MUMTAZ SHE SAVED THE CAREERS OF SEVERAL HEROES IN THEIR DIFFICULT TIMES

ALI PETER JOHN

If I would have known all about this whole racket of awards, whether it is the National Awards or the growing number of awards given away in every gully and suburb from Kurla to Kanyakumari, I would have given myself the special award for seeing the maximum number of films starring Mumtaz. I had seen almost every film with her in a small role to the leading role and from the first film she did as an extra till she gave up her career when she was right on top to marry the millionaire Mayur Madhvani from Uganda at a time when the country was being ruled by a tyrant called Idi Amin, who was said to have killed thousands of people and was even known for feasting on human flesh. The day Mumtaz left the industry, there was some kind of a state of mourning and she was missed by everyone, from Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar to Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Dara Singh, the Khan brothers (Feroz, Sanjay, Akbar and Sameer) and down to the dancers, junior artists, technicians and most of all the masses who had all the love and respect for her for the way she had risen from a struggler walking around studios to playing the leading lady of legends like Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand….
I had this undying ambition and dream to listen to her fascinating story in let own words. I knew it was an impossible dream, but what could I do when everything in my life happened and still happens according to a design planned by God or whoever that mighty power is that plans every movement and moment of every human being?
As I have said in several occasions, I wanted to be a Roman Catholic priest, a bus conductor or the manager in a Udipi Hotel even after I had done my M.A in English Literature. But nothing I had planned was to happen because just one postcard written to the greatest man I have known, K.A Abbas had turned my life upside down and I had landed up working in ‘Screen’which I used to see only when my friend who was a driver working for the Indian Express Group of Newspapers which ran‘Screen’brought the paper home, only because he knew how much I loved Hindi films and also how I couldn’t afford to buy the weekly which cost only twenty-five naya paise!

I soon came to know that this job I had taken could fulfill my dream to meet Mumtaz some day, even though I knew she lived in Uganda and rarely came to India, but her having a huge apartment in Bandra gave strength to my dream.

I came to know her nephew Shehzad through my friend Rakesh Nath(better known as Rikku who had given the post of a star secretary a new meaning). I had expressed my desire to meet Mumtaz whenever she was in Mumbai to Shehzad.
I was surprised when Shehzad surprised me by telling me that Mumtaz was in Mumbai and he had fixed up a meeting for me over drinks and dinner at her Bandra apartment. Can you imagine what my state of mind would have been that whole day?
I reached Bandra Station only to see Shehzad calling out to me from a six door black Mercedes. He told me that Mumtaz had seen some of my writings and that‘Screen’and my column Ali’s Notes was popular all over East Africa as there was a majority of Indians who had settled down in countries like Uganda, Kenya and even in South Africa. I was not even listening to Shehzad even though he had done me such a big favour as all my thoughts were only full of Mumtaz.
I can never forget the way the great Mumtaz welcomed me with a warm embrace and as Shehzad made my first peg of Scotch for me, I told Mumtaz that I wanted her to tell me her whole story and that I would not ask her any questions…..
But, she sounded very sombre which was entirely unlike her. She spoke about how life was very boring even though she had all the comforts and luxuries of life. She didn’t make it sound obvious, but I could feel that she was interested in making a comeback and was even willing to play the mother of the heroes and heroines of the time. I told her that the industry would welcome her with open arms and the Mumtaz I knew in her films came alive and I found my chance to ask her to tell me her story, even if it was in a nutshell, and as Mumtaz opened up and as I kept sipping Scotch to celebrate the fulfillment of my dream, Mumtaz opened up and talked for the next two hours……
She talked about the grim struggle and how she and her sister Mallika went around studios looking out for any kind of job to make enough money to make two ends meet for the family and how she first found herself in a crowd scene in a film beings made by Dr V Shantaram who had a very sharp eye and picked her up to play the maid of the queen in his film “Sehra”in which a new actor called Jeetendra was a part of a crowd scene…..
She was growing more and more emotional and told me about how she was chosen to play the heroine of Dara Singh with whom she did twelve films as his heroine and how gossip magazines created fake stories about their romance and how some of her rivals spread dirty stories about her sleeping around with some of the leading politicians, which she swore were‘absolutely’baseless’and done only to pull her down“as they couldn’t take the success of a one time struggler who was going from success to more success”.

