Meena Kumari Biography, Life, Struggle, Movies, Songs, Marriage and Death at 39 age

Meena Kumari Biography, life, Struggle, Movies, Songs, Marriage, and Death at the age of 39. We will find out details of Menna Kumari’s life like childhood, family, marriage, husband, movies, and finally Meena Kumari’s death.

Meena Kumari is known as the “tragedy queen of Bollywood“, a tag she never wanted but got associated with her because of her mastery in tragedy roles like Pakeezah, Mere Apne, Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam. A family that pushed her to showbiz, a successful career but a failed marriage, a love life that went nowhere, and alcoholism at the end.

Meena Kumari’s life had no glamour if you look closely, and she died at a very young age. the Hindi song ‘Har Kisi Ko Nahin Milta Yahan Pyar Zindagi Mein’ perfectly fits Meena Kumari’s life.

Like many of her contemporaries, Meena Kumari was also born into a Muslim family and started her career as a child artist (Nargis, Madhubala, etc. also started their character as child artists).

Children Family Biography

Name	Mahjabeen Bano
Date of Birth	01 Aug 1932
Place of birth	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Father	Master Ali Bux
Mother	Iqbal Begum
Stage Name	Meena Kumari
Other names	Reading Mahjabeen, Tragedy Queen, Manju
Debut movie	Leatherface
Marital status	Married
Husband Name	Kamal Amrohi
Children	NO children ( daughter or son)
Died on	31st March 1972
Death reason	Prolonged health issues due to drinking
Age at the time of death	39
Last movie	Gomti Ke Kinare

Also Read-

• Love story of Nargis Dutt
• Love Story and sad ending of Madhubala
• The failed love story of Suraiya and Dev Anand

Meena Kumari Early Life

When was Meena Kumari born

Meena Ji was born on 1st August 1932 in a very nonfancy chawl in Dadar, Mumbai called “Meetawala Chawl”.

Her father Master Ali Bux though shifted her wife Iqbal Begum to the maternity ward of Dr Gadre’s hospital in Parel where she delivered the beautiful Mahjabeen Bano (the original name of Meena Kumari) and returned home after 7 days.

Mahjabeen had two more sisters named Khurshid and Madhu (one elder and one younger).

Her father was born and brought up in a village called Bhera in Sargodha District of Punjab( now in Pakistan). He had a keen interest in music and started playing the harmonium which was one of the most prominent instruments in music in those days. Becoming popular as a harmonium player he was then addressed as ‘Master’ in his village by many and thus he carried this adjective to his name for a lifetime.

Ali Bux married a girl from a nearby village. He became the father of three girls but he felt content in his village as there was little hope of development. He thought of moving to a bigger city to achieve something in life and thus migrated to Bombay (Mumbai was called Bombay at that time) leaving behind his wife and daughters.

While playing the harmonium for the Krishna music company in Bombay he got attracted to a dancer called Prabhabati who was a Bengali Christian who had family roots to Rabindra Nath Tagore (Prabhabati’s mother was from Bengal and was the niece of Rabindra Nath Tagore who later converted).

Both got married and Prabhabati was converted to Islam and her new name was Iqbal Begum.

In 1935 Mahjabeen’s whole family moved to Lahore for one year as her father caught a disease that was hard to recognize and doctors asked him to take a rest. After returning to Bombay their mother Iqbal caught a lung infection which forced her to leave her acting and dancing career.

Mahjabeen/Menna Kumari’s elder sister used to work as a child artist in those days but the income was not sufficient for the family. So Ali Bux thought of also started looking for work for his second daughter and eventually, he succeeded when Vijay Bhatt gave her a small role in his movie, and then there was no looking back.

It was Vijay Bhatt who gave her the screen name “Baby Meena”.

Meena damaged the pinky finger of her left hand in her childhood but gracefully managed to hide it in her movies.

Meena Kumari Career and films

It was 1946 and baby Meena is now considerably grown up for a child artist. She got her kind of first adult role in Bachchon Ka Khel.

Slowly and steadily she was establishing herself in Hindi Cinema but in meantime, in 1947 she lost her mother. They have moved to their new house at Chapel Road, Bandra from the chawl in Dadar.

By the end of 1950, Meena Kumari had signed Kamal Amrohi’s picture Anarkali. Initially, Kamal had chosen Madhubala for this role, but later Madhubala refused to work in this film.

It is said that she wanted Dilip Kumar as the hero of this film, but it could not happen, so she refused to work with it. And some reports also say that the relationship between Kamal Amrohi and Madhubala’s father was not that good, so she refused to do this film.

Although Nargis was a big star during the 1950s, she mostly worked in RK films. Madhubala refused to do this picture and Suraiya stopped taking more work after a breakup with Dev Anand. So Meena Kumari was the best option left for the makers.

But in May 1951 Meena Kumari met with an accident that left her bedridden for four months and this was the period she developed an affair with Kamal Amrohi.

The movie Anarkali could not be completed as its producer lost a heavy chunk of his money in the Share market. But Meena Kumari signed two other movies in the meantime, Footpath and Baiju Bawra.

