Meena Kumari

Meena Kumari Biography

Meena Kumari – known as the ‘Tragic queen of Bollywood’ is remembered to be the one among the best 3 heroines of the golden era of Bollywood. Though she gave the finest of performances of her career, she died an age of 39 due to liver cirrhosis.  Problems in her personal life prompted her to become an alcohol addict that took her life at comparatively a younger age. It is so surprising that her real life matched with her reel life character of the master piece, ‘Saheb bibi aur gulam’ where as a wife, she is depraved of her husband’s love and later she finds peace in alcohol.

Meena Kumari started her career from early childhood under the compulsion of her father. Brought up in a financially background family, it became the duty of Meena to earn bread for her family. Though she desired a lot to study, her family background didn’t allow that. But this destination gave Bollywood one among the finest actress of silver screen. Majbeen was her original name that she later renamed as Meena for screen. She started her acting career at a younger age of 7. She did the role of adult at a younger age and most of those roles were mythological stories.

Baiju Bawara of 1952 was thelandmark movie of her career. when Filmfare awards were started, she received it for the first time for the movie Baiju bawara when she was only 14. Songs like ‘Tu ganga ki mauj mein’ are still everyone’s favourites. Following the success of Baiju Bawara, she did a lot of successful woman oriented movies that still remain classics. Ek hi raastha, Parinitha and Dil apna aur preeth paraye need special mention. To break the myth that she is proficient of serious roles only, she did the comedy movie Kohinoor co-starring Dilip Kumar. She is still remembered most for her role in Sahib biwi aur gulam, as it has striking similarities with her life. In many movies Meena Kumari – Ashok Kumar – Pradeep Kumar trio has worked together in love triangles.

Her roles are remembered most for the movies Bahu Begam, Pakeezah, Kajal, Mein chup rahoongi, Dil ek mandir, Aarthi, Phool aur pathar and Mere Apna.

When there arose conflicts between Meena and her husband Director Kamal Amrohi, their dream project Pakeeza was shelved and they divorced. But they reunited at the last phase of her life and they completed the work. One month after the release of the movie, she left this world.   

Published: N/A

Updated: May 21, 2018