Remembering Legendary actress Veena 1926-2004

Born: 4 July 1926, Quetta, Pakistan
Died: 14 November 2004, Mumbai

In Bombay filmdom they have pet names for stars. Madhubala was called ‘Venus of the Indian screen’, Saira Banu the ‘beauty queen’, Hema Malini the ‘dream girl’, Veena was called ‘the Mona Lisa’.

God Almighty Must have had a great deal of time to spare when he created Veena. Her features were chiseled, like a work of art done by a Renaissance master: the perfect aquiline nose, the high forehead, rose-petal lips and those limpid heavy lidded eyes, with that regal look in them, which at once gave everybody around her an inferiority complex. Tall, stately, dignified, endowed with a statuesque figure Veena looked every inch a Queen from the Indian monarchy.

Her facial bone structure was classic. Coupled with all this was her well modulated voice, her superb delivery of dialogue. Another striking feature of Veena was her enchanting smile—her whole face lit up while speaking Veena opened only one side of her mouth giving a downward tilt to her lips.

Sexy women could be described as fiery volcanoes but there was something in Veena which made one think of an iceberg. She was the touch-me-not type. From her youth Veena had a very apparent line between her eyebrows when she frowned. There was something so powerful in her glare that everyone around her felt nervous.

Veena’s regal personality and her beauty was a curse rather than a blessing for her. She could never fit into the image of a gharelu Hindu bahu, nor could she play a village belle, the two types without which the Hindi screen cannot survive.

All of Veena’s successful roles have been of royal characters, or downright haughty, bitchy she-dragon types.

Veena appeared in over 70 feature films in a career spanning 41 years (1942 till 1983).

Veena was born as Tajour Sultana on 4 July 1926 in Quetta, Baluchistan Agency, British India. At some point of time, her family shifted to Lahore and she belonged to Lahore's Chuna Mandi. She married actor-hero Al Nasir in 1947 and had two children. She was the sister of actor Iftekhar.

She started out playing heroine roles in Pre-Partition films. She made her debut with Garib and Gawandhi (1942) at around sixteen years of age. Her early years in films came with films like Najma (1943), Phool (1945), and Humayun (1945). Her last film before the Partition of India was Rajputani (1946) in which she played a supporting role. She decided to remain in India after the partition and she acted through the mid-to-late-1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early-1980s.

She played roles in big films like Halaku (1956), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Taj Mahal (1963) (for which she received the Filmfare's Award for Best Supporting Actress), Do Raaste (1969), and Pakeezah (1972). She retired in 1983 after the release of Razia Sultan (1983) in which she played Empress Shah Turkhan. She died in Bombay on 14th Nov 2004 after 21 years of retirement when she was 78 years old after suffering from a protracted illness.

https://www.cinestaan.com/articles/2017/jul/4/6743/remembering-the-royally-graceful-actress-veena-ndash-birth-anniversary-special

http://cineplot.com/veena-profile/