Madhubala’s birth anniversary falls on February 14, which also happens to be Valentine’s Day, celebrated by lovers all over the world. Rajesh V. Gaur and Suneel V. Gaur chronicle the life and times of the biggest actress of Hindi films, Madhubala.
Madhubala was an icon of the Hindi film industry and she gained a level of success that actors only dream of.
Her beauty was light, delicate and heavenly. No wonder she was called the Venus of the Hindi film industry and she continues to mesmerise cinema lovers everywhere, years after passing away.
Madhubala's extraordinary good looks and talent were instrumental in helping her get her first lead role opposite Raj Kapoor in ‘Neel Kamal’ in 1947.
She was only 14 then. Her performance was well received by the audiences. Her 1949 release ‘Mahal’ heralded the arrival of a superstar. Her enigmatic presence and performance upstaged the seasoned Ashok Kumar in this super hit film. Madhubala acted in more than two dozen films in four years after ‘Mahal’. Many of them were big hits.
Madhubala became the biggest female star and acted with top notch actors like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Bharat Bhushan, etc. and worked with top directors like Kamal Amrohi in ‘Mahal’, K. Asif in ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ and Guru Dutt in ‘Mr and Mrs 55’. In the early 50s she acted in well received films like ‘Sangdil’, ‘Tarana’, ‘Badal’ .
Shockingly in 1955 her well-publicised film ‘Amar’ with Dilip Kumar was a box office disaster giving a jolt to her reputation as a dependable actress. But she managed to give her career a fillip with the box office hit in 1958, ‘Howrah Bridge’ in which she starred opposite Ashok Kumar. The song from this film “Aayiyeh Meherbaan…” is celebrated to this day. ‘Howrah Bridge’ was followed by box office bonanzas like 'Jaali Note' with Dev Anand, 'Kala Pani’ , ‘Phagun’ with Bharat Bhushan, ‘Chalti ka Naam Gaadi’ with Kishore Kumar and ‘Barsat ki ek Raat’ opposite Bharat Bhushan again.
Madhubala acted in over 60 films in her short film career. In 2008 a postage stamp was issued by India Post to commemorate Madhubala. Madhubala, born on Valentine’s Day, never found true love in her life. She came with a hole in her heart and left with a broken one.