Wednesday 29th February, 2012 III

BY ROHANA R. WASALA Part I of this article appeared in the Midweek pestered their father with "Appachi, please attitude. The affair lasted for five or six years cut blouses and fitted Capri pants; she more Review of Feb.22 take me to Bombay. I want to act in films". She from that time to 1956. She was truly in love than matched the comic genius of her future was very pretty, sweet, and smart. Other peo- with Dilip Kumar, but whether her love was husband (1960-1969), the three times married avid Cort contrasts the newcomer with ple also asked him to allow the girl to do what reciprocated has not been established. B.R. actor singer Kishore Kumar in the rollicking the traditional "padded ladies": she wanted. At first, however, he was reluctant Chopra Snr signed them on to do a film named comedy film 'ChaltiKaNaamGaadi' (1958) in D"Madhubala has the wide shoulders to do so fearing his conservative family's cen- 'NayaDaur' , and paid them the actor fees. The which, critics claimed, she eclipsed the three and athletic body of the modern girl the world sure. Yet, circumstances such as losing his job film maker wanted Madhubala to travel to Kumar brothers. over, a type fairly new to India. She walks like must have forced him to change his mind. So, Bhopal for a 15 day outdoor shoot. But Her acting skills and other claims to star a dancer, that is, a western ballet dancer, not a it appears that he moved to Bombay with his Athaullah Khan did not agree to his daughter status have been recognized, though, in retro- Hindu dancer,….." In this probably Madhubala family to find work for the little girl. After being taken there because he held that it was spect. Madhubala was placed second in the top was the perfectly enchanting prototype of the some effort father and daughter succeeded. not a safe location for her, for she was a craze ten list of "Bollywood's best actresses ever" in plethora of inferior versions we have in Hindi That's how she got her maiden role in 'Basant'. with the public, and the place was infested rediff.com's International Women's Day 2007 cinema today. Cort says that initially the girl was employed with dacoits; he charged that it was a ruse for Special, in which the actresses who made it to He also writes in the article: "As a new by the cinema company at $45 a month, which allowing Dilip Kumar to romance with his the final list were ranked on their "...acting type in India Madhubalamust probably stand must have been some additional income for daughter; he suggested a change of location. skills, glamour, box office appeal, versatility for the ideal of the free Indian woman or what the hard pressed family. It is often claimed Chopra didn't want that. In the meantime and icon status -- and the fact that each of India hopes the free Indian woman will be. that Mahubala became the sole breadwinner Dilip Kumar asked Madhubalato give up act- them became a figurehead for Bollywood, ush- She is in that sense a symbol of the advance of the family. As a young girl she worked hard ing and marry him, and she agreed to do so on ering in a new wave of cinema...". guard of a revolution". The choice of to earn as much as possible. Though many condition that he apologised to her father Crises Madhubala as a symbol of the emerging India writers like to stress that her allegedly merce- first. But he refused to do so. That was the end When work on Mughal-e-Azam began in struck the American journalist as something nary father exploited his daughter to the max- of the affair. The dispute eventually led to a 1951, Madhubala was eighteen. It took nine remarkable in view of the fact that she was a imum, this is highly unlikely. court case, which was decided against years to complete it. Most of this period saw Muslim, a classic Muslim type at that, where- MadhurBhushan emphatically denies that Madhubala. The unfortunate incident dam- her facing crisis after crisis in her life. She as India was preponderantly Hindu. He felt there was any such pressure on her sister. aged her credibility as a reliable professional. was definitively diagnosed as having a hole in that her family was able to survive the com- Since this family can be taken as a normal In addition to this, her health condition wors- the heart in 1954; her affair with Dilip Kumar munal disturbances of 1947 which displaced family there's no reason to doubt that she is ened. In the same period, in spite of her best was on the rocks; some films she worked hard- est on became box office failures and earned her the derogatory nickname "Box Office Poison" s already pointed out; and on top of all these Madhubala had to do intimate love scenes with her estranged ex-lover Dilip Kumar in Mughal-e-Azam! However, with its release in 1960, she reached what could be called her zenith. Amidst ill health she was able to pursue her career only for a few years more. Her last full film 'Jwala', which she did with Sunil Dutt, was completed in 1964, but released only in 1971, that is, two years after her death. Had she lived longer, she could have done better than many of her contemporaries. In KhatijaAkhbar's biography of Madhubala, Dilip Kumar talks about her talent in these words::"Had she lived, and had she selected her films with more care, she would have been far superior to her contemporaries. Apart from being very versatile and an excellent artiste, she had a warm and cheerful nature. God had gifted her with so many things...". Although Madhubala kept a low profile from the very beginning, she had her fair share of troublesome attention from