Madhubala : the Venus of the Indian screen

Yesterday someone shared a rare collection of photos of Madhubala on FB. The photos clicked by photographer James Burke were published in Life Magazine of America which also featured unusual photos of actresses like Asha Parekh, Nalini Jaywant and Begum Para. I could not help sharing such exclusive snaps of her in my blog.

Madhubala looking so ethereal and life-like in the photos just piqued my curiosity further to explore more about this divine beauty. An actress of yesteryear, she was famed for her unparalleled luminous beauty and her swashbuckling performance in movies like Mughal-E-Azam, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Howrah Bridge and Mahal. In her brief span of life she performed in 70 movies some of which were based on choices done arbitrarily to fend for her family members as she was the sole earning member of her family.

Born on the Valentine day of 1933, she came from a royal lineage of Kabul, Afghanisthan. Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi was her maiden name before she joined film industry and assumed the name "Madhubala" on the advice of Devika Rani, another well-known actress of that era. Fifth among 11 siblings, she entered films as a child artist at the age of 9. Her first film was Basant (1942) where she acted alongside the then famous actors Mumtaz Shanti and Ulhas. The film acquired whopping success in the box office but she had to wait till 1947 to bag the role of a leading lady. She was only 14 when the producer Kidar Sharma paired her against Raj Kapoor in the movie "Neel Kamal" (1947).The film didnot do well commercially but her impeccable beauty did not go unnoticed. Her first commercially successful movie was Mahal (1949) with Ashok Kumar, which earned her star status overnight. The song "Aayega Aanewala" was a haunting melody that propelled both Madhubala and Lata Mangeshkar rightaway into stardom.Encumbered with the burden of running her family as the only breadwinner she, in her initial years of career, chose movies randomly with the sole purpose of earning money.Financial desperation led her into compromising with the credibility of a serious actress and consequently she belched out a series of flop movies which earned her the sobriquet "Box-Office poison".

However, with her inimitable grace and matchless beauty, she notched a niche as one of the topmost heroines of that era starring opposite to an array of popular heroes of that time including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt and Pradip Kumar. She had worked with directors like Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt, Kamal Amrohi and K. Asif who were notable and venerated in the genre of style and movie-making. Her role as an Anglo-Indian Cabaret dancer in Howrah Bridge, as Renu in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, as Anarkali in Mughal E Azam are some of the memorable characters she beautifully essayed, among others.

True to the words of the soothsayer who predicted that despite attaining lot of success and fame, she would lead an unhappy life and die a premature death, Madhubala had her personal life strewn with frustrations.Madhubala's father Ataullah Khan had a predominating presence in her life.He was extremely possessive of her and didnot allow her to mingle with people outside shooting schedules. She was not allowed to attend any film premiere or any party involving film promotion and she rarely gave interviews. Hollywood director Frank Capra, mesmerized by her celestial beauty as she was featured in many American magazines including LIFE and Theatre Arts, wanted to meet her during his India visit.But her father turned down the proposal of Frank Capra wanting to discuss a Hollywood opening for Madhubala,thereby nipping her prospective Hollywood career in its bud.

Madhubala had a longstanding 7 years of courtship with actor Dilip Kumar. They first met each other on the set of Jwar Bhata way back in 1944 when Madhubala was barely 11 years old. But their feelings for each other developed during the shooting of Tarana (1951) when Madhubala expressed her love sending a flower attached with a note through her hairdresser to Dilip Kumar. Unfortunately, following a controversial court case with B.R Chopra during the making of Naya Daur, the two parted ways for good.

