Madhubala  (born  Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi) was an Indian actress and producer who worked in  Hindi Cinema. She starred in  more than 60 films  in a career spanning over two decades, and became one of India’s most popular and highest-paid entertainers between the late 1940s and early 1960s. Half a century later, she continues to be held in high regard, with her portrayals of strong-willed and independent characters being seen as a significant departure from the regular portrayals of women on the Indian screen.

In Delhi Madhubala was employed at the  All India Radio  station to sing compositions of  Khurshid Anwar. The seven-year-old continued working there for months,  and became acquainted with Rai Bahadur Chunnilal, the General Manager of the studio Bombay Talkies, situated in  Bombay. Chunnilal took an immediate liking towards Madhubala, eventually suggesting her father to visit Bombay for a better lifestyle. An approval from the studio executives, Chunnilal signed Madhubala to a juvenile role in Bombay Talkies’ production, Basant (1942), at a salary of ₹150.  Released in July 1942,  Basant  became a major success commercially.

Madhubala was signed to a three-year contract with  Chandulal Shah‘s studio  Ranjit Movietone, on a monthly payment of ₹300. , Madhubala playing minor roles in five of Ranjit’s films :  Mumtaz Mahal (1944),  Dhanna Bhagat (1945),  Rajputani (1946),  Phoolwari (1946) and  Pujari (1946) ; she was credited as “Baby Mumtaz” in all of them.  Madhubala began shooting for two of Mohan Sinha’s directorial ventures,  Chittor Vijay  and  Mere Bhagwaan, which were supposed to be her introduction to the silver-screen in adult roles.

Madhubala’s first project in a lead role was  Sohrab Modi‘s  Daulat, but it was shelved indefinitely (and would not be revived until the next year). Her debut as a leading lady came in  Kidar Sharma‘s drama  Neel Kamal, in which she starred opposite debutante  Raj Kapoor  and Begum Para. Released in March 1947, Neel Kamal  was popular with audience and garnered wide public recognition for Madhubala. She then reteamed with Kapoor in Chittor Vijay  and  Dil Ki Rani, both of which were released in 1947, and in Amar Prem, which came out the following year.  To secure her family financially, Madhubala quickly signed 24 films.

Impressed by her work in  Neel Kamal, Devika Rani suggested her to take “Madhubala” as her professional name.  Madhubala found her first critical and commercial success in the drama  Lal Dupatta, which  The Indian Express  mentioned as a breakthrough for her. Baburao Patel  described the film as “the first milestone of her maturity in screen acting”.  Her supporting roles in  Parai Aag (1948),  Paras  and  Singaar  (both 1949) also met her with critical acclaim. In 1949, Madhubala played a femme fatale  in  Kamal Amrohi‘s  “Mahal” (Mansion), the first horror film of Indian Cinema. The film revolves around a man who moves into an ancient mansion and learns about his previous life. Things take a turn when he gets visions of a women claiming to be his lover. Upon release,  Mahal, however, proved to be an immensely popular film among audience. The scholar  Rachel Dwyer  noted that Madhubala’s ignorance among audience added to the mysterious nature of her character. The film, which would be Madhubala’s first of many collaborations with actor and brother-in-law  Ashok Kumar, emerged as the third biggest box-office success of the year, resulting in her signing a string of starring roles opposite the leading actors of the time. Long after its release, Mahal continues to “haunt” audience and is considered a cult classic. Hailed as one of the most successful and influential films of Indian Cinema. The film found a place in the British Film Institute’s list of “10 great romantic horror films”.

Madhubala played  Ajit‘s love interest in  K. Amarnath‘s social drama  Beqasoor (1950). The feature received positive reviews and ranked among the year’s top-grossing Bollywood productions. Also in 1950, she appeared in the comedy-drama  Hanste Aansoo, which became the first Indian film to be awarded an adult’s certification. The following year, Madhubala starred in the  Amiya Chakravarty – directed action film Badal (1951), a remake of  The Adventures of Robin Hood. Her portrayal of a princess who ignorantly falls in love with  Prem Nath‘s character. She played the titular part in M. Sadiq’s romance  Saiyan, which Roger Yue of  The Singapore Free Press  commented was played “to perfection”. Both  Badal  and  Saiyan  proved to be major box-office successes.

Madhubala then collaborated with actor Dilip Kumar  twice in a row, on the 1951 comedy  Tarana  and the 1952 drama Sangdil. These films also performed well financially, popularizing the on and offscreen couple among wide audience. On  Tarana,  Filmindia  complimented her performance as well as her chemistry with Dilip Kumar.