She won the “Best Actress” award in the first Filmfare Awards in 1954 for her role in “Baiju Bawara”. Also, music director Naushad won the “Best Music” award for the movie.

The film ‘Baiju Bawra’ is one of the classic musical blockbuster movies. The film is set during Akbar’s reign and is based on the life of renowned musician Baiju Bawra. The film depicts Baiju Bawra’s desire to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the music emperor Tansen, who was one of Akbar’s nine gems. However, there are numerous differences between the film’s plot and the popular legends of Baiju Bawra.

The success of Baiju Bawara established her as a star to reckon. Meena Kumari appeared in seventy-seven movies in her career that was spanned more than three decades.

In 1962 one of her best movies was released (Saheb Biwi Aur Gulam) and also see it was the peak time in her career.

In 1963 Filmfare awards she made history with all performances nominated for best actress belonged to her. Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam with Guru Dutt, Mein Chup Rahungi with Sunil Dutt, and Aarti with Ashok Kumar.

In 1972 Pakeezah became the last movie that was released when she was alive, though battling with life. Initially, the film did not do anything special, but when the news of Meena Kumari’s death spread across the country, people thronged the film hall and Pakeezah proved to be a superhit film.

After her death, only one film was released which was Gomti Ke Kinare and this was credited as her last movie to be released.

Her Love affair and marriage

On 21st May 1951, Meena Kumari met with a road accident when returning from Mahabaleswar in which she suffered many injuries, and she was lying in the hospital for 4 months. Kamal Amrohi used to visit Meena Kumari during this time in Poona’s hospital.

It is said that this was the time when both came closer to each other, and love started between the two. However, Kamal Amrohi was married at that time and had three sons. But all this could not become a wall between the love of Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi, and both of them came closer to each other.

Meena Kumari used to call Kamal Amrohi “Chandan” and Amrohi used to call her “Manju” with love.

When Meena Kumari was discharged from the hospital, both kept talking on the phone till late at night. The love between the two grew, and in 1952, both of them quietly got married. Both wanted to keep this thing hidden from the world. This was known to one of Kamal Amrohi’s friends, the Kazi who got them married, and Meena Kumari’s younger sister Madhu.

Meena Kumari wanted to keep her marriage hidden from her father, but her father came to know. And there was a lot of fight between them regarding the marriage, and her father had even told Meena Kumari to immediately divorce Kamal Amrohi. But Meena Kumari was not ready for this.

Although father and daughter used to fight a lot about this matter, Meena Kumari did not leave her father’s house. In 1953, Kamal Amrohi made a film in which he had asked Meena Kumari for the lead role, and Meena Kumari also said yes to the offer.

But this was not acceptable to her father. So he tried to pressure Meena Kumari and asked her not to work in Amrohi’s film. But she did not listen to him and reached the shooting of Amrohi’s film. When her father came to know about this, then one day (on 14th August 1953), when Meena Kumari returned from shooting, her father refused to open the door of the house. So on that day, Meena Kumari left her house and went to Kamal Amrohi’s house.

Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari even made a movie called Daaera in 1953 which was based on their love story but the movie did not do that well at the box office.

The initial years were fine, and the couple was happy. Gradually, the sourness in the relationship between both of them increased, and the distance also increased. And by 1964, the distance increased so much that Meena Kumari left her husband’s house.

She spent a few days at her friend’s house and then she moved to the house of famous comedian Mehmood, who was her younger sister’s husband. She spent about 5 months at Mehmood’s house, and after that, she shifted to her new house.

During this Meena Kumari had started drinking alcohol or rather she was now addicted to alcohol. Though Meena Kumari stayed with her husband for 11 long years but they had no children.

Dharmendra and Meena Kumari

Dharmendra was a newcomer to Hindi cinema then and Meena Kumari was an established star then. The first movie of both was Poornima which was released in 1965. But this film did not do that well at the box office. The second film of both was Kajal but Dharmendra was the second lead in this film while Rajkumar was in the first lead.

Both appeared in more than 5 movies. At that time, many print media published the news that Dharmendra and Meena Kumari have a love relationship. Vinod Mehta, who wrote the biography of Meena Kumari, has also written in his book that there was a relationship of love between the two. However, Dharmendra has denied this in many of his interviews and said that Meena Kumari was like his mentor and was also a big reason for his success in his career.

Meena Kumari death

Meena Kumari had a sleep disorder that is insomnia, due to which the doctor advised her to sleep after drinking a peg of brandy.

But this one peg brandy turned into a bottle. Slowly Meena Kumari became addicted to alcohol and after she left her husband’s house, her acquaintances say that she had started drinking even during the day. Because of this, her liver started getting affected and she started getting sick often.

In 1968, when she fell very ill, after the doctor’s advice, her close friend took her to London for better treatment. There she got her treatment and stayed there for a few months. And when her health got better, she came back to India.

