Hmm...most beautiful women on the Indian screen ever...
One of the most beautiful topics on Mouthshut, ever...
But, wait. What is being beautiful? Somebody with a lot of beauty, simple!
And what is beauty? Don’t know, have to look into a dictionary:
The Cambridge Dictionary of Concise English defines beauty as:
’The quality of being pleasing, especially to look at, or someone or something that gives great pleasure, especially by being looked at’
The Oxford Dictionary defines beauty as:
The quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality’
Hmm...now I feel equipped enough to write this review!! Friends, below is the list of five such divas who have defined the word ‘Beauty’ in Indian cinema. From the early 50s to the new millennium, they came and they ruled, over millions of hearts...For a flash of their face, audiences went to see their movies again and again...and again...
To me, all of them symbolise charm, class, elegance, glamour, seduction, refinement, style...a dream....a thing of beauty!!
John Keats has rightly said in his Endymion:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
So let’s see who these magnetic five ladies are:
MADHUBALA
Speak the word beautiful and the name Madhubala strikes instantly. Thirty-four years after her death, Madhubala’s inordinate allure continues to evoke legends and inspire superlatives. Indeed, hers was no ordinary beauty. When Madhubala fired up that oxygenating smile, she had the hotline to every Indian heart. Remarkably, even now, the star continues to have gazillions of fans. Incredibly, her posters are still sold at urban street corners.
In all the brouhaha about Madhubala’s porcelain exquisiteness, often side-stepped is the fact that she was a mature, intuitive actress. She could display dancing-eyed comic electricity in a Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi as well as radiate lambent anguish in Mughal-e-Azam. Madhubala could be the embodiment of seduction while swaying to Aaiye meherbaan and in the same year, carry off rustic threads in the Phagun song and dances.
Rarely is one human being blessed with so much professionally, only to have it cruelly snatched away in her personal life.
Film she looked most beautiful in: Mughal-e-Azam (I think She was stunning in the glimpse we had of her in colour (Jab pyar kiya toh darna kya), and she spoke her brilliant lines in perfectly pitched cadences with the bruise of heartache in her voice).
Song(s) she looked most beautiful in: Jab Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (Mughal-e-Azam), Jaiye Meherbaan (Mr and Mrs 55)
Most beautiful feature: That unforgettable smile!!!
MEENA KUMARI
Bujh gayee aas chhup gayaa taaraa
thar-tharaataa rahaa dhuaan tanhaa
These lines, penned by Meena Kumari in a compilation of her poems titled, I Write I Recite, suggest the actress was well acquainted with melancholy. March 31, 2003, marks 31 years since Meena Kumari passed away. But the moist-eyed actress will always be remembered as Hindi cinema’s Tragedy Queen
Meena looked beautiful when there was a big teardrop suspended on her eyelashes. It is said that in real life, Meena never got startled even if someone were to enter the room suddenly and shout. She’d slowly turn around. Perhaps this explains the control she could exercise over her tragic roles.
Most of her hits were fuelled by her own star-power. Be it, in 1950s where she gave high-octane and spirited performances in films like Ek Hi Raasta, Sharda, Daera, Ilzaam, Azaad, Parineeta and Baiju Bawra (I still can’t forget her heart-breaking portrayal in Baiju Bawra.) or the 60s where tragic roles had become Meena’s forte what with A-class performances in Dil Apna Aur Preet Parayee, Main Chup Rahoongee, Aarti, Kaajal, Phool aur Patthar and the unforgettable Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. But the best was yet to come. Yes, it was Kamal Amrohi’s ‘Pakeezah’ in 1972 that she graced the screen last. Even as the nation marvelled at her ability to infuse life into her role in Pakeezah, Meena Kumari breathed her last. Within a couple of months of Pakeezah’s release, Meena Kumari died on March 31, 1972.
Film(s) she looked most beautiful in:
Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam: As the doomed (and drunk) chhoti bahu who slurs Na jao saiyaan in an anguished plea for love, Meena took the audience on an unforgettable odyssey into the inner recesses of the mind of an emotionally and physically cloistered woman).
Pakeezah: Her perfect swan song. Despite her rapidly deteoriating health, she gave the finishing touches to her performance as a nautch girl who dares to dream of a life as a married woman. I still can’t forget how her voice caressed over each pathos-laden word in the film!!!
Song(s) she looked most beautiful in: Na Jaao Saiyan (Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam), Tora Man Darpan Kehlaaye (Kaajal)
Most beautiful feature: Those innocent eyes (reminds me of a deer!!!)
REKHA
Strange is the fact that an actress who was once hailed as an ugly duckling has found a place in the five most beautiful faces ever graced on Indian screen. Rekha changed herself and boy, what a change it was!!! For proof watch her in some of her earlier films like Saawan Bhadon, Elaan, Do Anjaane, Ghar and compare it with Khubsoorat, Khoon Bhari Maang, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Umraao Jaan, Silsila, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi and Aastha, and you’ll know what I mean. She is the perfect example of evolution of beauty, and even after 55 long years, she can give any of today’s actresses a run for their money!!! There’s something unattainable about Rekha. The way she has maintained herself over all these years deserves an ovation in itself!! Rekha represents beauty in its fullness...Kudos to her!!!
Film(s) she looked most beautiful in: Khoobsurat and Khoon Bhari Maang.
Song(s) she looked most beautiful in: In Aankhon Ki Masti Ke (Umraao Jaan), Salaame Ishq Meri Jaan (Muqaddar Ka Sikandar)
Most beautiful feature: Those cunning eyes are haunting!!!
MADHURI DIXIT
What grace, what perfection, beauty completes its completeness in the form of Madhuri. I had my first crush over her when I was 8 or 9 years old...and am still mad after her!!! Her on-screen persona was, is and will always be addictive...from the powerful belle of Khalnayak, Beta, Dil, Raja, Anjaam, Lajja and Mrityudand to the dusky graceful woman in Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Dil To Pagal Hai and Devdas, she has alighted the screen and shown us the many faces of woman, all beautiful. So, be it M.F. Hussain who considers Madhuri as an illusion, a universal form and has gone ahead to make a movie on her or ace photographers like Gautam Rajadhyaksha, who in his award-winning book ‘Faces’ has placed her on the cover. When asked why just Madhuri from the whole of Bollywood, his reply was ‘She’s the most perfect faces I have ever come across’ Indeed!!!
Now, Am I forgetting something? yes, that million-dollar smile; time freezes when I even think about it.....
Film(s) she looked most beautiful in: Devdas and Hum Aapke Hain Koun
Song(s) she looked most beautiful in: ‘Maar Daala’ from Devdas, ‘Didi Tera Devar’ from Hum Aapke Hain Koun
Most beautiful feature: C’mon, it has to be that smile!!!
MORE BEAUTIES CONTINUED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION.....