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it’s friday! film
Meena Kumari and Raj
Kumar in a scene from
Dil Apna Aur Preet
Parayee (1960)
A tragedy in
life & death
T
HE CHARACTER of the
Joker in the recent Batman
movie, The Dark Knight, is
an example of pure evil
genius. Heath Ledger, in his
swansong, is being billed
for an Academy Award. A less-spo-
ken about and unsettling aspect of
the film is how completely, perhaps
with the help of prescription drugs,
Ledger had to ‘become’ his role, in
order to essay it the way he did. Yet,
Ledger would be only one example
from the world of cinema, where life
imitates art. A homegrown exam-
ple is Meena Kumari.
Born in Mumbai to Parsi-theatre-actor
parents, Ali Baksh and Prabhwati Devi,
who considered abandoning her at an
orphanage, Mahjabeen Bano started life
early. Rechristened Baby Meena for the
screen, Meena Kumari became the sole
breadwinner of her family at age seven – an
unenviable position to be in given that all
she really wanted to do was, study. She
Bollywood’s flag-waving patriot
Manoj Kumar earned the epithet ‘Bharat’
Remembering Meena
Kumari, tragedienne
of Hindi cinema, on
the eve of a tribute
to her poetry
by Karanjeet Kaur
debuted with Farzand-e-Watan or Leather-
face in 1939, slowly graduating to unnoticed
mythologicals such as Veer Ghatotkach and
Shri Ganesh Mahima.
It was her much appreciated role in the
1952 film Baiju Bawra that became her
breakthrough. Co-starring Bharat
Bhushan, with lilting music by Naushad,
the film became a landmark that not only
earned her the first Filmfare Award for best
actress, but would also set the tone of the
roles she would later come to embody. The
image of a silent sufferer was cultivated and
concretised in films such as Parineeta, Ek
Hi Raasta and Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi.
But the tragedienne delivered the piece-de-
resistance nowhere as successfully as in the
Guru Dutt classic, Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam.
Actor Shabana Azmi, herself placed in the
same league as Meena Kumari, wonders at
how, “without dropping her dupatta, or
showing her cleavage”, or doing any of the
things considered kosher in cinema today,
Meena Kumari was able to bring sensuality
into her role as the Chhoti Bahu. Azmi
recalls an instance when as a young child,
Reclining posture, shawl thrown care-
lessly over his back, face hidden by his
hand – the description instantaneously
conjures up the image of actor-direc-
tor Manoj Kumar. Or Mr Bharat. The
two were indistinguishable. Just in
case the memory is slipping by, refresh
it at a retrospective of Manoj Kumar
films at the India Habitat Centre,
where you’ll get to see some of his
best-known films, such as Upkaar, Roti
Kapda Aur Makaan and Kranti.
Born Harikishan Giri Goswami in Abbot-
tabad, now in Pakistan, Kumar, now 71,
studied at Hindu College, University of
Delhi. His decision to enter films, as well
as his choice of screen name, was trigg-
ered by his admiration for the reigning
superstar Dilip Kumar’s role as Manoj
Kumar in the film Shabnam. He may have
gone completely unnoticed on his debut
in Fashion in 1957, but it set the stage for
the Vijay Bhatt-directed blockbuster,
she visited the ailing actress, who happened
to be their neighbour. Completely enam-
oured of her, Azmi found herself telling her
that she thought she was beautiful. The
actress suddenly pulled her close and said,
“Fir se bolo. Bahut muddat ho gayi sune
hue.”(Say that again. It’s been long since
anyone told me I look beautiful).
I
t was this combination of pathos and
innocence that found resonance as
Chhoti Bahu of Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghu-
lam, in the 19th century feudal milieu
of Bengal. The film was remarkable in more
ways than one. Especially, for its depiction
and validation of female sexuality. And like
most part of the Meena Kumari story,
female sexuality finds a voice in a hitherto
unexplored part of her personality – her
poetry.
