.png){kind=logo}
Madhubala was born as Mumtaz Jahan Begum Dehlavi in New Delhi, India on 14 February 1933. She was the fifth child among eleven children of a conservative Muslim couple. Her family was a Nawabi family from Kabul, Afghanistan, and a branch of the royal dynasty of Mohammadzai (also called Barakzay). Her grandparents were exiled by Afghanistan’s army to India.
After Madhubala’s father, Ataullah Khan, lost his job at the Imperial Tobacco Company in Peshawar, he relocated his family to Mumbai. Young Mumtaz entered the movie industry at the age of nine.
Mumtaz’s first movie Basant (1942) was a box-office success. She played in it as the daughter of the popular actress Mumtaz Shanti. She went on to act in several movies as a child artist. Actress Devika Rani was impressed by her performances and potential and advised her to assume the name Madhubala, meaning “a woman of honey”. Madhubala soon garnered reputation as a reliable professional performer. By the time she entered adolescence, she was being groomed for lead roles.
Her first break came when producer Kidar Sharma cast her opposite Raj Kapoor in Neel Kamal (1947). She was fourteen when she was given a lead role. The film was not a commercial success, but her performance was received well.
During the next two years, she blossomed into a captivating beauty. After her lead role in Bombay Talkies production Mahal in 1949, Madhubala attained immense popularity. Though she was only 16 at the time, her subtle and skilful performance, upstaged her seasoned co-star Ashok Kumar. The movie and the song Aayega Aanewala in it heralded the arrival of two new superstars: Madhubala and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar.
Madhubala was found to have a heart problem after she coughed up blood in 1950. She was discovered to have been born with a ventricular septal defect, commonly known as a “hole in the heart”. At the time, heart surgery was not widely available.
Madhubala hid her illness from the movie industry for many years, but one incident was widely reported by the media in 1954: She was filming in Madras for S.S. Vassan’s Bahut Din Huwe when she vomited blood on the set. Vassan and his wife took care of her until she was well again. She continued to work and established herself as an A-grade star.
Madhubala’s family was extremely protective of her because of her health problem. When filming at the studios, she would eat only home-prepared food and drink water only from a specific well in order to minimize risks of infection. But her condition took its toll and she died in 1969 at age 36. For most of the 1950s, Madhubala performed successfully despite her illnesss.
Trivia
When Madhubala was an infant, an esteemed Muslim spiritual man predicted that she would earn fame and fortune, but would lead an unhappy life and die at a young age.
Filmmaker Mohan Sinha taught Madhubala to drive a car when she was only 12 years old.
She was an avid fan of Hollywood and after learning to speak fluent English, frequently watched American movies on her home projector.
When nervous she suffered from uncontrolled outbursts of giggles and laughter which sometimes antagonised co-stars and directors.
When Guru Dutt first announced his classic film Pyaasa (1957) it was with Madhubala and Nargis in the feminine lead roles. The parts were eventually played by Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman who both became stars with the film.
With the exception of Geeta Dutt in Mr. & Mrs. ’55 (1955), most of Madhubala’s memorable songs were dubbed by Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhosle. Madhubala proved lucky for both. The songs from Mahal picturised on Madhubala in 1949 were some of Lata’s earliest successes; nine years later, Asha’s vocals for the actress in four 1958 films established her as a major playback singer, rivaling her own sister, Lata.
Madhubala’s sister Chanchal was also an actress and bore a striking resemblance to her famous sibling. She appeared in Nazneen (1951), Naata (1955), Mahalon Ka Khwab (1960) and Jhumroo (1961) alongside Madhubala. She also played prominent roles in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957) and Raj Kapoor’s Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai (1960).