Saturday, December 11, 2010

THE PRECIOUS MADHUBALA.

Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi,
known by her stage name Madhubala (Devnagari: (14 February 1933 - 23 February 1969) was a popular Hindi movie actress. She starred in several successful movies in the 1950s and early 1960s, many of which have attained a classic status. With her contemporaries Nargis and Meena Kumari, she is widely regarded as one of the most talented Hindi movie actresses.
Madhubala was born in New Delhi, India on 14 February 1933 in a Muslim family from Afghanistan, member of the Nawabi family of Kabul, branch of the royal dynasty of the Mohammadzay (called also Barakzay), her grandparents were exiled by Afghanistan's Amir to India. She was the fifth child among eleven children of a conservative Muslim couple. After Madhubala's father Ataullah Khan lost his job at the Imperial Tobacco Company in Peshawer[3], the father relocated his family to Mumbai. Young Mumtaz entered the movie industry at the age of nine.
Mumtaz’s first movie Basant (1942) was a box-office success[4]. She played in it as the daughter of the popular actress Mumtaz Shanti. She went on to act in several movies as a child artist. Actress Devika Rani was impressed by her performances and potential and advised her to assume the name Madhubala[5]. Madhubala soon garnered reputation as a reliable professional performer. By the time she entered adolescence, she was being groomed for lead roles.
Madhubala was found to have a heart problem after she coughed up blood in 1950. She was discovered to have been born with a ventricular septal defect, commonly known as a "hole in the heart". At the time, heart surgery was not widely available.
But her condition took its toll and she died in 1969 at age 36. For most of the 1950s, Madhubala performed successfully despite her illnesss.
In her short life, Madhubala made over 70 films. In all three biographies and numerous articles published on her, she has been compared with Marilyn Monroe and has a similarly iconic position in Indian film history. Perhaps because she died before being relegated to supporting or character roles, to this day Madhubala remains one of the most enduring and celebrated legends of Indian cinema. Her continuing appeal to film fans was underlined in a 1990 poll conducted by Movie magazine. Madhubala was voted the most popular vintage Hindi actress of all time, garnering 58% of the votes, and out ranking contemporary legendary actresses Meena Kumari, Nargis, and Nutan.
 








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