This is being written at 12:40 am and Google has already changed it's Doodle with a portrait of this breathtaking beauty! Not just because Madhubala was/ is the heart-throb of this nation having second most population in the world today, but also because in 1951 only, when the ace photographer from Hollywood James Burke visited India and made a portfolio of Madhubala for 'Life' magazine, it was published with the title - "The biggest star in the world - and she is not in Beverly Hills"!! She was the first Bollywood star who was offered a break in Hollywood by the academy award winner American director Frank Capra! And happened what?! She declined!! Why ?!
Story of this stellar star started in slums of Mumbai where she was living with her parents and 10 siblings. Madhubala was born as Mumtaz Jehan Begum dehlavi on 14th February 1933 at Old Delhi. Her father Attaullah Khan was working in a tobacco factory in Peshawar. After losing his job, he shifted to Delhi and later to Mumbai. Mumtaz Jahan Begum was his fifth child - extremely adorable and cherubic. Attaullah Khan then started revolving around different film studios holding the finger of this cute little child in order to get a break for her. Finally, In 1942, Mumtaz Jehan got her first break in movie 'Basant' as a child artist.
Basant was the biggest hit of the year. And that's how her acting career took of smashingly! Just at the age of nine, Mumtaz Jahan was the only breadwinner for her parents and all her siblings. Basant was followed by Kedar Sharma's 'Dhanna Bhagat'. Then came movies alike Pujari, Phoolwari and Rajputani wherein Madhubala worked as an child artist.
In 1947, Kedar Sharma again signed her in his movie Neel Kamal opposite Raj Kapoor in the lead role. She was just 14 at that time! Nilkamal was the last movie where her name was credited as Mumtaz. During all these years, the co-founder of Bombay Talkies Devika Rani noticed her and became very impressed by her performance and potential. She only advised her to give off her original name and assume the screen name Madhubala. And that's how she was - so saccharin.. mallow yet too magnatic! Famous film journalist B K Karanjia had once declared that none of her published photographs did full justice to her quite extraordinary beauty!! "Statuesque is the word I would say for her" were words by Dev Anand while talking about this ever dazzling diva!
It was Mahal - a Bombay Talkies movie directed by Kamal Amrohi which earned pretty big success and popularity to Madhubala. It was the biggest hit on box office in 1949. Immense success of Mahal followed by more box office hits like Dulari, Beqasoor, Tarana and Badal.
Oh yes! Tarana and Badal! With these reel love stories, two parallel real love stories were about to start where heroine was same!!! This vivacious vinus of Bollywood was said to be equally flirtatious. And unlike reel stories, one of the heroes immediately gave up just after a friends talk! That wiser one was Premnath. After that, sets of Tarana witnessed so enduring indulgence between the leading pair. Madhubala - the Valentine of many hearts, who was born on Valentine day only, proposed Dilip Kumar with a red rose and a hand written love note.!! Who in the world could have declined this proposal?!! Dilip Kumar surrendered his heart to this Vinus - this beauty goddess. The year was 1951. Madhubala must be 18 by that time.
During 50s, Madhubala took 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. But was that really Madhubala to choose all those movies?! In her career spanning 22 years and about 70 movies, hardly 15 /16 movies were major hit! She was not the one who used to select movies for her! Why just movies?! She was just none to decide anything about herself. What to work, with whom to work, when to go out, when to come back, whom to be with and whom to leave.. everything for Madhubala was decided by her very regimented father Attaullah Khan. It is said that Madhubala had never attended a single film party or premiere as her father wanted so. She declined a biggest Hollywood offer as her father wanted so. She refused to travel out of Mumbai for the shooting of Naya Daur as her father wanted so! And that resulted into a court case between producer of the movie B R Chopra and Madhubala. Dilip Kumar - who was the hero of this movie, somehow, had to give his statement against Madhubala in court for this issue. This incident splitted this romancing duo and they broke up so miserably.
Mughal-e-Azam. Madhubala had signed this magnum opus of K. Asif in 1953 only.
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! Madhubala worked to the core of perfection just as director K Asif wanted! With Mughal-e-Azam, Madhubala showed the world just what she could do. The film took 10 years to get completed. The year was 1954 when Madhubala came to know that she is having a ventricular septal defect (a hole in her heart) which was detected while she was shooting for Bahut Din Huwe in Madras in 1954. However, by the late 1950s, her health was deteriorating rapidly, and director K. Asif, probably unaware of the extent of Madhubala's illness, required long shooting schedules that made physical demands on her, whether it was posing as a veiled statue in suffocating make-up for hours under the studio lights or being shackled with heavy chains. It was also a time when Madhubala's relationship with Dilip Kumar was fading out, and the lives of Madhubala and her screen character were consistently seen as overlapping because of the overwhelming sense of loss and tragedy and the unrelenting diktat of destiny that clung to both and which neither could escape.
Movies like Howrah Bridge, Kaalapani, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Insaan Jaag Utha, Barsaat Ki Raat, Jhumroo and Half Ticket showcased myriad colours of Madhubala's phenomenal performing skills meanwhile.
During the shooting of the movie Dhake ki Malmal, Madhubala met Kishore Kumar. Soon after that Kishore Kumar proposed Madhubala and both of them got married in 1960.
Madhubala perhaps realised very well by the time that Dilip Kumar was never going to marry her and perhaps Kishore Kumar would be the one who could make her laugh again. But their was a most unlikely union, and not a happy one either. Madhubala was never accepted by Kishore Kumar's family. Kishore Kumar got her a flat at Carter's Road and left her with a servant, nurse and a driver. He could not spare any time from his busy work schedules, his foreign tours or his singing assignments for his illed wife whose health was falling day by day. Had read that due to her ailment, her body would produce extra blood, so it would spill out from the nose and mouth. The doctor would come home and extract bottles of blood. She also suffered from pulmonary pressure of the lungs. She coughed all the time. Every four to five hours she had to be given oxygen or else would get breathless. She was confined to bed for nine years and was reduced to just bones and skin.
In 1966, with a slight improvement in her health, she made a staunch attempt to complete her work in Chalak opposite Raj Kapoor, which needed only a short spell of shooting, but she could not even survive that strain. 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 23 February 1969, shortly after her 36th birthday.
And still, every year, on her birthday, numerous articles are written and television programmes aired to commemorate her birthday, to the present day. Her posters are still high in demand. Magazines continue to publish stories on her personal life and career. In Rediff.com's International Women's Day 2007 special, Madhubala was ranked second in its top ten list of "Bollywood's best actresses". On 18 March 2008, a commemorative postage stamp featuring Madhubala was issued by Indian Postal department.
Madhubala is still ruling over millions of hearts with that tranquilizing gaze, killer smile and enthralling charisma! Happy Valentine's Day to the Venus of silver screen, the valentine of millions of hearts, agnetic and mesmeric beauty Madhubala. 💕
