A tribute to Meena Kumari, the poet of love and loneliness
She was named Mahjabeen by her parents and the name described her beauty perfectly. It means “the one with a forehead like the moon”. However, the world came to know her as Meena Kumari who gained the status of “tragedy queen” just like Dilip Kumar acquired the mantle of “tragedy king”.
This was due to the many successful films in which these two actors played tragic roles to perfection.
Tragedy queen she was. However, another dimension of her personality that made her such a fascinating actor and person was her depth as a poet. She was a “shayara” to the core. On her 84th birth anniversary (August 1), I would like to give expression to the feelings she has evoked in me and millions of lovers of Urdu verse.
She had a voice which I can think of describing only as “liquid gold”. It had a definite metallic tinge to it and was suited perfectly for reciting ghazals and nazms that she often did.
Hers was a very attractive persona and this was surely due to her deep interest in poetry and her artistic temperament that made her excel in acting as well as writing. She was an actor who carried her roles back home and some part of these stayed with her and added depth to her personality.
In her poetry, published after she died in 1972, we can sense a haunting loneliness that was part of her being. No friendship or relationship could make that loneliness leave her. It was not meant to be. And it was perhaps good that it was so. Otherwise, she would not have been the person or artiste that she was.
She did manage comedy in the film Azaad and her vibrance was delightful. However, her face and voice made her a great choice for tragic and highly emotional roles. It seems she expressed many a suppressed emotion through her roles and acting for her was a cathartic experience.
Her famous ghazal, which we find on the first page of Meena Kumari ki Shaayri, is a poetic gist of her life.
I quote some couplets from it: “Chaand tanha hai aasma’n tanha, dil mila hai kahaan kahaan tanha/zindagi kya isee ko kehte hain, jism tanha hai aur jaa’n tanha/Raah dekha karega sadiyon tak,Chhor jayenge yeh jahaa’n tanha”.
She was so right. When she passed away after gifting this world with her swan song Pakeezah, people mourned for months. And they still await another actress like her. The essence of her loneliness made her verse so meaningful and rich. Nobody could reach the heart of her loneliness.
It was her sacred space where she suffered and yearned for a love that she could never come close enough to. At the same time, this loneliness became the solitude she needed to create poetry and beauty for the world.
“Baithhe hain raaste mein, Bayabaan-e-dil sajaakar, shaayad isee taraf se ik din bahaar guzre,” she wrote. This yearning for the spring of life can be seen in many of her roles too which seem an extension of her lonely life.
The “Chhoti Bahu” in Saheb, Bibi aur Ghulam, the “Sahib Jaan” of Pakeezah, the Madhavi of Kaajal - all of them are looking for happiness, love and stability. She played the “damsel in distress” to perfection! Her beautiful eyes, full of pain, and her deep voice, dipped in sadness, created an effect that established her as a unique tragedienne.
Pakeezah was made for her by her husband Kamal Amrohi to showcase this beautiful personality and to immortalise her for posterity. And how it succeeded in doing that! Her beauty, her sadness, her regal look, her poetic soul, her languid movements and her golden voice - all can be felt by us while we watch this epic, larger-than-life movie. No other actress could ever have brought to this film what she did. She lived the role and became Pakeezah.
I conclude my tribute with another couplet of Meena Kumari, the poet of love and pain - “Meri tarah sambhaale koi jo dard jaanu’n, ik baar dil se hokar parwardigaar guzre”!