by Tanya Hafeez

Created on: May 11, 2009

On February 14, 1933, a new life was brought into this world. Her name was Mumtaz Dehlavi Khan and little did she know the woman that she would grow up to become.

She was born into a poor family. With her father unemployed, Mumtaz turned to acting at the tender age of eight years old. With film studios in their backyard, in Malad, India, they would audition and soon she snagged the role in Basant as Baby Mumtaz.

After several movies, Mumtaz was renamed Madhubala by her close friend, Devika Rani. The name fit her perfectly; for, she was a honey sweet teenager on the verge of womanhood with a signature lopsided grin.

At seventeen years old, Madhubala signed on to act in the movie Tarana and never looked back. On the set, she met and fell in love with heartthrob, Dilip Kumar.

Once, however, the bubbly actresses talent did not quite rise to the occasion. This was the time when, in her personal life, her love affair with Dilip Kumar was at its peak. She was shooting for Guru Dutt's Mr. and Mrs. 55 at Mehboob Studio. Abrar Alvi, the film's scriptwriter; narrates the incident, "The scene to be shot had Lalita Pawar showing Madhubala a photograph of her husband in a compromising position with another woman. It was a ruse to make the heroine file for divorce." "Since we didn't have the relevant photograph at the time of the shoot we borrowed a photograph of the same size, from Mehboob Khan's office, with the intention of inserting the right later on. Now, it so happened that the one we borrowed was a photograph of Dilip Kumar. When Madhu saw it she just refused to do the scene. 'I can't concentrate,' she pleaded. 'Please get another photograph.' No amount of cajoling helped. Ultimately, we had to do as she wished." (Chowdhury 18 & 19).

Without distraction, Madhubala faced Dilip Kumar in Mughal-E-Azam; which took ten years to make. By then, Madhubala's father, Ataullah Khan, had become a domineering stage father and he did his best to keep Dilip away from Madhubala. However, like Romeo and Juliet, Dilip and Madhubala found ways to see each other; sometimes a mutual friend's home and if not; there was always on set.

They found ways and means of meeting each other, away from Ataullah Khan's disapproving eye - sometimes in Sushila Rani's house, sometimes in her make-up room. (Chowdury 38).

B.R. Chopra signed Madhubala and Dilip Kumar; who were now considered a power-house team, to a new movie Nayar Daur in 1957. After signing the contract

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