Remembering Madhubala 1933-69

Madhubala was born Mumtaz Jehan Dehlavi on 14 February 1933 in Delhi. After her father lost his job at the Imperial Tobacco Company in Peshawar,he relocated to Delhi followed by Mumbai. There, the family endured many hardships.

In 1929, Himanshu Rai (film pioneer) came to Mumbai with Devika Rani (actor-wife and Rabindranath Tagore’s great-grand niece) looking for a location to set up a studio. Niranjan Pal (screenwriter) was assisting them. Some broker told them that a Parsi man had built a bungalow in Malad for his wife who had passed away, so he was willing to sell it,” narrates Rajendra Ojha, the man who has been creating and publishing the Screen World directory for Bollywood for many decades now.

He adds, “The man who sold the location asked them for just one thing — not to touch the well in the premises, from which slum dwellers would fetch water. Obliging, Bombay Talkies flourished. Many years later, a manager noticed a girl who’d stand at the well every day to help people fetch water in return for food. That seven-year-old was Baby Mumtaz, who later came to be known as Madhubala. She was offered Basant (1942). When the producers asked to meet her father, she told them he had gone to beg for the day. Madhubala’s father was a beggar,” he says.

Later, she appeared in several films as a child artist.

Actress Devika Rani was impressed by her performance and potential, and advised her to assume the screen name 'Madhubala', literally meaning "honey belle". Her first lead role, at the age of 14, was with producer Kidar Sharma when he cast her opposite Raj Kapoor in Neel Kamal (1947). This was the last film in which she was credited as Mumtaz before assuming her screen name 'Madhubala'. She achieved stardom and popularity in 1949 when she was cast as the lead in Bombay Talkies studio's Mahal – a role intended for well-known star Suraiya. Madhubala, with established actresses, screen-tested for the role before she was selected by the film's director Kamal Amrohi. The film was the third largest hit at the 1949 Indian box office. Following the success of Mahal, Madhubala appeared in the box office hits Dulari (1949), Beqasoor (1950), Tarana (1951) and Badal (1951).

In the early 1950s, as Madhubala became one of the most sought-after actresses in India, she attracted interest from Hollywood. She appeared in the American magazine Theatre Arts where, in its August 1952 issue, she was featured in an article with a full page photograph under the title: "The Biggest Star in the World - and she's not in Beverly Hills". The article described Madhubala's immense popularity in India, and explored her wide appeal and large fan base. It also speculated on her potential international success. Academy Award winner American director Frank Capra, while visiting Bombay for International Film Festival of India, was keen to give her a break in Hollywood, but her father Ataullah Khan declined.Madhubala's co-stars Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Rehman, Pradeep Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Dev Anand were the most popular of the period. She also appeared with Kamini Kaushal, Suraiya, Geeta Bali, Nalini Jaywant, Shyama and Nimmi, notable leading ladies. The directors she worked with, Mehboob Khan (Amar), Guru Dutt (Mr. & Mrs. '55), Kamal Amrohi (Mahal) and K. Asif (Mughal-e-Azam), were amongst the most prolific and respected. Madhubala also became a producer with the film Naata (1955), in which she also acted. She also produced Mahlon Ke Khwab (1960)

During the 1950s, Madhubala took starring roles in almost every genre of film being made at the time. Her 1950 film Hanste Aansoo was the first ever Hindi film to get an "A" – adults only – rating from the Central Board of Film Certification.She was the archetypal fair lady in the swashbuckler Badal (1951), and following this, an uninhibited village beauty in Tarana (1951). She played the traditional ideal of Indian womanhood in Sangdil (1952), and produced a comic performance as the spoilt heiress, Anita, in Guru Dutt's satire Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955). In 1956, she acted in costume dramas such as Shirin-Farhad and Raj-Hath, and played a double role in the social drama Kal Hamara Hai (1959). In the mid-1950s, her films including the major ones like Mehboob Khan's Amar (1954) did not do well commercially.[17] However, she bounced back between 1958 and 1960 when she starred in a series of hit films. These include Howrah Bridge, opposite Ashok Kumar where she played the role of an Anglo-Indian Cabaret singer involved in Calcutta's Chinatown underworld. In the song Aaiye Meherebaan from this film, she lip-synced a torch song dubbed by Asha Bhosle which has remained popular to this day. Among other successful films, she played opposite Bharat Bhushan in Phagun; Dev Anand in Kala Pani; Kishore Kumar in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi; and Bharat Bushan again in Barsaat Ki Raat (1960). Then in 1960, she appeared in the magnum opus Mughal-e-Azam.

It was the film Mughal-e-Azam that marked what many consider to be Madhubala's greatest and definitive characterization, as the doomed courtesan, Anarkali. Although the film took nine years to complete, it was not until 1953 when Madhubala was finally chosen for the role. Bunny Reuben in his Book Dilip Kumar: Star Legend of Indian Cinema claimed that Dilip Kumar's role was instrumental behind this selection. Mughal-e-Azam gave Madhubala the opportunity of fulfilling herself totally as an actress, for it was a role that all actresses dreamt of playing, as Nimmi acknowledges that "as an actress, one gets a lot of roles, there is no shortage of them, but there isn’t always good scope for acting. With Mughal-e-Azam, Madhubala showed the world just what she could do."

Mughal-e-Azam was released on 5 August 1960, and became the highest-grossing film at that time, a record that went unbroken for 15 years until the release of the film Sholay in 1975. Madhubhala was nominated for a Filmfare Award for her performance in Mughal-e-Azam.

In 1960, Madhubala was at the peak of her career and popularity with the release of Mughal-e-Azam and Barsaat Ki Raat. She did have intermittent releases in the early 1960s. Some of these, like Jhumroo (1961), Half Ticket (1962) and Sharabi (1964), performed above average at the box-office. However, most of her other films released during this time were marred by her absence and subsequent lack of completion due to her prolonged illness.

Madhubala had ventricular septal defect (a hole in her heart) which was detected while she was shooting for Bahut Din Huwe in Madras in 1954. By 1960, her condition aggravated, and when acting was no longer an option Madhubala turned her attention to film direction. In 1969 she was set to make her directorial debut with the film Farz aur Ishq. However the film was never made as during pre-production, she died on February 23, 1969, shortly after her 36th birthday.