However, there is a dichotomy of opinions with regard to the separation of Dilip Kumar and Madhubala. Some say that it was the preponderant influence of Ataullah Khan on Madhubala which forced her distance from Dilip Kumar.Ataullah Khan disapproved of her liaison with Dilip Kumar as he didn't want her to get married and quit films as his family solely lived on Madhubala's earnings. During the filming of Naya Daur, the director B.R Chopra wanted to shoot a part of the film in Bhopal and hence he wanted the unit to travel there.Ataullah Khan conceived that as a ploy to help Dilip Kumar romance Madhubala and opposed to it. Eventually, Madhubala like a true obedient daughter quit the film and thereupon B.R Chopra sued Madhubala for not completing the film she accepted advance payment for. The case lasted one year and actor Dilip Kumar testified against Madhubala and her father during the court proceeding. This case badly jeopardized Madhubala's image and embittered her relationship with Dilip Kumar. But in a recent interview on Madhubala, her younger sister Madhur Bhushan opined that "The reason Madhubala broke up with Dilip Kumar was B R Chopra's film Naya Daur, not my father." She said "Chopra's production filed a case against her, which went on for a year. But this did not spoil their relationship.Dilipsaab told her to forget movies and get married to him. She said she would marry him, provided he apologised to her father. He refused, so Madhubala left him. That one 'sorry' could have changed her life. She loved Dilipsaab till the day she died."

(If anyone is keen to read the whole interview, here goes the link: http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/mar/25sd1.htm)

Khatija Akbar in her biography about Madhubala wrote "Her father was a stern and dominating personality and Madhubala had been in awe of him all her life. When it came to the crunch, despite the depth of her feelings for Dilip Kumar, she did not have the courage to defy and over-ride her father and marry without his approval. Her happiness hinged on both Dilip Kumar's love, and her father's acceptance of it; that kind of emotional dependence is no longer seen or even understood." Shammi Kapoor believed ""She did not know when to break away. Geeta (Bali, Shammi Kapoor's wife) too was supporting her entire family, who similarly lived off her, but at one point she decided to leave. She left everything she had with them, broke away and married me. Madhubala could not leave her family."

Madhubala suffered from a serious heart ailment and during those days open heart surgery was not so widely prevalent.She had a hole in heart which was first discovered when she coughed blood during the shooting of Bahut Din Huwe (1954) in Chennai. However, not until 1957 during the shooting of Chalack when she passed out all of a sudden on the set that the seriousness of her disease was detected. Her sister said "She was advised bed rest for three months, but after a month of rest, Madhubala resumed work. Looking at her, one would not say that she was sick. She, herself, was not ready to believe that she was sick." Her last film was Mughal E Azam. Though some films were released after she became severely ill and after her death, but all of them were shot before she was taken ill and got bed-ridden in 1960. The shooting of Mughal E Azam took place through a long span of 9 years. The director K Asif, unaware of the severity of Madhubala's disease, slotted arduous shooting hours which proved detrimental to her health. Furthermore Madhubala's estranged relationship with Dilip Kumar drained her emotionally when she had to perform with him in romantic scenes. Reports say that apart from when dialogues were to be delivered, Dilip Kumar never exchanged a word with her. According to her sister "Madhubala married Kishore Kumar out of stubbornness, and anger towards Dilipsaab." Khatija Akbar in her biography about Madhubala wrote "Emotional to a fault, guileless in the bargain, she was simply not equipped to deal with the shock of the break-up." Like a fine actress she artfully hid the pain of her broken heart beneath the veneer of her effervescent smile. Filmfare in 1958 rightly observed: 'Her laughter is a becoming quality, not only because she comes to life as it were when she laughs but because a smile is the most charming cloak for a sob... Madhubala has had her share of struggle, suffering, disillusionment and emotional shock but no matter what lies beneath the surface she cloaks it with a graceful smile.'

After Mughal E Azam, she fell seriously ill. She even went to London for treatment in 1960 but her condition was in an advanced stage and doctors feared that she might not survive a surgery. The doctors announced that she would live more or less for a year only but defying their judgement, she continued to live for 9 years. Over the last few years of her life, she became completely bed bound and couldnot dress up. She died at a tender age of 36.

Her distracting glamour and infectious smile would always be missed in the movies.That we have never seen her grow old in front of our eyes the way we see other celebrities might be the fact that has etched her presence perennially in our minds. We find her a kind of riddle, a conundrum that is yet to be solved. At the same time her suffering and emotional hardship gnaw at out hearts arousing a wave of sympathy for her. That a coveted beauty like her had to perish at a tender age of mid-30s is a dreadful fact that has made her memory indelible, synonymous with the way we always rue over the untimely demise of Hollywood diva Marilyn Monroe.

