Guest article by DP Rangan as a tribute to Madhubala on her 86th birth anniversary (14 February 1933- 23 February 1969)
(The regular readers of Songs of Yore are aware of the tremendous enthusiasm of DP Rangan for writing on various themes and artistes associated with old film songs. After covering themes like Horses, Tonga, Moon, Stars, Bacchus, Deepavali, Steam Engine, Flowers, Cycle, Waterfall, Tasveer and Nuptials, Mr Rangan wrote life sketch of film stars and music directors. He has already written excellent articles on Sajjad Hussain, Suraiya and Meena Kumari. Carrying on the good work, Mr Rangan pays a tribute to the incredible beauty, Madhubala, commonly known as the Venus of Indian Cinema. It is a befitting coincidence that she was born on the Valentine’s Day.
Mr Rangan is a retired civil servant. At seventy-plus, his zeal can be the envy of many persons much younger to him. SoY is lucky to have him among the family. I join him in paying my tribute to the ethereal beauty, Madhubala, and also wishing the readers a very Happy Valentine’s day. Thank you Mr Rangan for your contribution to this blog. – AK)
Imagine an audience bedazzled by the beauty of the heroine of the film they are intensely focused on, and coming out at the conclusion completely dazed and still reliving in the dream world of the preceding few hours, and the harsh wakeup to the reality of day to day struggle for carrying on their mundane life. Such was the hold of Madhubala on the public during the heydays of 1950s and 1960s. She was not an actress who could excel in serious roles as her contemporary Meena Kumari and yet such was her mesmerisation of one and all, even when her acting was below par now and then, it was glossed over. Yet her life was not a bed of roses, but one of thorn. She was a glorious star in the film world during her halcyon years, In astronomical language, she could be equated to super massive blue stars that gallop through their life rapidly and sink into a red dwarf or a black hole. She was amply endowed with je ne sais quoi. While Meena Kumari committed seppuku by excessive indulgence in drinks, our contemporaneous heroine was born with a major debility which was to prove a torment in the last few years of her life that did not complete forty years of existence. It is my humble attempt to recapitulate her life with my limited ability and I request patrons of the blog to keep this in mind while going through this post. This is my fourth biography and I am certain the three previous ones of Meena Kumari, Suraiya and Sajjad Hussain are already archaeologist’s delight.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Never before could a reader foretell what I would write on nine months in advance. But like anything in old film music, nothing can be said in absolute terms about SoY. In May last year, a new reader Harpreet, commenting on DP Rangan’s guest article, Talat Mahmood: A Mesmeriser, requested to do a post on Talat Mahmood’s non-film songs. I gave a courteous reply that I have noted his request. N Venkataraman, with his sharp analytical mind and observation, read it up as, there will be a post on Talat Mahmood on 24 February 2019, and that it would be on his non-film songs. Thus the date and the theme got written in stone, and it was futile for me to make any efforts to read down the conversation and seek some latitude for myself.
