Who was Anarkali?
The lore of Anarkali goes like this. She was a court dancer
of exceptional beauty in Akbar’s harem in Lahore,
named Nadeera. Akbar’s son crown-prince Salim (later Emperor Jahangir) was
returning home after fourteen years in the service of army (he was sent to army
by Akbar because he was a spoiled boy) and a mujra was organized in celebration
of this incident. In this famous mujra Nadeera danced. Seeing her beauty Akbar
called her Anarkali (Pomegranate Blossom, ‘dalim ba bedanar koli’ in Bengali).
Salim fell in love with this beautiful dancer and Anarkali returned his love.
It was kept secret since she was of low birth. But eventually Akbar came to know
of it as Salim expressed his intention to marry her and make her the Empress of
Hindustan. Hearing this Akbar ordered to arrest Anarkali and sent her to prison
in Lahore.
Salim rebelled at this. He, with the help of a friend managed to free Anarkali
from prison and hid her at the outskirts of Lahore. He managed to create a force from his
army and attacked Lahore.
Akbar retaliated with a much larger force and defeated Salim. Salim was imprisoned
and offered with two choices, to surrender Anarkali or a death penalty. Salim
chose death sentence. Hearing this Anarkali came out from her hiding and
surrendered herself to Akbar. She asked Akbar to take her life instead of
Prince Salim’s but asked him to let her spend a single night with her lover.
Akbar agreed. After the pleasant night with Salim, Anarkali drugged him to
unconsciousness while she was taken away by Akbar’s men. A ditch was made and
she was put into it and the top of the ditch was covered with a brick wall.
Anarkali was buried alive.
There is a variation to this lore. In that variation it says
Akbar once promised Anarkali’s mother that he will fulfill any one wish of her.
As Anarkali was doomed to death her mother asked Akbar for life. Akbar granted
her the wish and Anarkali was let to escape through a series of underground
tunnels.
This lore is so vivid in the minds of people that it is
taken as a piece of history. Actually the authenticity of the lore is not at
all confirmed. It was first written by the Indian writer Abdul Halim Sharar
where he says it is a work of fiction.
However there is a tomb in Lahore which is said to be Anarkali’s. Also
there is a place in Lahore
called Anarkali Bazaar which is supposed to be the place near where Anarkali’s ditch
was dug.
Scholars differ in their views on the Anarkali story. Some
are of the view that she was actually one of the stepmothers of Jahangir. Some other
says she was one of the Begums of Jahangir the marriage with whom Akbar
disapproved. There are others who think that Queen Nur Jehan ( Meher-un-nisa,
widow of Sher Afghan Kuli Khan, a Mughal officer ) was actually Anarkali.
Whatever may be the case the story has been embedded in the
mind of public as an immortal love story. The legacy is many books, plays and
films that have been created out of the Anarkali story. The most prominent
among them is the famous movie by K. Asif ,Mughal e Azam.
Asif cast Madhubala (born Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi) and Dilip
Kumar (Mohammad Yusuf Khan) as Salim. Incidentally they were both pathans, the
people of the same neighborhood as the legend Anarkali.
Madhubala was born in a very poor family. And she was also
born in Valentine’s day . His father Ataullah Khan was an employee of a
biscuit factory in Delhi.
He had 11 kids, two sons and nine daughters. His two sons and three daughters
died in their childhood. When the biscuit factory closed in Delhi Ataullah went
to Bombay to
find work. He looked in different studios with his child daughter to find work
for her. Soon Mumtaz was working in films as a child artist as Baby Mumtaz.
Seven or eight year old Baby Mumtaz was earning the livelihood of her family. By
the age of 14 Mumtaz was cast in a film as a heroine. She was noted not only
because of her looks but also for her talent as an actress. By the age of 16
she was a ravishing beauty. Her screen name was changed from Mumtaz to
Madhubala ( most probably at the advice of famous actress Devika Rani) and she
did her first runaway hit film named Mahal opposite Ashoke Kumar.
Within two years she became one of the top heroines in the Bombay film industry and
challenged the likes of Kamini Kaushal, Suraiya, and Nargis etc. Madhubala was
of a very cheerful nature and fond of playing pranks with others (although at
the beginning she was a bit reserved in nature). She had a habit of laughing
uproariously , sometimes even at inopportune moments. People liked her on and
off screen immediately and men fell in love with her. She also, although
conscious of her beauty , liked others generally and found interest in many of
her costars. She , perhaps unconsciously, gave the impression to the others
that she was in love with them. In fact, as one of his costar Dev Anand said,
she loved to be loved. This sometimes
caused grievances and rivalry among her costars.
In 1951 she paired with Dilip Kumar for the first time in a
movie called Tarana. The young pair Dilip and Madhu immediately
found a great liking for each other. If
you watch the movie the budding romance is palpable by the way both so vividly
portray the on screen love.
