eventually she was rejected. Meena Kumari had missed the opportunity to play a Bengali woman in Devdas. She pined to play a Bengali housewife and had her heart set on the role of Choti Malkin in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. But Meenaji’s husband Kamal Amrohi asked for a price that Guru Dutt couldn’t afford. Meenaji personally intervened to sort out the matter.

Contrary to popular belief, Meena Kumari’s farewell film was not Pakeezah but Sawan Kumar Tak’s Gomti Ke Kinare where again she played a tawaif. She shot the film through her failing health as a favour to the debutant director. Ironically in this film, Meenaji sang Majrooh Sultanpuri’s immortal lyrics which reflected on her exploitation by those whom she trusted and loved: Aaj toh meri hansi udai jaise bhi chaha pukara kal jo mujhe inn galiyon mein laya who bhi ttha haath tumhara….

Meena Kumari was also in fine form in Baiju Bawra (1952). Achingly young and fragile, Meena Kumari as the Mughal musician Baiju’s adoring beloved Gauri was filled wih a youthful tenderness seldom seen in any of her heavy-lidded existentially burdened roles later. Though the focus was on her co-star Bharat Bhushan, Meena made a space for herself. This film made her a star.

In Parineeta (1953), the first of the many Hindi adaptations of Saratchandra’s timeless novel, Meena Kumari was cast as the girl next door in love with the zamindar’s son, Ashok Kumar. Ashok Kumar later declared he taught Meena Kumari many of the nuances of camera-centric exultation. Even if true, she outdid her formidable co-star by a wide margin. Sulakshana Pandit, Rekha and Vidya Balan later played the same role. Far less effectively.

Long before Pakeezah, Kamal Amorhi, Meena’s husband, carved an experimental drama Daaera about a young woman married to an old man. The film’s stark black-and-white cinematography captured the timeless actress in all her evocative splendour. Meena was seldom more tragic and doomed.

Sharda (1957) was a shocker and the most underrated film of the actress’ career. It was the only film to bring superstars Raj Kapoor and Meena Kumari together featuring her as his mother! That’s right, stepmother. To begin with the two are in love. But Meena ends up marrying Raj’s father. Their feelings for each other refuse to die. A brilliant ahead-of-its-time film directed by the formidable L V Prasad.

Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan (1961) is a timeless tear-jerker directed by Sadashiv J Row Kavi. The film is the quintessential Meena Kumari vehicle, featuring her as the all-sacrificing matriarch who brings up her husband’s orphaned nephew as her own child, only to get into a tug-of-war with the boy’s wife (Seema Deo) later in life. The image of Meena watering the Tulsi plant as Lata Mangeshkar sings Jyoti kalash chalke lingers.

In Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), words fail all analysis of Meena Kumari’s performance as the neglected alcoholic wife of a zamindar who forges a strange empathetic bond with her man-Friday Guru Dutt. Meena’s terrifying desolation and loneliness accentuated by Geeta Dutt’s Koi door se awaaz de chale aao reverberates across generations. No further proof of the actress’ claim to immortality is needed.

Aarti (1962) was a brilliant love triangle directed by Phani Mazumdar, featuring Meena as a woman trapped between two men Ashok Kumar and Pradeep Kumar. The tragic grandeur in the actress’ personality was never better contoured.

Phool Aur Patthar (1966) was another big success for Meena Kumari. There were many loud whispers about Meena Kumari’s relationship with Dharmendra. Phool Aur Patthar, a daring love story between a goonda and a widow was their biggest hit together. The chemistry between the couple specially when he stands above her bare-chested,was palpable.

In Mere Apne (1971), Gulzar’s first film as director, Meena Kumari played an ill-treated matriarch who brings together two street fighters, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha. Frail, ill and dying, the actress exuded a timeless tragedy.

She died prematurely at 39. But her legacy lives on.