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Meena Kumari - Hindi

Other names of Meena Kumari - Hindi: Mahjabeen Bano

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Hindi Movie Actress Meena Kumari - Hindi

DOB : 01-08-1932
Date of death: 31-03-1972
Lived For : 39 Years
Star Sign : Leo
Gender : Female

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Written By - Team Nettv4u

Meena Kumari Meena Kumari is a popular TV and film actress. She >> Read More... was known as the tragedy queen of Hindi cinema for her superb performances in tragic roles, in film after film during her active career. Unfortunately, her personal life was also a series of tragedies that ultimately resulted in her virtually taking her own life due to excessive and reckless drinking. She died at a relatively young age when she was approaching 40. At that time she had acted in almost a hundred films in an active career of 30 years, which included her appearances even as a child artiste. Many of her films are mentioned in revered tones even after almost half a century has passed after her death.

Meena Kumari was not born with that name, her real name being Mahjabeen Bano. She had acting in her blood, as her father was a veteran of the Parsi theater in Bombay, and was also a musician, besides writing Urdu poetry. He also did bit roles, and composed music for B grade films. Her mother was a stage actress and a dancer. Although having all the necessary parental encouragement and prodding, Mahjabeen was reluctant to join films and wanted to pursue her school studies. However, she got pushed into films at the tender age of 7, acquiring the screen name Meena, (at that time Baby Meena) in the 1939 film “Farzand-e-Watan”. Her initial adult age films were mostly mythological or fantasy based ones. What, however, catapulted her into fame was the musical “Baiju Bawra” in 1952. After this she had a string of appearances as one of the mainstream heroines in films like “” , based on the literary classic in 1953, followed by family dramas like “Ek Hi Raasta” in 1956 and “Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayi” and the period film “” with , both released in 1960.

Her most remarkable year, however, was 1962 when she created a record of sorts by bagging three nominations for the Filmfare Best Actress Award, for the films “Aarti” which was a love triangle; ” a family drama and “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam” a period film. She ultimately got the award for the last named, which incidentally is regarded as one of the best performance in the annals of Hindi cinema. This was in the role of a frustrated alcoholic wife in a traditional family of landlords.

Her subsequent films in the first half of the 1960s were no less remarkable with all three films in this period, the love triangle, “Dil Ek Mandir” ; the family drama, “Kaajal” and the Dharmendra starrer “Phool Aur Patthar”, getting nominated for Filmfare best actress awards, and “Kaajal” fetching her the last such award in her lifetime. By this time her health deteriorated substantially due to her continued drinking and the estrangement with husband . But the story of Meena Kumari would be incomplete without mention of “Pakeezah”, ultimately released in 1972, with a record production period of 14 years. The irony of “Pakeezah” was that it did not impress cine goers on release, but immediately after her death, about 2 months later, it not only became a major hit, but also fetched her posthumous Filmfare Award for Best Actress!