Meena Kumari or Mahjabeen Bano was born on August 1, 1932. Meena Kumari was an Indian movie actress and poetess. Meena Kumari is regarded as one of the most prominent actresses to have appeared on the screens of Hindi Cinema.
During a career spanning 30 years from her childhood to her death, she starred in more than 90 films, many of which have achieved classic and cult status today.
Meena Kumari gained a reputation for playing grief-stricken and tragic roles, and her performances have been praised and remembered throughout the years. Like one of her best-known roles, Chhoti Bahu, in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Kumari became addicted to alcohol. Her life and prosperous career were marred by heavy drinking, troubled relationships, an ensuing deteriorating health, and her death from liver cirrhosis in 1972.
Kumari is often cited by media and literary sources as "The Tragedy Queen", both for her frequent portrayal of sorrowful and dramatic roles in her films and her real-life story. Meena Kumari was the legendary tragedy queen of Indian Cinema who shot into stardom in the early 1950's.
Mahjabeen was renamed Baby Meena and her first film as a child was Farzand-e-Watan or Leatherface (1939), directed by Vijay Bhatt for Prakash Studios. She was the sole bread-earner of the family as she was given roles in films all throughout the 1940s. Her early adult work consisted of mainly mythological films like Veer Ghatotkach (1949), Shri Ganesh Mahima (1950) and fantasies like Alladin and The Wonderful Lamp (1952). Meena hit the big time with her mentor Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra (1952).
Meena was known for her tragic roles and she too chose more such roles to cultivate her image of being the great tragidienne because in the few light-hearted films she did in-between like Azaad (1955), Miss Mary (1957), Shararat (1959), and Kohinoor (1960).
A reluctant entrant to films, her greatest celluloid fantasy, it seems, only waited for her dejection, and eventual death, before becoming a huge success. A legend when she was alive, and an irreplaceable actress after her death, Meena Kumari's iconic status will remain untouched for a long time to come."Gomti ke Kinare" was her last film.
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