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Madhubala with Birth Name of Mumtaz Begum Jehan Dehlavi, was a popular Hindi film actress who starred in several successful films in the 1950s and early 1960s. Many have achieved classic and cult status today. With her contemporaries, Nargis and Meena Kumari, she is widely regarded as one of the most talented and influential actresses to have appeared on the screens of Indian cinema.
Mumtaz Begum Jehan Dehlavi, famously known as Madhubala, was born in Delhi, India on February 14, 1933. She was Muslim and an ethnic Pathan, the fifth child of a conservative Afghan family of eleven children. In search of a better life for his impoverished family, her father, Ataullah Khan relocated to Bombay with his family. There they struggled for over a year and often frequented the Bombay film studios in search of work. Young Mumtaz entered films at the age of nine.
Her first film was the box-office success, Basant (1942) in which she played the daughter of the popular actress, Mumtaz Shanti. Her first break came when filmmaker, Kidar Sharma cast her opposite Raj Kapoor in Neel Kamal (1947). Until that point, she had always been billed as Mumtaz but this was the first film to credit her as Madhubala. She was only fourteen years old, but Madhubala had finally arrived on the Indian screen in a lead role. Though the film was not a commercial success, she was noticed and her performance well received.
In the next two years she blossomed into a captivating beauty (film media and fans referred to her as the Venus of the Screen). However it was not until she starred in the coveted lead role of Bombay Talkies production, Mahal in 1949, that Madhubala became a fully fledged star and a household name. Audiences enthused over Madhubala's enigmatic screen presence and beauty. Though she was only sixteen at the time, critics widley acknowledged that her subtle and skillful performance upstaged her seasoned co-star, Ashok Kumar. The film became a popular success and the song Aayega Aanewala heralded the arrival of two new superstars both Madhubala and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar.
In her short life, Madhubala made over 70 films. She is often compared with Marilyn Monroe and has a similar 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 apeal to film fans was underlined in a 1990 poll conducted by Movie magazine, when Madhubala was voted the most popular Hindi actress of all time, garnering 58% of the votes.
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