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Romance that survived years of separation
Remembering Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi whose love story began with a photograph and ended with Pakeezah
Meena Kumari / Image- Wikipedia
She came across his photograph quite by chance. Or maybe it was destiny. One day, Meena Kumari was disinterestedly riffling through a film magazine when it fell open on a particular page and she found herself looking down at a man whose arresting face with Its aquiline features and nawabi air instantly caught her attention. He was a stranger, yet he looked familiar, and she instantly knew that he was the prince of her dreams. Irrational! Incredible! But then, that’s love!
A more rational thought is that they had actually met years earlier, when the actress was not more than five. She had auditioned her for the role of a child artiste in Sohrab Modi’s Jailor whose story and dialogues he had penned. She didn’t get the role which went to Daisy Irani, but perhaps the memory of that handsome 20-year-old man had remained in her subconscious.
It was Ashok Kumar who introduced Meena Kumari to Kamal Amrohi on the sets of their 1952 romcom Tamasha. The attraction Meena Kumari had felt earlier was stronger than ever when she met him in person. Amrohi too was floored by the beautiful teenager who shared his love for words and verse. He offered her the lead role in his under-production film Anarkali and she happily accepted. But soon after, on May 21, 1951, she was involved in a horrific car accident while returning to Mumbai from Mahabaleshwar.
Badly injured, she spent four months at a hospital in Pune. Initially, her producers and directors would visit her, but after a while they melted away. Only Kamal Amrohi continued coming. He would sit by her bed quietly, and in the silence, love bloomed. He was a married man with three children whom he refused to leave. Meena Kumari’s father, Ali Bux, didn’t approve, but through long whispered phone conversations, the couple stayed connected, going through a secret nikah on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Besides the qasi, only her younger sister, Madhu, and his friend, Baaqar Ali, were present as witnesses. When the news leaked out, her father was livid and insisted on the marriage being annulled. His daughter’s answer was to move into her Chandan’s home and become chhotiammi to his young son, Tajdar.
However, soon there were rumours that there was trouble in paradise. And the primary reason for it was her work. Despite the success of Dil Apna Aur Preet Paraye which Amrohi produced and Mughal-e-Azam which he co-wrote, his career had not taken off as expected while hers was flourishing after Baiju Bawra, Parineeta, Azaad, Mem Sahib, Raasta and Halaku, to name a few. Subsequently, her husband’s growing possessively began to rankle.
They were together for 12 years. Then one day, she went for the shoot of Pinjre Ki Panchhi never returned home. According to Tajdar, his father went to her sister Madhu’s house to bring his Manju back home. But she refused to even open the door to her room despite all his pleadings. He finally left, telling her he would not be back, but the doors of his home were always open for her. She never returned. But her life didn’t get any better.
Her career was on the downslide. There was talk of other men, including Saawan Kumar Tak, Gulzar and Dharmendra. And then there was the drinking. After separating from Kamal Amrohi, Meena Kumari started drinking heavily. Finally, when she was taken for treatment to London and Switzerland, she was diagnosed with cirrhosis of liver which led to her premature demise at the age of 38. But before that there was Pakeezah.
The musical romantic drama revolving around a nautch girl went on the floors in July 1956 with Kamal Amrohi serving as the writer, producer and director and Meena Kumari, in the title role.
The film took Its time to finish, with Kamal Amrohi moving from black-and-white to colour and cinemascope, even bringing down sets which were an inch awry, and shuffling around his cast. By March 1964, he had already spent Rs 4 million on his dream project. He was halfway through Pakeezah, when his wife left him and the film ground to a halt. There were many actresses who would have happily stepped in for the ailing Meena Kumari, but according to Tajdar, his father never once considered replacing his chhotiammi.
When Meena Kumari learnt from doctors abroad that she had just six months to live she was determined that she would not leave the world without paying off all her debts and finishing every pending project. And that included Pakeezah. So, in 1969, five years and 12 days after she had left, Meena Kumari returned to the set of Pakeezah. Kamal Amrohi greeted her with a gold guinea and promised to make her look ethereal despite her failing health.
Shooting finally completed in November, 1971, and the film premiered at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir theatre on February 4, 1972. Meena Kumari, looking lovely in a white gharara, strings of mogra in her hair, was received by Kamal Amrohi. They sat and watched the film together with all their guests. Disappointingly, the reactions were lukewarm. But the maker was confident the film would live on.
He was right. Pakeezah celebrated a golden jubilee run and immortalized Meena Kumari who passed away nine weeks later, on March 31, 1972. Ironically, it was on Good Friday, and along with those mourning the crucifixion of Christ, there were many who were grieving for Hindi Cinema’s Tragedy Queen. Among them was the man who had remained her husband till the end since the estranged couple had never formally divorced.
Kamal Amrohi breathed his last on February 11, 1993. He was buried next to Meena Kumari. And after 21 years, Chandan and his Manju were reunited, this time forever.
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