Dear friends here are my choices; which younger people may not like; but after all they are mine!!
1)Madhubala (Venus of India)
Madhubala (February 14, 1933 - February 23, 1969) is considered most beautiful actresses to have graced the screens of Hindi Cinema so far.
Madhubala was born on Valentine day (14Feb.1933).Her name was Mumtaz Jehan.She entered Bollywood as a child-artist under the name Baby Mumtaz. Her first film was Basant (1942). Her big break came when Kedar Sharma gave her a change to act in Neel Kamal (1947).
In 1949, Madhubala starred in Mahal (big hit).The song Aayega Aanewaala shaped up the careers of Madhubala . Her other hits are ?Mugha_E-Aazam; Kaala Paani; BarsatKi Raat;ChaltiKa Naam Gaadi;Phagun;Howrah Bridge; etc. Madhubala’s off-screen life was a tragedy. Her romance with Dilip Kumar didn’t blossom.
Madhubala was proposed by three men: Pradeep Kumar ; Bharat Bhushan and Kishor Kumar;she selected Kishor.They had a civil marriage and Kishore converted to Islam and was renamed Karim Abdul. His parents refused to attend the wedding and never really accepted Madhubala as they thought she had broken their son’s marriage. When Madhubala went to touch her father in law’s feet he moved away.
She moved back to her bungalow a couple of weeks or solater because her in laws attitude was upsetting her. Madhubala realised that she had made a mistake in marrying Kishore; who was useless and stingy. What a tragedy!!
Total she had acted in 75 films ( from 1933 to 1969).
2) Nutan=NUTAN(ANGEL)
1936 - 1991
On the 4th June 1936, Nutan was born in Bombay to famous actress Shobana Samarth. Nutan is by far India’s most sensitive and attractive actress.; mostly called ?LOVELY LADY?.She has performed every role with a certain moral superiority and grace. Her face, described by late make-up maestro S. Mody as ’’.. a cameraman’s dream because she has no bad angles.’’
In 1950 Nutan starred in Hamari Beti. In 1951 she reached her first peak with her first hits, Hum Log (1951) and Nagina (1951), along with being crowned the first ever Miss India.(from Miss Massourie). She gained a major breakthrough with her exceptional performance in Seema (1955). Nutan as the heroine whose expressions conveyed the impression that she was genuinely singing a song.
In the 1960 film Chhabili (1960), Nutan herself sang ’Aye Mere Humsafar’.</I?
In 1959 she got married;but the spotlight shone bright once again after the award winning Bandini (1963), a portrayal that remains etched on our minds as one of the finest in Indian cinema. Through the 60’s and 70’s this much honoured actress regularly picked up awards for diverse roles in films like Milan (1967), Saraswati Chandra (1968), Saudagar (1973) and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki (1978). Right into the 80’s she maintained her pre-eminence, acting for the first time on screen opposite Dilip Kumar in Karma (1986).Nutan passed away in February 1991 at the age of 54 to cancer.
?Nutan has won 6 Filmfare Awards and countless others - the most any actress has won to date.?
3) SUCHITRA SEN (Beauty Queen) 1931
Suchitra Sen was one of the greatest and very beautiful actresses of the Indian screen. She was born Roma Sen in Patna, Bihar. Her debut was in the unreleased Shesh Kothai made in 1952.
While her supremacy in Bengal was unquestioned, Suchitra’s forays into Hindi Cinema were comparatively less successful. Her first Hindi film was Bimal Roy’s Devdas (1955)where she played Parvati to Dilip Kumar’s Devdas. Her finely honed performance gave the film its necessary tone of lofty virtue, noble sacrifice and loyal devotion.
Musafir (1957), Mukherjee’s episodic film of marriage, birth and death and Champakali (1957) failed to set the box-office alight and even her most uninhibited Hindi film performance in Bombay ka Babu (1960) plagued by troubles between her and the director, Raj Khosla. Mamta (1966) by director Asit Sen, saw her carry the film on her shoulder with a strong performance as both the mother, a courtesan and the daughter, a lawyer. She made a huge impact with Gulzar’s Aandhi (1975)playing a powerful woman politician. Sanjeev Kumar, opposed her having a career after marriage.
At the peak of her career, she gave it all up, to retreat into her private and very secluded world, rarely appearing in public.
4)Meena Kumari (TRAGIC QUEEN)
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Meena Kumari (August 1, 1933 - March 31, 1972) was an Indian actress, whose name has become synonymous with the tragic heroine. She shot into stardom in 1952 with the release of Baiju Bawra.She was born Mahjabeen Bano in Bombay;acted in her first film at the age of six. She took on the name Meena Kumari for Baiju Bawra. Meena Kumari entered the limelight at a time when histrionics were taking over from glamour (as epitomized by such beauties as Naseem, Veena, Sofia and Jayshree). She therefore heralded a new era of actresses that included Nargis, Nimmi, Suchitra Sen and Nutan.
By 1953, Meena Kumari had starred in three other commercially successful films: Daera, Do Bigha Zameen and Parineeta. Parineeta became a turning point in her career. She was never really able to shake off this image of a tragidienne, and at times this severely impeded her in the exercise of the full range of her histrionic talents.
However, her studied reserve, chaste diction and -- most of all -- extraordinary voice, that struck the right balance between the erotic and the pathetic, ensured her place in the hearts of the Indian movie-going public.
One reason for this popularity was her private life, which at times rivaled the plot of any movie. She married Kamal Amrohi who directed some of her best films.She was also a poet in her own right, and was able to lend to the characters she played a certain poetic tenderness and intensity.
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (Master, Mistress and Servant 1962) became in more than a symbolic way the crossroads of her life. Like the heroine of the film, she increasingly took to drink and embarked on the road to gradual ruin. Her screen image of a tormented, self-mortifying woman became an extension of her own personality.
Pakeezah (1971) was completed shortly before her tragic death on March 31, 1972.The image of her limpid eyes and tremulous voice remains to epitomize the tragic heroine of the Hindi film.
5) Madhuri Dixit- (another Madhubala?)</B?
Born on 15.3.1967;before entering the Hindi film industry. She was intruduced by the Rajshri’s with Abodh in 1984.
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