Madhubala

Madhubala was perhaps the most elegantly beautiful actress of the hindi cinema and was a craze during her times and was active from 1942 to 1964 . She was born as Mumtaz Jehan on 14th,February 1933 at Delhi to a Pashtun muslim family .
Her farther was an orthodox person and thus neither Madhubala or any of her sisters attended the school . However Madhubala self learnt hindi and later in life english from a hindu tutor and wanted to work in films against the wishes of his father . However later when her father became workless and money less , he himself took the lead in getting Madhubala to the cinema making world by shifting to Bombay living in a cow shed in malad .
Before that she as a child used to sing in all india radio where she got acquainted with Rai Bahadur Chunnilal and it is he who got her a role in film Basant in 1942 .
She then got a contract to work for Ranjit Movietone on a monthly payment of ₹300 where Madhubala did some minor roles in films namely Mumtaz Mahal (1944), Dhanna Bhagat (1945), Rajputani (1946), Phoolwari (1946) and Pujari (1946) and was named as “Baby Mumtaz” in all of them.
Her chance as a leading lady came in Kidar Sharma’s film Neel Kamal, in which she acted opposite Raj Kapoor for whom it was his first role as hero . This film gave popularity and recognition to her . Soon she changed her screen name to Madhubala and quickly signed two dozen films to financially secure her family of 11 siblings .
In 1949, Madhubala acted in film Mahal – the first horror film of Indian cinema, alongside Ashok Kumar and the film turned out to a hit one and this success bagged Madhubala several Roles with the leading actors of the time .
Her 1951 film Badal with premnath and film Tarana and Sangdil ( 1952 ) with Dilip kumar proved hits and brought her name and fame .
Madhubala in her short life acted in 70 films which besides the above included film Amar (1954), Mr. & Mrs. ’55 (1955), Kala Pani (1958), Howrah Bridge (1958), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Barsaat Ki Raat (1960), Half Ticket (1962) and Sharabi (1964).
She was very beautiful , talented and a celebrated actress She was the highest paid actress of 1950s and was paid Rs three lacs for her role as Anarkali in famous movie – Mugle -Azam .
In 1959, she received praise for playing dual roles in Film Kal Hamara Hai starring along Bharat Bhushan .
In 1960 after three year’s of shooting in her role of
Anarkali along with dilip kumar as Salim – The film Mughal-e-Azam got released and broke all box office records . Mughal-e-Azam won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film including Best Actress award for Madhubala in 1961 .
The success of Mughal-e-Azam resulted in a string of offers for her in major roles, but Madhubala had to refuse them owing to her heart condition . From the beginning of her thirties, she suffered from recurring bouts of breathlessness caused by a ventricular septal defect in her heart ( untreatable in those times ) which ultimately led to her death in 1969.
However she did act in few more films including Jhumroo (1961), Boy Friend (1961) ,Half Ticket (1962), Passport (1961) and Sharabi (1964)and all were hit .
Madhubala had few romantic relationship with first one being with hero and actor Prem Nath but the relationship soon ended as Madhubala was not willing to convert to hinduism- pehaps out of fear of her orthodox father . Then for sometimes she got envolved with actor Bharat Bhusan .
Later she had romantic relations with dilip kumar but failed to get marry him as her father had put up tuff conditions before dilip kumar who refused to accept and further strained the relations by testifying truthfully in court against the Madhubala and her father in a suit filed by a film producer against them . This ended the 8/9 years old relationship between the two . Dilip kr later remarked :-
“ Matters began to sour between us very fast , courtesy her father’s attempt to make the proposed marriage a business venture. The outcome was that half way through the production of film Mughaley Azam, we were not even talking to each other.”
Madhubala in the final years of her life got tired of all these unstable relationships she have had and it was then that Madhubala had met Kishore Kumar during the shooting of film Chalti Ka Naam Gadi and film Half Ticket. Madhubala and Kishore Kumar were a part of many popular songs like Haal Kaisa Hai Janaab Ka, Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi Si, Babu Samjho Ishaare and others. In an interview with Film Fare , Madhubala’s sister revealed how love had blossomed between kishore kr and madhubala . Perhaps she got attracted to his beautiful voice and his ability to make her laugh.
and ultimately she married kishore kumar in 1960 as per hindu rituals but much to the annoyance of ganguly family- being her in laws and also of Ashok kumar because post marriage she continued to be a muslim and Kishore kumar continued as a hindu .
After a few days of their wedding, Kishore and Madhubala had left for London. There, when she had some health issues, doctors revealed that she had a bad heart condition, which has gotten worse. The doctors further said, ‘her heart is finished’ and that she wouldn’t live beyond few years . On return , Madhubala would regularly fall sick , unable to work or shoot . Kishore kr looked after her quite well but doctors had also said that Madhubala can not bear children which dampened both . During her last years , Madhubala used to shift between Kishore’s house and her parent’s house , but gloom had set on her knowing her days are numbered.
Eventually Madhubala suffered a heart attack in the midnight of 22 February 1969 and after struggling for few hours amongst her family members and Kishore kumar , she died next day morning at a very young age of 36.
In 2018, The New York Times published a belated obituary for Madhubala, comparing her life to that of Marilyn Monroe. On 14 February 2019, on her 86th birth anniversary, search engine Google commemorated her with a doodle . Google commented: “While her breathtaking appearance earned comparisons to Venus, Madhubala was a gifted actor with an understated style well suited for comedies, dramas, and romantic roles alike. In 2008 a postal stamp was issued in her memory .
Madhubala had acted in 70 movies in her very short career and proved to be super star .

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Five stars