Madhubala

Madhubala Biography

The most celebrated screen beauty of yesterdays is none other than Madhu Bala. Though she was talented and has been a part of many historical movies like Mughal-E-Azam, she is popular among the audience for her natural beauty. She died at a younger age of 36 and that may be the reason why, her beauty still stays fresh in millions of Indian hearts.

It’s true, her majority of films have not been successful or up to expectations. Yet people loved to see her on screen romancing with the best heroes of that time including Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Kishore Kumar. Beauty was the gift given to her by God and she was noted from her first movie itself. Though she got Hollywood offers, her conservative family didn’t allow her to commit. Same is the case of her deep relationship with Dilip Kumar.

Whole throughout her career she fought with her ill health and disease till she was defeated by death at the age of 36. By that time, she had married actor turned singer Kishore Kumar. Madhubala debut through hit movie Basanth (Spring) as a child actress in 1942. Born as Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi, she changed her name to Madhubala by the advice of Devika Rani, the great heroine of 40’s who was impressed by her child performance.

1947 marked the beginning of Madhubala as a heroine onscreen through the movie Neel Kamal opposite Raj Kapoor. But the movie was not successful at box office. Her real break came through Mahal of 1949, opposite Ashok Kumar. The song Aayegaa Aayegaa was a huge hit that time. She was on a rise to stardom when she was detected by Ventricular Septal defect, hole in the heart. It was a serious condition. In spite of her bad health of 1950’s, she worked for many movies.

To financially support her family, Madhubala did numerous roles without thinking about the script and her position in Bollywood and most of them flopped at Bollywood. But she has added some good movies to her kitty as well. Barsat ki Raat, Howrah Bridge, Mughal-E-Azam, Mr and Mrs.55, Chalthi ka naam gadi, Kaalapani, Jumroo and Half ticket. Though she hasn’t won any awards, she is remembered for her screen presence and the megahit Mughal-E-Azam that took 11 years for filming.   

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Updated: July 04, 2018