The actress considered Kaifi Azmi her
guru and would often send her poetry to
him for advice. The young Shabana would
often flock to her house on pretext of taking
a message. While admitting that she is no
authority on it, Azmi states that Meena
Kumari’s poetry was touching and remark-
able for giving a voice to the female gaze.
She even released I Write, I Recite, a collec-
by Arnab Banerjee
Hariyali Aur Raasta in 1962. The rest, as
they say, is history.
The itch to wield the megaphone was
almost certain, given that Kumar
would remain glued to the technical
aspects of filmmaking even as an actor.
Recalls Rakhee, who acted in Beimaan
with him, “I didn’t think much of him as
an actor but when I did Santosh with
him years later, I realised he had a
great sense of direction.”
His films as director, though, were ridi-
culed for being utterly xenophobic. But
Kumar stuck to what he most believed in
– centering his scripts on the theme of
‘Indianness’. “It was the Partition and Pt.
Nehru’s speech on August 17, 1947 that
sparked off my interest in nationalism,”
says Manoj Kumar. His contemporary,
Dev Anand, whose style of filmmaking is
Mail Today, Friday, August 1, 2008
Mere Apne was a landmark film,
not only because it was years
ahead of its time, but also because
Meena Kumari played an 80-year-
old. Surprising, considering she
died months shy of her fortieth
birthday. Directed by Gulzar, the
actress plays the role of a benign
widow, who gets caught in the
crossfire between two rival gangs
of unemployed youngsters. The
film also starred Vinod Khanna
and Shatrughan Sinha.
Quite unlike the leading ladies of
the time, Meena Kumari famously
could not shake a leg. What she
lacked on the dance floor, she
more than made up for with
her silences. Yet, she starred in
Pakeezah, the story of a ‘pure’
courtesan. Riddled with unfortu-
nate circumstances, the film took
16 years to complete. Considered
a classic, a bit too late, the film
has a fabulous musical score by
Ghulam Mohammed and Naushad.
tion of Urdu poems, set to music by
Khayyam. Gulzar Sa’ab, to whom she was
close and who is considered an authority on
her poetry, mysteriously refused to talk
about her, after promising to. She writes
about Kamal Amrohi, “Dil saa jab saathi
paya/ Bechaini bhi woh saath le aaya”.
It was perhaps her tumultuous relation-
ship with the director of the magnum opus
Pakeezah, which was to define the rest of
her short life. She married Amrohi, fifteen
years her senior and already married with a
son. Pakeezah was 16 years in the making,
and was perhaps one of the reasons their
relationship grew estranged. In fact, says
Azmi candidly, I was surprised she did the
film considering she could not dance.
Declared a flop initially, the film regained
momentum, due to a macabre irony – the
actress’ death within two months of the
movie’s release, due to cirrhosis of the liver.
Exactly like the recent death of Ledger that
has led The Dark Knight to become one of
the most successful films of all time.
– Rashmi Aggarwal will recite Meena
Kumari’s poetry and Pran Neville will
deliver an illustrated lecture at the IIC
Auditorium on Satuday at 6.30 p.m.
karanjeet.kaur@mailtoday.in
perhaps Kumar’s polar opposite, remem-
bers him fondly. “I have known him as a
great colleague,” he says. “But despite
being close to him, I didn’t like his idea of
hammering nationalism in his films.” It
may sound odd, but Farhan Akhtar says
he has been influenced by Kumar’s uni-
que sense of script and writing.
Farah Khan believes that she dragged
Kumar out of the woodwork with Om
Shanti Om. As the film portrayed cheekily,
Kumar belonged to a different era. He re-
calls how Dharmendra, Shashi Kapoor
and he would refrain from smoking in the
presence of Raj Kapoor and Ashok Kumar
as a mark of respect. It will be interesting
to see whether his forthcoming home
production, Love From India, will conti-
nue to harp on these old-world values.
– The India Habitat Centre Film Club
will host a Manoj Kumar retrospective
from August 11 to 14, 6.30 p.m. daily.
arnab.banerjee@mailtoday.in