Below is shared the link to the magazine Theatre Arts, 1952 August issue which you would find in the blog of Dr. Surajit Singh. http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/index-books.html 

Dr. Surajit Singh painstakingly collected not only the 1952 August issue of the magazine but also has shared a song sung by Madhubala in the film Pujari (1946).

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhubala

http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2008/mar/25sd5.htm

http://www.rediff.com/entertai/apr/04madhu1.htm

http://blog.uread.com/post/5269350042/15-things-we-learnt-about-madhubala

http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/index-books.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnjZmHyoiAM

My niece performing

Oh children grow up so fast. It seems like yesterday only when my brother in law accompanied by my elder brother dropped by my school to pick me up but on being sadly refused permission by the officer-in-charge to even meet me and give the good news firsthand, they returned home while I sulked and kept waiting for the school to end so that I could rush back home as hurriedly as possible. It was an occasion of momentous joy for us. My elder sister had given birth to a doll in a hospital in Howrah, and she was the first birth of the generation succeeding us. Now aged 15, Titir as we lovingly call her is growing up rapidly. Besides being academically sound and the topper in her school DPS Razarhat, she is a good dancer. Here goes some of the videos, capturing her dance performance on Rabindra Jayanti, shared by bro-in-law on You tube:

One Last Goodbye to Lynn Gilderdale - Review

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis(ME) also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is one of the debilitating diseases that has affected reportedly 17 million of people all over the world.Myalgia means muscle pain and encephalomyelitis means inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. The syndrome varies from patient to patient. People with lighter syndrome recover from the illness and lead a normal life, but people with severity of the cases become bed-bound,paraplegic with difficulty in eating and speaking. What triggers the disease is still a mystery. A simple flu or viral fever can leave one stricken with CFS. "One Last Goodbye" authored by Kay Gilderdale gives an account of the horrible life led by her daughter Lynn Gilderdale whose life was mercilessly cut short by this vicious diease.Lynn was barely 14 years old when the disease assailed her body. It was a routined BCG vaccination that triggered the ailment in Lynn. Immediately after the BCG jab, Lynn fell victim to a series of diseases including severe viral fever, tonsilitis, bronchitis which left her totally sapped and drained of all energy. She became completely bed-ridden within 6 months. Since she developed difficulty in  swallowing food, she was fed through a nasogastric tube at first which later on was replaced by a Hickman line. Hickman line is a line "permanently inserted into a major artery leading to the heart." Within a year or so she lost her speech too. In her mother's words ""the disease that had stolen her life and left her completely bedridden, unable to walk, talk or even swallow." For 17 long years she suffered the ailment which ravaged her body completely and restricted her life to the four walls of her room.

The ruthless undreamt-of blows came from some medical professionals who, deficient in their knowledge about ME, proclaimed that Lynn was pretentious and merely faking her illness in order to escape from school. Some even implicated that Lynn might have suffered some terrible sexual assault during her childhood at the hands of her own father and so out of paranoia, she started faking her illness which included violent convulsions, partial memory loss, vomiting, fainting frequently, paralysis from chest down etc. I wonder she had had to be an oscar winning actress if the words of the ignorant doctors were taken to be true.Back in 1991, when Lynn fell ill with ME, very few people were actually aware of the existence of ME and its symptoms. Most of the doctors and even best known hospitals, designated to specializing in the treatment of ME, dismissed the disease as something to do with physical illness. They rather treated the patients for psychiatric ailment, thereby worsening and aggravating the condition of the patients further. In Lynn's case whenever she was hospitalized for better treatment, she came out of the hospital in rather worse state than she went in. Her mother stated that she would regret all through her life for leaving Lynn at the Guy's Hospital of Uk for two weeks against Lynn's wish cause she lost her speech completely afterwards.