She completed some of her assignments and took some new assignments, including Mere Apne, Gomti Ke Kinare, and Pakeezah. Pakeezah was something her husband Kamal Amrohi and she planned long ago when they were together. Finally, they started Pakeezah after she returned from London and completed it.

In an interview, Gomti Ke Kinare director and writer Saawan Kumar Tak said that he used to be with her in Meen Kumari’s last days and saw her in pain. He even claimed that the duo had a spiritual relationship. He even said that she helped him financially with the movie. She sold her bungalow to actress Mumtaz and gave him 150000 Rupees.

The movie was released in February 1972 and was not a hit among the mass. Due to her prolonged liver disease, which got serious, Meena Kumari got admitted to St Elizabeth’s Nursing Home in Malabar Hill on 27th March 1972.

At the last moment, when the doctor advised Meena Kumari to shift to the hospital, Meena Kumari wondered how she would pay such a huge hospital bill because she had only Rs 100 left at that time. Then she asked her elder sister Khurshid to call her producer with whom Meena Kumari had worked and some money was owed to her.

Her elder sister immediately called up the producer and the producer too, showing sincerity, immediately sent the money to Meena Kumari’s house.

On 31st March, she died, and as soon as the news reached her fans, the emotion brought them to the cinema hall. The usually empty shows were jam-packed. Theatres even saw advance booking.

It took her life to make Pakeezah one of the cult movies of Indian cinema. With Meena Kumari death there was the end of an era.

It is reported that when Nargis Dutt last visited Meena Kumari when she was in the hospital, Nargis said ‘Maut Mubarak Ho Meena’.

Meena Kumari Books

If you are fascinated by Meena Kumari’s life and want to know every small detail of her life then you can refer to these books.

Meena Kumari Movies/ filmography

Sl No	Movie Name	Year
1	Leatherface	1939
2	Adhuri Kahani	1939
3	Pooja	1940
4	Ek Hi Bhool	1940
5	Nai Roshni	1941
6	Kasauti	1941
7	Bahen	1941
8	Garib	1942
9	Vijay	1942
10	Pratiggya	1943
11	Lal Haveli	1944
12	Duniya Ek Sarai	1946
13	Bachchon Ka Khel	1946
14	Piya Ghar Aaja	1947
15	Bichchade Balam	1948
16	Veer Ghatotkach	1949
17	Shri Ganesh Mahima	1950
18	Magroor	1950
19	Hamara Ghar	1950
20	Sanam	1951
21	Madhosh	1951
22	Laxmi Narayan	1951
23	Hanuman Patal Vijay	1951
24	Tamasha	1952
25	Baiju Bawra	1952
26	Aladdin Aur Jadui Chirag	1952
27	Naulakha Haar	1953
28	Parineeta	1953
29	Foot Path	1953
30	Do Bigha Zamin	1953
31	Daana Paani	1953
32	Daera	1953
33	Ilzaam	1954
34	Chandni Chowk	1954
35	Baadbaan	1954
36	Rukhsana	1955
37	Adl-e-Jehangir	1955
38	Bandish	1955
39	Azaad	1955
40	Mem Sahib	1956
41	Ek Hi Raasta	1956
42	Shatranj	1956
43	Naya Andaz	1956
44	Halaku	1956
45	Bandhan	1956
46	Sharada	1957
47	Miss Mary	1957
48	Sahara	1958
49	Yahudi	1958
50	Savera	1958
51	Farishta	1958
52	Chand	1959
53	Ardhangini	1959
54	Shararat	1959
55	Satta Bazaar	1959
56	Madhu	1959
57	Jagir	1959
58	Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan	1959
59	Char Dil Char Rahen	1959
60	Kohinoor	1960
61	Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai	1960
62	Bahana	1960
63	Zindagi aur Khwab	1961
64	Pyaar Ka Saagar	1961
65	Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan	1961
66	Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam	1962
67	Main Chup Rahungi	1962
68	Aarti	1962
69	Kinare Kinare	1963
70	Dil Ek Mandir	1963
71	Akeli Mat Jaiyo	1963
72	Benazir	1964
73	Main Bhi Ladki Hoon	1964
74	Sanjh Aur Savera	1964
75	Ghazal	1964
76	Chitralekha	1964
77	Purnima	1965
78	Kaajal	1965
79	Bheegi Raat	1965
80	Phool Aur Patthar	1966
81	Pinjre Ke Panchhi	1966
82	Noorjehan	1967
83	Majhli Didi	1967
84	Chandan Ka Palna	1967
85	Bahu Begum	1967
86	Baharon Ki Manzil	1968
87	Abhilasha	1968
88	Saat Phere	1970
89	Jawab	1970
90	Mere Apne	1971
91	Dushman	1971
92	Pakeezah	1972
93	Gomti Ke Kinare	1972

FAQs

Biopic

Kriti Sanon would soon be seen in Meena Kumari’s biography, according to rumors. Hansal Mehta will direct the film. For a long time, it was speculated that Kriti could play the lead in Meena Kumari’s biography. According to a news outlet, Kriti is now in talks about the project. If all goes as planned, Kriti will soon be seen on the big screen as Meena Kumari.