Madhubala’s father was a stern and conservative man in
nature. Although he was a doting father he was very possessive about her and
ruled on how she moved and behaved as well as her financial and dealings and
contracts. She came early in the sets, ahead of even minor artists and left the
studio at 6 pm sharp. She never attended functions, parties etc. She seldom got
out of her home or studio because she had a fear of being mobbed. Studio and
home were all that was known to Madhubala until even her death .
However ,within this restriction fondness began to develop between
young Yusuf and Mumtaz. In the sets between intervals of the shots and in their
rooms in the studio their closeness grew.
Ataullah Khan did not look at this romance favorably.
Although both were Muslims and pathans of same category and of compatible age
Ataullah found this dislikable because it threatened to take away his daughter
away from him. He found it unpalatable on two counts, first because the family
depended on Madhubala’s earning and secondly he felt an obsessive love for her
pet daughter and did not want to part with her.
As Madhubala rose in fame and her romance bloomed an
incident took place during one of her shootings that fundamentally changed her
fortune. In the set of one of her films she became ill and vomited blood. Doctors diagnosed the
illness as ventricular septal defect or
simply put, she had a hole in her heart. The disease was congenital and no cure
of the disease was known at that time. She tried to hide the disease for
sometime to the industry but in 1954 she became violently ill in the set of
another film Bahut Din Huwe and it became known to all. Madhubala’s fate
was doomed as Anarkali’s was. She was going to die quite soon.
Shooting of Mughal – E - Azam, the brainchild of K.Asif
portraying the story of Anarkali, was started in 1950. Asif had grand design
about this film and he left no stones unturned to make that grand design a
success. He made the sets in a grand scale. The ornaments that the actors and
actresses wore were made of real gold, diamond and gems. The dresses were
authentic to the core, made of actual material the kings and queens were known
to wear. Although the film was made in black and white everything were made up
of the color they really were. The cost
of the film surpassed all previous record by far, a whopping 1.5 crore
in 1950s! And the love the film portrayed between Salim and Anarkali was real, because
the actor and actress who did the roles were madly in love with each other. The
fondness which started in the sets of Tarana was in full bloom now.
Mumtaz was full of Yusuf. And Dilip was full of Madhu. They met outside the
studios at the dwelling of K.Asif secretly and had rare moments of intimacy.
Both dreamed of marrying each other.
To watch the shooting
and Madhubala many prominent people came to the sets .One of them was the
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto , the politician from Pakistan ( this led to the rumor
that Madhubala was having an affair with Bhutto). Another was Chinese Prime
minister Chou en Lai.
But as the making of the film began to take an inordinately
long time because of various reasons darkness fell on the romance. Dilip
proposed to Madhu in one of the sets of a film in presence of an actor named Om
Prakash. But he made a condition that Mumtaz had to sever all ties with her
dominating and nosey father Ataullah Khan. Madhubala remained silent. A film
was signed by Dilip Kumar and Madhubala named Naya Daur to be made by
B.R.Chopra. Madhubala took Rs. 30,000 as advance. Some of the shooting had to be done at
outdoor location near Bhopal.
At this Madubala’s father objected. He said that he could not allow his
daughter so far away because she was not used to outdoor locations ( Madhubala
ate only those foods ,even water, that were made at her home) and he gave
medical reasons. He also said that Dilip Kumar misbehaved with his daughter and
the out door shooting was just a ruse to farther the dalliance. Ataullah feared
the unrestricted intimacy between Dilip Kumar and Madhubala in an outdoor
location. As Madhubala disagreed on her father’s insistence to go to Bhopal, B.R. Chopra sued
her of taking money in advance and not doing her job. Dilip Kumar, full of
vengeance against Ataullah Khan, was a close ally of B.R Chopra in the court
case. He gave testimony in favor of B.R. Chopra. This vitiated the relation
between Dilip Kumar and Madhubala for good. In rage against Madhubala and
Ataullah Khan Dilip Kumar sarcastically said in court that he would love
Madhubala “until her death”.
But the filming of Mughal E Azam was still unfinished.
Meanwhile both Madhubala’s health and relation with Dilip Kumar deteriorated.
Madhubala did an astonishingly large number of movies considering the state of
her health. For this also her father was to be blamed. He made her sign almost
any movie that was offered to her without considering the quality or her
health. This had a terribly detrimental effect to her health and to some extent
her career.
In Mughal E Azam Madhubala had to suffer on two counts. On
the one hand she had to act with her once lover costar with whom her relation
has soured and on the other she had to do horribly strenuous things in set to
depict the “reality” of Anarkali. . In one of the scenes Dilip Kumar slapped
her so hard that she almost cried. In the dungeon scene she was put on real
heavy chains made of steel and made to walk with those and sing. She also had
to do the rigorous kathak dance in the scene of the famous song “pyar kiya
to darna kiya”. The scene was completed in no less than 30 days. Added to
this were regular night shifts.
