At The Edge

She looks at the speed dial They are going to die She smiles -0-

Sad. Meena Kumari in Miss Mary (1957) (via: this excellent Youtube channel of Tommy Dan ) Happy. Publicity still ripped (polished) from an auction site. -0- I now know that the story of Meena Kumari as told by Vinod Mehta was sourced by various articles that came out in various magazines after her death. It was perhaps too easy.

Still of 'The Scene' Choti Bahu (Meena Kumari) summons Bhootnath (Guru Dutt), he must accompany her to a nearby shrine, she wants to pray for her paralytic husband who has now asked her to give up drinking. There might still be some hope. They get into a buggy and are on their way into the night. The camera focuses on two and in the background a song plays in the voice of  Hemant Kumar. Somewhere in the song a desolant Choti Bahu gently  puts her head in Bhootnath's lap, the audience suddenly goes ecstatic, there is much hooting, whistling, and catcalls. Minutes later, Choti Bahu is again murdered, this time by goons of her husband's elder brother. Scenes of  pandemonium are repeated by audiences in theaters all across the country while watching that scene in Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam (1962). They see something explicit in this scene from a film full of subtleties. An embarrassed director of the film,...

On the last strains of the song, the camera moves up and away from spinning Sahibjaan and pans in on the background - roofs, other spinning girls, tawaif s of other Kotha s. -0- ' le leena dupatta mera ' I have often wondered about this. Majrooh Sultanpuri used the word ' le leena ' while the common usage would have it as ' le liya '. Is this Braj? -0- Choreography for the song was by Lachchu Maharaj. Meena Kumari was ill and in a lot of physical pain while shooting this film (and this film was in shooting for the longest time)  but there are only few scenes in which you can tell. Previously: Making of Pakeezah

tukde tukde din beetaa, dha'ji dha'ji raat mili jiska jitna daman tha, utni hi saugaat milijab chaha dil ko samjhena, hansne ki aawaaz mili jaise koi kahta ho, lo phir tumko maat mili dil saa jab saathi  paayaa, bechaini bhi saath mili In fragments the day was consumed| And in broken bits was the night| Whatever the size of one’s requirements| Just that much charity was received;| When I tried to understand my heart| I also heard the mocking sound of laughter| As if somebody was saying| Look, you are defeated again;| If I found a companion of my liking| I found restlessness with it too. ~Translation by Vinod Mehta, from his year 1972 book titled Meena Kumari . ( Urdu lines: scan of a page of the book, but urdu in english script may be a bit off  ) These lines perhaps sum up her life. You can listen to Meena Kumari sing these lines in a little video collage I put together here: video link Song is from the wonderful album 'I Write, I Recite' ...

November. 2007. I never had a collection of bright colored marbles like other children. ~ Meena Kumari. Meena Kumari was born with the birth name Mahajabeen into the family of Ali Bux and Iqbal Begum (known as Prabhawati Devi before her marriage and conversion to Islam). At home, Mahajabeen’s family fondly called her by the name “Munna”. Vijay Bhatt, Director, Producer and Proprietor of Prakash Studio was approached by Ali Bux to cast Mahajabeen in one of his films. Vijay Bhatt was at that time making Leather Face aka Farzande Watan ( Hindi title, film released in 1939) in which Jairaj was the hero and Mehtab the heroine. There was a vacancy for a small girl to play Jairaj’s daughter (14 years later in the film Magroor she was to play the role of Jairaj’s love) and it is for this part that Vjay Bhatt wanted to cast Mahajabeen. At the audition, the little girl was neither intimidated nor overawed by the surroundings or the equipment. Vijay Bhatt was quick to spot this and gav...

After the failure of the film Daeera (1953) , Pakeezah as an idea took root in Kamal Amrohi’s mind. The concept was irretrievably fixated with his love for his wife. He hoped to create a film, which would be worthy of her as an actress, and worthy of the love he felt for her as a women. By 1960 Amrohi had written the script. In 1961 when the camera was set in motion following had been signed: Joseph Wirsching as Cinematographer( the German cameraman of Amrohi’s first big success Mahal made in 1949 with Madhubala and Ashok Kumar ), Gulam Mohammad as Music Director, Ashok Kumar as Hero ( later among others like Rajendra Kumar, Sunil Dutt and the final choice Raj Kumar, Dharmendra was also shot listed, but his relation with Meena Kumari created problems), Meena Kumari as the Heroine, and a handful of Urdu writers as Lyricists. Of all the artists, the speediest was Mr. Ghulam Mohammed, the music director . But, the going for the movie wasn't smooth. The film was started at...

 The book Meena Kumari was written by Vinod Mehta in the year 1972. Vinod Mehta was 31. He went on to be the editor of Debonair Magazine , India first real girlie magazine that also used to have a section about current affairs. Many years later Vinod Mehta became the founding editor-in-chief of the The Outlook Magazine . Vinod Mehta’s previous book, Bombay: A Private View , was a success. But the book Meena Kumari was ill received. However, I don’t think it was ill-conceived. For some one like me, born ten years after the book was written, it means a lot. When I was a little boy, I knew Meena Kumari thanks to the ditty, which had the line, quite memorable actually: Meena Kumari ka laal dupatta, us-se nikala ullu ka paththa... Occasionally, I might have watched some old movie of hers on Doordarshan. Never must have I given much thought to her. But, then a few years later, I saw the book Meena Kumari on the book shelf of an elder cousins of mine whose books I often ...