Meena Kumari

When Meena Kumari created the Filmfare record – Becomes the only actress to be nominated that year! After her rebellious outbreak from Kamal Amrohi, Meena Kumari took to heavy drinking and poetry to solace herself. In Guru Dutt’s ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ Meena Kumari made her loneliness hauntingly vivid. She poured out all her hidden emotions so convincingly that her evocative portrayal of the suffering women struck a responsive chord in Millions of women. For ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ she deservedly won the Best Actress award. In fact that year she made a kind of history, as she was the only actress to be nominated that year - the other two nominations were for her performance in ‘Aarti’ and ‘Main Chup Rahungi’. After this Meena Kumari went from strength to strength representing a traditional woman who was divested of all its physical antecedents with movies like Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai, Dil Ek Mandir, Chirag Kahan Roshni Kahan, Bhabhi Ki Chudiyan, Kaajal etc. While she won loads of laurels for her emotional roles few recognized her mastery in lighter roles where she effortlessly matched with the comic of genius, Kishore Kumar, in movies like – ‘Shararat’ and ‘Ilzaam’. Further her performance with Dilip Kumar in ‘Azaad’ & ‘Kohinoor’ proved beyond doubt that the great tragedienne of Indian Cinema was equally adept in comedies too!