Madhubala later starred in another film of 1954,  Mehboob Khan‘s  “Amar” (Immortal), portraying a social worker involved in a love triangle. Dealing with the controversial subject matter of rape, the films revolves around the titular upper-class lawyer (Dilip Kumar), his feminist fiance, the social worker Anju Roy (Madhubala), and Sonia (Nimmi), a poor milkmaid. Baburao Patel, the editor of Filmindia, called it “a brilliant picture with a gripping human story superbly directed and acted with flawless perfection. A masterpiece of film craft”. 

Madhubala starred in 1955 with  Guru Dutt‘s comedy  Mr. & Mrs. ’55, which emerged as one of the year’s highest-grossing films in India and her biggest success at that point of time. The film saw Madhubala playing a naive heiress who is forced into a sham marriage with Dutt’s character by her spinster aunt (Lalita Pawar). Harneet Singh of  The Indian Express  called  Mr. & Mrs. ’55 ” a great ride” and acknowledged Madhubala’s “The film rides on Madhubal’s impish charm and breezy comic timing” as one of its prime assests.

 Madhubala appeared in two period films in 1956,  Raj Hath  and  Shirin Farhad, both critical and commercial successes. The following year, she portrayed a runaway heiress in  Om Prakash‘s  Gateway of India (1957), which critic Deepa Gahlot  believed to be one of the finest performances of her career. Madhubala then starred in the drama  Ek Saal (1957), which followed a terminally-ill ingenue (played by Madhubala) who falls in love with Ashok Kumar’s character. The film proved popular with audience and became as a box office hit.

Madhubala began the year 1958 with  Raj Khosla‘s  Kala Pani, starring her as an intrepid journalist investigating a 15-year-old murder. She was then cast as Edna in  Howrah Bridge (1958), her first collaboration with director  Shakti Samanta. Madhubala waived her fees to play the role of an Anglo-Indian  cabaret dancer, which marked a departure from her previous portrayals of sophisticated characters. Both  Howrah Bridge  and  Kala Pani  begot positive reviews for her and became two of the year’s top-grossing films. She followed this success with the box office hit  Phagun (1958). In her final release of 1958, Madhubala portrayed a wealthy city woman involved in a love affair with  Kishore Kumar  in Satyen Bose‘s comedy  Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi – one of the biggest money-making pictures of the 1950s. The columnist  Rinki Bhattacharya  mentioned Madhubala’s character in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi  as “a top favourite”, stating her performance exemplifies an independent, urban woman.

Her second collaboration with Samanta, Insan Jaag Utha (1959), was a social drama film in which the protagonists work on the construction of a dam to improve their living conditions.  Initially, the film was a modest success only, but it has been reviewed favourably by modern-day critics. Rachit Gupta of  Filmfare  and Roktim Rajpal of  Deccan Herald  have cited Madhubala’s performance as Gauri, a village belle, as one of her finest works. Later in 1959, she received critical praise for playing dual roles in  Kal Hamara Hai, also starring  Bharat Bhushan. The commercial success of Do Ustad (1959), which saw her reuniting with Raj Kapoor after a decade, Madhubala produced a second film, the comedy  Mehlon Ke Khwab (1960).

Mughal-e-Azam (The Great Mughal) is a 1960 Indian epic historical drama film starring Madhubala. Journalist  Dinesh Raheja  described  as the “crowning glory” of Madhubala’s career. Co-starring Dilip Kumar and Prithviraj Kapoor, the film revolves on a 16th-century court dancer,  Anarkali  (Madhubala), and her affair with the  Mughal  Prince  Salim (Dilip Kumar).  Madhubala received an advance payment of ₹100,000, the highest for any actor or actress till then.  Madhubala was also troubled by the night schedules and complicated dance sequences, which she had been medically asked to avoid. Mughal-e-Azam  was first of Madhubala’s films in colour.   The film had the widest release of any Indian film up to that time,  and became the  highest-grossing Indian film  of all time, a distinction it would hold for 15 years.  Mughal-e-Azam  won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, and led the  8th Filmfare Awards  ceremony with seven nominations, including  Best Actress  for Madhubala. A reviewer for The Indian Express commented, “Scene after scene bears testimony to the outstanding gifts of Madhubala as a natural actress.”

