85 years back this day, Meena Kumari ‘The Tragedy Queen’ was born………

Mumbai, August 1: 85 years back on this day, an actress whose fate was considered a tragedy and even she was famous as ‘Tragedy Queen’ in the history of Bollywood was born. She was none other than Meena Kumari who was one of the versatile actresses in Cineworld.

 

Meena Kumari was born on August 1, 1933, to Ali Baksh and Iqbal Begum, as Mahjabeen Bano. Born in a family of theatre artists, she faced a poverty-stricken childhood. She was just six years old when she made her debut in "the Leather Face", produced and directed by Vijay Bhatt.

She acted in nearly 90 films in her 30 years of career span and her last film was Pakeezah. The iconic actress has inspired generations with her memorable performances in movies like "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam", "Pakeezah", "Baiju Bawra", "Yahudi", "Bahu Begam', among others.

Interestingly, Meena Kumari is the only Indian actress to have won three Filmfare nominations for the "Best Actress" category in the same year. This was in the year 1963 when she was nominated for her performances in "Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam", "Main Chup Rahoongi" and "Aarti".

On 14 February 1952 Meena Kumari (18) and Kamal Amrohi (34) secretly got married in a simple "Niqah" ceremony in the presence of a Qadi and Kumari's younger sister, Mahliqa (Madhu). This was something which caused a tragedy in her life because her married life was nothing but like a blank paper. She got separated and fell prey to heavy drinking habit.

Just like the character of 'Chhoti Bahu' played in his film 'Sahib Biwi and Ghulam', released in 1962, Meena Kumari started drinking too much alcohol in real life. Unsuccessful married relation and due to bad relationships with her father, she started drinking too much and her health continued to deteriorate.

Meena Kumari was just 38 when she died of liver failure, weeks after the release of the movie "Pakeezah". In today's Google Doodle, she is remembered as a courtesan, the role she played in "Pakeezah".