ME patients develop sensitivity to bright light and sound, and Lynn had her room shrouded with closed curtains. Only a bulb fitted to the aquarium, at 3 feet distance from her bed, used to provide the required gleam in her room. Since she was confined to her bedroom, her parents tried their best to offer her comfort bringing a little bit of life that she missed due to the illness, in her bedroom. She loved fishes and the aquarium was laid nearby her bed so that she could observe their activities for day long. She had about 5 or 6 hamsters which were kept in a cage and placed on a table nearby so that she could feed them and cuddle them when felt. She could not take part in socialization or meet people as interaction with people used to leave her totally wiped out and she took several days to recuperate from the exhaustion.Hence her parents whenever there was any get-together or party held at home used to record the event in video recorder and show it to Lynn so that she could witness what all passed in the party. Undeniably, she was blessed with one of the most caring mothers who willingly confined herself within their home because of her daughter. As Lynn waged battle with her illness, Mrs Kay Gilderdale continued her fight in finding out a miraculous remedy to Lynn's all distress. Unfortunately, ME is a strange disease which affects the neurological functioning of brain making all the actions of our body go haywire and till now, it is not curable. Lynn went through torrents of test which showed no symptoms of abnormality. Her blood was fine, CT-Scan showed her brain was in perfect order and other tests also exhibited no clear sign of any problem. Hence doctors started believing that the problem was in Lynn's mind. One doctor even commented that Lynn suffered from "Lynn Gilderdale syndrome".


Since ME is not very common, an array of misconceptions and prejudices relating to the disease are predominant in the medical world. Sometimes even patients suffering from slight stress and exhaustion are considered as having ME, whereas actual patients suffering from ME show more severe symptoms. Usually, exercise or physical work out is considered beneficial for anyone suffering from physical disability, but patients ill with ME get into a worse state if they work out. Some doctors dont believe that any disease called 'ME' even exists and they treat ME patients for mental illness taking every of their discomforting syndrome as mere pretense. What's worse when Lynn contracted a skin infection called 'ringworm' from her cat and developed itchy red sores on different areas of her body, the doctor treating her opined that it was self-inflicted and that Lynn had done this to herself purposely to get 'attention'. He even summoned a psychiatrist to tend to Lynn. Her parents had really a tough time convincing the doctors of the actual cause of her infection.


Years rolled on with Lynn showing no sign of improvement and slowly her body gave away to a series of other breakdowns - liver dysfunction, heart problems, severe osteoperesis, adrenal failure, thyroid gland dysfunctioning and kidney problems, among other things. 17 years is a precious period of anyone's life or for any pain to get healed. Lynn and her mother had been fighting against ME together with the hope of Lynn being able to lead a normal life one day once she recovered from the disease. But all pains endured and all efforts undertaken during the long span of 17 years proved futile as Lynn instead of getting better was turning worse. Her suffering slowly forced her to come to a decision of ending her life as death seemed to be the only respite possible from her ugly life. During the last few months of her life, she was suffering from bouts of depression which evermore hardened her determination to end her life and she cajoled and coaxed her mother to assist her in suicide. The last few hours before her death was riddled with tension and anxiety as she plunged into an unconscious state with the morphine overdose and her mother kept awaiting her death with bated breath. The account of that phase was very emotional and touching and I prayed that no mother ever had to go through such agony of seeing her daughter or son die infront of her eyes.


What could be more cruel than being held responsible for the death of one's own daughter? As if Lynn's death alone was not enough to shatter the spirit of Kay Gilderdale that she was accused and imprisoned, under criminal suspicion, of 'murdering' her own daughter. The last few chapters describing Kay's battle against the pointed fingers at her involvement in Lynn's death was charged with emotions and would wring tears even from the hardened of hearts.

Below is shared the link that has excerpts from Lynn's diary which written few months prior to her death is open only to some select few.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246053/Lynn-Gilderdales-heartbreaking-online-diary-chronicled-life-suffered-ME.html

Wedding Rituals and Customs of Different Countries

James Stockdale’s quotation “And we had our own custom, traditions, and proprieties” rightly sets the tune of my article. It is true that we all are bound by a set of traditions, customs and proprieties which are very unique and aboriginal of our own individual culture. However, marriage being one tradition followed by all and sundry across the world irrespective of community, religion, country has rituals and customs varying from country to country and sometimes from one region to another within the same country.