As the movie was finally completed Madhubala’s health worsened
very badly. At this juncture her intimacy with the eccentric genius Kishore
Kumar began to flourish. Kishore Kumar, with whom she found a rapport in the
sets of hilarious Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi , made her laugh and forget her
pain. He did outrageous things in front of her. Once he tried to cut his own hands
by the fan blades in her room so much so that Madhubala screamed in fear and
people gathered inside the room. This new diversion kept Madhubala fascinated .
But she never forgot Yusuf and continued to love him at her heart.
Mughal E Azam was finally released in 1960 . The movie
theatres where the movie was released were decorated with special lights. The story
of making of Mughal e Azam by that time was known to all. The movie became a
success of monumental proportions. It grossed an all time record in box office
which was eventually broken only by Sholay many many years later.
Madhubala did not attend the premiere of Mughal e Azam. In
fact only once in her life time she attended a public function of any kind.
However fame of Madhubala spread outside the barrier of countries. She was
recognized internationally. An article was written in a widely circulated
American journal that Madhubala and not a Hollywood
actress was the most popular heroine of the world. Frank Capra, an Oscar-
winning director came to India
at that time and wanted to meet Madhubala with a view to find an opening for
her in a Hollywood production. However she did
not meet Capra. Reason: her father thought she will not be able to eat with
knife and fork in Hollywood!
One can only surmise what could have happened with the treatment she could have
had in United States.
After Mughal- e- Azam she did not appear in too many films.
Her health became very bad. In this dark moment she married Kishore Kumar. She
thought Kishore would fill rest of her life with fun and reduce her pain. But
after only a few days they became a very ordinary couple.Kishore’s fountain of
laughter dried up. Madhubala became a very jealous and nagging wife. And in her
heart there was still Yusuf. Madhubala and Kishore separated only after a month
of their wedding although they remained married legally. The relation soon came
to such a pass that Kishore was unavailable to accompany her for her health
check up in London.
Madhubala became reclusive. She had her own projector and
she used to watch the ‘ pyar kiya to darna kiya ‘ scene ever so often. It
is said she watched it more than 500 times. The few acquaintances who visited
her told a sorry tale. She called a very close film journalist and told him
that it was only Yusuf , Yusuf ,and Yusuf that dwelled in her heart.
Madhubala was a large hearted person from a different angle.
She could not refuse anybody who asked her help. She did whatever she could
financially. For this reason she always carried four, five thousand rupees
along with her ( it was a considerable sum those days). She donated very
magnanimously. In 1950 when refugees from East Pakistan poured in to India she
donated an abnormally large sum of 50,000 rupees. The then Home Minister of India, Morarji
Desai was astonished and thanked her profusely for that.
But the saga of modern Anarkali was almost at end. In the
1960s she almost totally remained at her
home. Only a flicker of a hope came along when she recovered a little bit and
started to shoot for a movie in 1964. But it was very short lived. She
succumbed to her illness in 1969 nine days after her 36 th birthday ( the Valentine’s day).The day
before her death she wanted to see Dilip Kumar for one last time. But alas no
one was there to convey this message to Dilip Kumar who was busy shooting in Madras.
We do not know about authenticity of the historical
Anarkali. But the 20 th century Anarkali in form of Madhubala was real. Her
love for her beloved was unquenched as was Anarkali’s. She was as beautiful as
Anarkali . She had an unconquerable barrier in the path of her wish to unite
with her lover like Anarkali. For Anarkali it was Akbar, Salim’s father and for
Madhubala it was her own father Ataullah Khan. Both were ordained by God to die
young and become a legend for future generations. She was the same epitome of
beauty with whom men fell in love for generations.
In 2010 Indian Post
and Telegraph department of India
chose to immortalize her by choosing to preserve the stamp in her memory by
engraving it in solid pure silver ingots, layered with pure 24 carat gold. Only
twenty four others from history of India including Rabindranath
Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, the Taj Mahal , the peacock , J.R.D. Tata
and Mother Teresa were in this elite league. Except Madhubala only Satyajit Ray
from film world was honored thus.
I was studying engineering when I first saw Mughal e Azam .
When she dropped her veil and showed her face in the dance song “Mohe panghat pe
Nandlal” I almost dropped dead by her
beauty. To me she remained the ultimate throughout my life. As I went on
reading and recapturing her life it seemed to me that the real Anarkali was not
in the history books but who died in Bombay
in 1969.
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| Commemorative gold plated stamp of Madhubala released by Goernment of India |
Mohe Panghat pe Nandlal
