Today is the birth anniversary of the actress who was known for her beauty, personality, and sensitive portrayals of tragic women.
The legendary actress Madhubala was also known as The Beauty with Tragedy and The Venus Queen of Indian Cinema. Her comparison with Hollywood actress Marilyn Monroe earned her the name of Marilyn Monroe of Hindi film industry.
Madhubala made her screen debut as a child artist at the age of nine with the film Basant (1942). However, her acting career as an actress actually started in 1947, when she appeared in Neel Kamal with Raj Kapoor at the age of 14. During a career span of 22 years, she appeared in around 73 Hindi films and received her only nomination for a Filmfare Award for ‘Best Actress’ for her performance in Mughal-e-Azam (1960).
Although Madhubala’s success knew no bounds, it is very tragic that she never found true love during her lifetime. She was in a relationship with Latif, Mohan Sinha, Kamal Amrohi, Premnath, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Dilip Kumar, Pradeep Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, and Kishore Kumar at various points of her life.
But among those if Madhubala and Dilip Kumar had married, it would have been a match made in heaven. She was beautiful and vivacious, he was intense and an introvert. However, it was not meant to be.
Dilip and Madhubala first met on the sets of Tarana (1951) and love blossomed between them. They also worked in three more films together – Sangdil, Amar and one of the most iconic films of all time, K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam. The couple was deeply in love and was even engaged to get married.
Madhubala belonged to an orthodox family and most of her decisions when it came to choosing movies were taken by her father. She was not allowed to mingle with her co-stars nor was she allowed to go for on-location shoots. Her father had not permitted her to accept Frank Capra’s offer in Naya Daur because it required for her to go on location.
Her seven-year long love affair with Dilip Kumar ended on a sour note when he resented the interference of her overbearing father. She later married Kishore Kumar.
PNN