Remembering Meena Kumari: The Tragedy Queen of Bollywood

My God, how you make time fly by! I can't believe that exactly 50 years ago today I heard that my neighbor, J.D. Lari, a writer struggling to make it, announced the death of Meena Kumari! It was Good Friday, a day celebrated by Christians around the world to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Preparations were being made for services at church and my brother, who was eight or ten years old, was getting ready to go. For a picnic with my friends, I was preparing to go to church. But, what Lari said had vitiated the entire atmosphere in the Latif campus, the place where I had spent the first twenty-eight years of my life and where I had learned, years later, what the world was to know as secularism and communal harmony. That was my first lesson. Lari gave us all a running commentary about Meena Kumari and got ready to go to her funeral. He once worked as an assistant director to Kamal Amrohi, whose husband the now late actress was known for. Meena Kumari about whom there were many stories. And I have my own story about her.

Remembering Meena Kumari

I saw them for the first time at a place called “Devul Talav”, a lake near the ruins of an eight-hundred-year-old church, named after St. John, the Baptist, said to be a cousin of Jesus Christ. There was a lake outside the church and during this time I saw Meena Kumari for the first time, sitting under a huge umbrella, sitting alone, wearing an immaculate white saree and matching blouse, through her eyes, I could see a young woman. Realizing that she must have been a very unhappy woman. I wanted to take her back in time and ask her any number of questions, but all I could do was stand there with my mind filled with questions I could never ask and would never have to ask again. It's a sadness in my life that I will always regret, but like I said, I have my own stories about that.

Years after seeing her for the first time, I learned that the land on which Kamalistan Studio was built belonged to Meena Kumari! From the village where I had seen her, I moved to Yari Road and my stories about Meena Kumari went with me. I saw Kamal Amrohi getting down from the taxi and going to a building called Sagar Sameer. I was told that he lived in the building where he lived with someone, I was told that the woman he married after the death of Meena Kumari. I was sitting in an old tea stall outside this building when I heard stories about Meena Kumari from a group of men I had never seen before. They talked about how Meena Kumari was mistreated by “Kamal Sahab”. They soon talked about how this same Kamal Saheb used to beat her by a man named Bakar, who was the manager of Kamal Saheb's film production company and later Kamalistan Studios! I asked the men if what they said was true and they said they were witnesses to this disgusting drama. She had many more stories, but I certainly wouldn't want to tarnish the memory of the great actress I admired as a child. And still do.

Others spoke about her drinking and some of today's leading names, including a senior actor and at least two writers, who were also poets and filmmakers, who took advantage of her weakness and here Even got inspired by her poetry written in Urdu and singing. Sad lyrics about her loneliness, longing for someone she loved and who didn't get love back, and her tragic life. I was here at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Grant Road where I heard some old nurses talking about Meena Kumari. This was the hospital where Meena Kumari died on March 31, 1972. Some time ago, another legend Nimmi died and was buried in the same Muslim cemetery where Meena Kumari was buried fifty years earlier. Her grave is still there and so are some of her trees. And as long as memory lives, her work will always be remembered as a tragedy par excellence. I have met some of the greatest legends live.

I wish I could talk about Meena Kumari like I talk about other legends I had the privilege of knowing! I wish I could have stopped and talked to Meena Kumari outside that old church in my village. The men who took their first steps, walking with their support... A woman (or even a man) is rarely able to achieve what Meena Kumari did in just forty-five years of her life. She was branded as the “Tragedy Queen”, but I still don't understand why her contribution as a complete actress was not taken as seriously as it should have been…

Many aspects of her life and career have not been mentioned as much as they deserve. One of them is about how she played a very important role in the careers of some men who came under her spell and moved forward. Big names of the film industry... Dharmendra, a handsome man from Sahnewal, Punjab, was still looking for ways to establish himself. He had to do only one film named “Phool Aur Patthar” with Meena Kumari. Meena Kumari, who was almost at the end of her illustrious career, played the role of a young widow in white, with Dharmendra playing a tough and rough young man. A scene in the film in which Dharmendra flexes his rippling muscles and hovers over a sleeping Meena Kumari made Dharmendra a star like no other and remained a star for the next fifty years...

A young poet named Gulzar became popular with just one song he wrote for Bimal Roy's “Bandini”, the first line of which was “Mora gora rang lai le, more sham rang dai de”. He had assisted Bimal Roy and was ready to debut as a director. He planned to make “Mere Apne” adapted from Tapan Sinha’s “Apun Jaan”. He cast Meena Kumari as the grandmother along with Vinod Khanna and several young actors who had just come out of FTII. The versatile actress was the highlight of Gulzar's film which created history and made Gulzar a big name as a filmmaker. Another poet named Sawan Kumar Tak, who came to Bombay from Rajasthan with only forty-five rupees, was ambitious enough to launch himself as a director and was approached by Meena Kumari to work in her film “Gomati Ke Kinare”. Sawan Kumar was another success story. The actress, who was also a good poet, started liking Gulzar and Saawan Kumar because of them being good poets.

A young writer and journalist named Vinod Mehta wrote a book on Meena Kumari as his first major writing effort and became a prominent editor and writer. Meena Kumari had received praise and admiration from men like Satyajit Ray and Dev Anand and all her co-stars ranging from Raj Kumar, Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan, who have always said that they missed a big opportunity to work with her. She was the brains and money behind the construction of Kamalistan Studios in Andheri. Had she not died an early and tragic death, many believe that her husband Kamal Amrohi's “Pakeezah” would not have been a huge success. It is acknowledged as a cult film.....it is said that she had played a major role in the men's careers. Then why are there so many stories about why she had started drinking and died young? It is said that she helped, encouraged, and inspired men. What are they today and what will they be called in the future?

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