Some of these rituals are quite bizarre forcing us to think that marriage is more than the commitments, love and friendship. It is a way to embark upon a new life with all the blessings and wishes of family and friends who do everything going out of their way to make the day special for the wedding couple. Without these off-the-wall strange rites the ceremony of marriage won’t be marriage…….an event fraught with amusement and pleasure. It seems incredible that with the fast changing scenario of society and culture, some of the ancient wedding rituals that have been carried over from one generation to the next are still in vogue today.


Scottish wedding traditions are quite elaborate with a lot of interesting ancient customs all of which are no longer followed in detail. There is an assortment of pre-wedding, during the wedding and post wedding rituals like the feet washing, stag night, blackening of the bride, hand fasting etc. In ‘feet washing’ custom the bride dips her feet in a tumbler full of water with a bunch of her female friends sitting around her to wash her feet. There remains a coin hidden in the water and the one who finds the coin out is believed to be married next year. ‘The Stag Night’ custom is what we call in modern terms ‘bachelor party’. The groom accompanied by his friends celebrates the night usually in a bar drinking to his heart’s content being the target of the good-natured ribaldry. No Scottish wedding is complete without the bagpipers piping in the beginning and at the end of the ceremony. During the marriage ceremony, there is a ritual called ‘hand fasting’ which requires the couple to tie their hands in a cord or ‘tartan cloth’ while they take their marriage vows meaning that from then on they are combined into a single entity. Strangely enough, in some of the provinces of Scotland, there is a pre-wedding ritual called ‘blackening the bride’ where the kitchen refuse like rotten eggs or fishes or stale vegetables are thrown at the bride and then she is ‘paraded round the town mostly in bars along the way.’


French wedding too is performed in a grand manner where the orange blossoms play a significant role. During the wedding vows, a silk fabric called ‘carre’ is held over the head of the bride and groom to protect them from evil. Then there is a ritual of the bride’s father taking the bride’s shoes off and handing it over to the groom as an indication to ‘pass the authority’ over the bride to the groom. The groom acknowledges the transfer of the authority by gently tapping the head of the bride with the shoe. At the reception small cakes usually brought by the guests are arranged in a mound as high as possible and the bride and groom are to kiss that mound without toppling them over. This custom stands for a life of prosperity. On the wedding night friends of the bride and groom make a loud noise by blowing horns or clanging pots and pans to force the wedding couple come out of their chamber fully dressed to entertain their ‘tormentors’ with foods and drinks.


German wedding incorporates some weird customs one of them being ‘polterabend’ which entails smashing of a pile of dishes by the assembled guests for the bride and groom to clean the mess up. The idea working behind such custom is that the action of cleaning the heap of shattered dishes would prepare the couple for their new lives together. The throwing of rice is an ancient custom of German wedding passing on from one generation to the other. While leaving the church after marriage, the newlyweds are deluged in rice. Each of the rice grain sticking to the hair of the bride is believed to indicate future progeny.


In Chinese traditions the wedding day is called the ‘groom’s day’’ meaning the groom and his families will have to bear all the expenses associated with marriage. The process of marriage is initiated by three letters. First is a request letter sent by the groom’s family to the bride’s family to confirm the formal arrangement of marriage. Second is the gift letter that mentions the value of each gift sent to the bride’s family from groom’s side and the concluding letter is presented on the day of the wedding. The color red plays an important role in Chinese marriage. Everything starting from envelopes to the wedding dress of the bride is in red.