journal- ists, as a glance at film magazines of the time reveals. She had to even prohibit pressmen from visiting her sets during shooting (no doubt her father had a hand in this). Because of her family's constant protection, there was little room for her name to be linked to any scandals. Except for ShammiKapoor (b.1931) and Kishore Kumar (b.1929), who were older than her by only a few years, all the other prominent male stars she had to work with were very much senior to her in age: Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, DevAnand, Bharat Bhushan, Premnath, Ashok Kumar, Pradeep some six million Muslims, and which left half speaking the truth in view of one single vital- efforts, a number of her films including Kumar etc. Still, malicious film gossip a million people dead, due to Madhubala's ly important fact: it was that Madhubala was Mehboob Khan's 'Amar' in which she staged accused her of doublecrossing Dilip and position as a star, for she had just emerged as suffering from a congenital heart defect or "a her first mature performance flopped, and she Premnath, and she was only seventeen at that one in 'Neel Kamal'. He was writing around hole in the heart", for which there was no was vilified as "Box office poison". Despite all time, busy doing films under the close protec- the beginning of Madhubala's adult career. available remedy at that time; so, the family this bad luck, she worked on her films with tive watch of her father. His observations about her proved prophetic. including her father were extra protective of her usual dedication. Work on K. Asif's mag- Victims of communalism She demonstrated her great innate acting tal- her all her life. Madhubala worked hard of her num opus Mughal-e-Azam which cast She was also a victim of communal preju- ents. It looked as if she wanted to work in as own accord. In KhatijaAkhbar's biography of Madhubala as the ill-fated Anarkali against dice. Her act of giving 50,000 rupees out of her many films as possible; she threw herself the star "Madhubala: Her Life, Her Films" Dilip Kumar in the role Prince Salim com- savings to the Bengal Refugee Fund in 1950 heart and soul into her work; she was very (1997),DevAnand (who died 3, December 2011 menced in 1951 and came to an end in 1960. when she was just seventeen to help Hindu energetic, and got on with her co-actors very at age 88) is quoted as saying about Madhubala managed to do more than restore refugees from Muslim East Pakistan (modern well. However, she was not destined to realise Madhubala's death in 1969 of a stroke due to her earlier aura; the film proved her magnum Bangladesh) might have been partly an her full potential either as an artist or as a her disease: "She was so robust and full of life opus as well. As at 2008, Mughal-e-Azam was attempt to counter that prejudice. But it is person. This was due to circumstances and energy. She was always laughing and the second highest grossing Hindi film in his- known that she helped many people and caus- beyond her control. enjoyed her work. One could never conceive tory, the first being the AmitabBacchan film es silently and anonymously. Personal life she was seriously ill. Then one day out of the 'Sholay' (1975). Ironically, however, she suffered worst In traditional accounts of Madhubala's blue she just disappeared...". It was often alleged that Madhubala's beau- because of male prejudice against women. personal life, three circumstances stand out: Meeting Dilip ty overshadowed her acting talent. One cannot First, her father's opposition to her affair with her relation to her family where her father fig- Madhubala first set her eyes on Dilip subscribe to this view, considering her track Dilip Kumar interfered with her hopes of mar- ured a lot, and principally decided the course Kumar in 1944, when she was eleven and the record. In reality, she proved herself very ver- rying the only man she wanted to have; when of her life and work; her congenital heart latter twenty-two. (The woman he subsequent- satile and spontaneous in the many diverse he appeared to relent, Dilip Kumar was too problem; and her affair with the legendary ly married and remains married to date - roles she did in her films. In 'Taraana' (1951) arrogant to apologise to her father as she Dilip Kumar (Mohammad Yusuf Khan), her beauty queen and actress SairaBhanu - was she was an innocent, but uninhibited village wanted him to (Dilip had demanded that she co-star in a few films, including the monumen- born that year.) It was when they were doing beauty; 'Amar' (1954) saw her playing convinc- give up seeing her father after her marriage to tal Mughal-e-Azam (1960). Incidentally, Dilip the film 'Taraana' (released 1951) that they ingly the role of a mature young woman who him, which she refused to do). If they had Kumar passed his 89th birthday last started seeing each other. Dilip Kumar had sacrificed her love for compensating for a been a little more considerate towards her as a December. had to conclude an affair with a woman who youthful indiscretion her lover had commit- woman, without insisting on having their own MadhurBhushan, on the CNN/IBN pro- was already married. Madhubala's father ted; crime thriller 'Howrah Bridge' (1958) cast way as superior beings as males, her life gramme mentioned above, recalled how her objected to her relationship with Dilip Kumar, her against veteran actor Ashok Kumar as an would have been much happier. sister Madhubala, when she was hardly seven, though it appears that he later softened his Anglo-Indian cabaret dancer fitted out in deep Concluded