In late 1960, Madhubala was seen in Shakti Samanta’s crime film  Jaali Note, about counterfeit money ; it was successful financially. Madhubala’s starring role in the musical  Barsaat Ki Raat (1960) was better received. Film revolves around two lovers Shabnam (Madhubala) and Amaan Hyderabadi (Bharat Bhushan), who strive to be together but the society does not approve of them. The feature was the year’s second-highest-grossing film, trailing only Mughal-e-Azam.

The back-to-back blockbuster successes of  Mughal-e-Azam  and  Barsaat Ki Raat  established Madhubala as the most successful leading lady of 1960. In a few films, including the comedies  Jhumroo (1961),  Boy Friend (1961), and the dramas  Passport (1961), releases were among the top-grossing productions of the year. Half Ticket, her last collaboration with husband Kishore Kumar was a critical and commercial success as well. Sukanya Verma  called the film one of her most favourite comedies of all time. Also released in 1962 was Madhubala Private Ltd.’s third and last presentation, Pathan, which turned out to be a box office flop. Following a sabbatical of two years, she completed  Sharabi  in 1964; the film became her final release in her lifetime. Baburao Patel, writing for  Mother India, praised Madhubala’s performance for “reviv[ing] the old heartache”. Rediff.com called  Sharabi  a “fitting finale to a luminous career, showing the actress at her most beautiful and her most effective, a heroine destined not to age in any of our eyes.” In 1971, one of Madhubala’s incomplete works,  Jwala, was released. Co-starring  Sunil Dutt  and  Sohrab Modi, the film was mainly completed with the help of body doubles. It marked Madhubala’s final screen role.

She performed actively in charity, which led editor Baburao Patel to call her the “queen of charity”. In 1950, she donated  ₹5 thousand each to children suffering from  polio myelitis  and to the  Jammu And Kashmir  relief fund, and  ₹50 thousand for the refugees from  East Bengal. Madhubala’s donation sparked off a major controversy due to her religious beliefs and received wide coverage in the media at that time. Subsequently, she kept her charity work guarded and donated anonymously. In 1954, it was revealed that Madhubala has been regularly giving monthly bonuses to the lower staffs of her studios. She also gifted a camera crane to the  Film and Television Institute of India  in 1962, which is operational till date.

James Burke  photographed her for a feature in the American magazine  Life, which described her as the biggest star in the Indian film industry at that time. Her fame reached beyond India as well: director  Frank Capra  offered her a break in Hollywood (which her father declined) and in August 1952,  David Cort  of  Theatre Arts Magazine  wrote of her as “the biggest star in the world — and she’s not in the  Beverley Hills.” Cort estimated Madhubala’s Indian and Pakistani fan base equal to the combined population of the contemporary United States and Western Europe, and also reported her popularity in Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia and East Africa. Along with  Nargis, she also had large fan following in Greece.

Madhubala’s beauty and physical attractiveness were widely acknowledged, and led the media to refer to her as “The  Venus  of  Indian Cinema” and “The Beauty with Tragedy”. In 1951, Clare Mendonca of  The Illustrated Weekly of India  called her “the number one beauty of the Indian screen”. Several of her co-workers cited her as the most beautiful woman they ever saw. Nirupa Roy  said that “there never was and never will be anyone with her looks” while  Nimmi  (co-star in the 1954 film  Amar) admitted passing a sleepless night afte r her first meeting with Madhubala. Due to her perceived appeal, Madhubala became one of the Brand Ambassadors of beauty products by  Lux  and  Godrej. However, she stated that happiness matters more to her than physical beauty.

Writing retrospectively for  The New York Times, Aisha Khan characterised Madhubala’s acting style as “natural” and “understated”, noting that she often portrayed roles of “modern young women testing the limits of traditions”. Film critic  Sukanya Verma  felt that actresses like Madhubala “should be applauded for doing more than just looking good and crying buckets.”  Madhubala was acknowledged in the media for her unconventional roles. Madhubala has also been credited for introducing several modern styles, such as trousers (for females) and strapless dresses in  Bollywood. Her distinctive wavy hairstyle was referred to as “the out-of-the-bed look” and further established her screen persona as a liberated and independent woman.  David Cort summarized her as “the ideal of the free Indian woman or what India hopes the free Indian woman will be.” In the 1970s, the Greek singer Stelios Kazantzidis  produced the song “Mandoubala” as a tribute to Madhubala.

In retrospect, Madhubala remains one of the most beautiful, talented actors Indian screen has seen. Dubbed Marilyn Monroe of India, the legendary actor still has it in her to arrest peoples’ attention, decades after passing away.

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.