India being a multi-lingual and multi-cultural country has people celebrating the occasion following a range of customs differing from one province or community to another. Diversity in its true form exists here. The rituals and rites followed in Bengali wedding are at variance with the ones observed in a Marathi wedding. There is a plethora of wedding rituals performed during the wedding, pre-wedding and after the wedding of a Bengali marriage. Red being the color of fertility and prosperity for Indians, the bride dons the traditional dress ‘saree’ of red or colors having a shade of crimson. The wedding day is preceded by rituals like ‘holud kota’ and ‘dodhi-mongol’. In ‘holud-cota’ ceremony the bride is smeared from top to toe with turmeric paste by the elderly married women. Turmeric is believed to brighten up the bride’s complexion bringing a natural glow to her face. ‘Dadhi mongol’ ceremony takes place at the dawn of the wedding day when married ladies put a pair of red and white bangles on the hands of the bride feeding her curd and rice, the only meal for the day. Both these rituals are performed at the groom’s home too with a slight difference that the groom doesn’t wear the bangles. The main wedding rituals involve a host of customs like ‘mala bodol’, ‘subho-drishti’, ‘saat paak’, ‘sampradan’ etc. The wedding begins with ‘saat-pak’ when the bride seated on a low wooden stool is carried by her brothers or uncles to circumambulate the groom for seven times. After the end of this ritual, the bride and the groom exchange garlands of tuberose thrice followed by ‘subho-drishti’ when the bride and groom steal a romantic glance of each other in front of all the invitees. ‘Sampradan’ is a ‘transfer of authority’ over the bride from her father to the groom. With this ceremony the father of the bride hands over all the responsibilities of his daughter on the shoulders of the groom.


Regardless of the difference of wedding customs and traditions discussed above, the main purpose of observing all the rituals in a nuptial is common for everyone i.e. to felicitate the couple binding them in an eternal bond of love and commitment.




Resources:




Brainyquote.com: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/traditions.html

http://www.vowsfromtheheartofscotland.com/traditions.htm

http://www.muslim-marriage-guide.com/french-wedding-customs.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?German-Wedding-Customs&id=1321753

http://www.983wedding.com/chinese/

Lance Armstrong: It's Not About the Bike

Recently I have finished reading the autobiography of Lance Armstrong, the great cyclist who not only beat testicular cancer, but also has set an example for us that nothing can overpower strong will and determination.

The book begins featuring Armstrong as an obstinate go-getter who literally lives on cycling. If Lance sets his mind about something, no obstacles, no impediments can stand in his way. At a very early age of his life, he realizes that unlike others he has an exceptional capability to bear severe pain and injury. His persistence and mental stamina are revealed when Lance survived an almost fatal accident which left him severely wounded. He received multiple stitches on his head and the massive gash on his foot was stitched too. His knee being sprained in the accident was kept in brace. His doctor advised him to take complete rest for three weeks. But Lance was Lance. He cut the stitches on his foot with nail-clipper, removed the brace from his knee and participated in Triathlon competition within 7 days from the accident. Incredibly, he came out third at the competition.

Only at the age of 25, Lance was detected with cancer. Normal people facing the similar situation would have broken down in despair, but he combated the disease perseveringly undergoing innumerable sessions of chemo. The strong chemicals in chemo left his body burning in pain. He lost his hair, lost his muscles and appetite. He retched for hours. When normal guys of his age were out there enjoying their lives, he was pinned down on bed to battle with a life threatening disease like cancer. However, his plight could not make him give up hope to survive and race again. With the same fortitude that he showed all through his treatment he waged the battle, this time, to revive his physical strength to compete with others in one of the most gruelling sport events.After recuperating from cancer, he not only won once but seven times in Tour De France, the most challenging race that demands extreme physical and mental endurance. Lance is truly an inspirational figure.

The book also captures moments of his relationship with his mother, who conceived him at a very young age. He is very lucky in one way that he has got such a loving devoted mother to stand by his side through thick and thin. Besides his mother, the coterie of his close friends including his coach whom he fondly called his ‘surrogate father’ and his manager supported him immensely during the crisis.

The book is a must read for everyone as it teaches us how to conquer the hardships of life through strong resolution and will power. Life is full of challenges but the success of life depends upon how we overcome those challenges and charge forward to achieve our goals. “Make every obstacle an opportunity”……Lance’s mother’s words not only inspired him to give a full-blown fight to the disease, but also will continue to inspire us to look upon obstacles as mere challenges to overcome.