She talked about how Mehmood, the comedian-filmmaker played a very important role in promoting her career and she said she would always be grateful to the three Khan brothers who gave her all the encouragement by casting her in all their big films. She was especially emotional when she talked about Feroz Khan who have her the first major breakthrough in his first film as a director,“Apraadh”. Little did she know then that their friendship would lead to a relationship with her only daughter marrying Fardeen, the only son of Feroz.

She couldn’t believe how some of the best things happyens to “the Mumu who was not sure about what her future would be in an industry where you needed influence or belong to a big family to find a proper break”.

A time came when several leading heroes and directors were madly in love with her. Shammi Kapoor who had done a film called “Brahmachari”with was madly in love with her after he lost his first wife, the fascinating actress, Geeta Bali, but his family(the Kapoors objected to Shammi’s decision to marry ‘Mumu’as he called her and was very frustrated over the decision of his family and finally decided to marry Neela Devi,the princess of Bhavnagar after which he went on a spiritual trip into the deep forests and found a ‘Child Baba’who changed his life from the rebel hero to the ‘Sant’with his head gone almost bald and his putting on kilos of weight and with hundreds of ‘malas’around his neck and Mumtaz said Shammi was still in love with her and spoke and even cried whenever he remembered her.
The other man who had column in love with her was the great romantic, Yash Chopra, who had directed her only one film,“Aadmi Aur Insaan”but had fallen in love and wanted to marry her and she was too willing, but it was Yash’s elder brother, B.R Chopra who was asked by their father not to allow Yash to marry her. Yash who was always in love with his heroines, especially Sadhana and Mumtaz, even tried to ask her to make a comeback as the mother of Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor in “Deewaar”which she politely turned down like when Vyjayanthimala who was made the same offer which ultimately went to Nirupa Roy, the‘Goddess’of Hindi films who recieved a new lease of life after doing “Deewaar”.
A stage came when Mumtaz was considered a lucky mascot for all heroes and she did several films with all the leading heroes, but the maximum films she did with was Rajesh Khanna and their combination was considered a sure-shot hit. She also did several films with Dharmendra and Jeetendra but she reached her highest peak when first Dilip Kumar recommended her as the second heroine in“Ram Aur Shyam”after he had turned down working with Saira Banu who he felt was too young for the role and the strange thing of life was that e
after a year of Dilip Kumar refusing to work with Saira, he got married to her and even did films like“Bairaag”,“Gopi”and“Sagina Mahato”with her and Mumtaz went one big step ahead and signed two films with Dev Anand,‘‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna”and“Tere Mere Sapne”. She was now considered not only the leading star but also a sensitive actress with her roles in“Khilona”with Sanjeev Kumar and“Aap Ki Kasam”with Rajesh Khanna.
Shashi Kapoor was going through a very lean phase in his career and someone asked him to do a film with Mumtaz and he did even when an offer was made by an unknown director called Ashok Roy in a film called“Chor Machaaye Shor”. The film turned out to be a super hit and Shashi grew so busy that he was shooting seven films in a day.
Amitabh Bachchan was losing all hope when eleven of his early films all flopped. He approached the veteran director O.P Ralhan, best known for his making Dharmendra a star with “Phool Aur Partner”. Ralhan was reluctant to work with ‘the flop actor’and recommended him to his assistant, O.P Ghai who asked Amitabh to get Mumtaz if he wanted to work with him. Amitabh is said to have requested Mumtaz to work with him as he saw this as his last chance to continue working. Mumtaz who was always known as a large hearted woman more than a star agreed and Amitabh and Mumtaz were the lead pair in“Bandhe Haath”, but even Mumtaz, the lucky mascot failed to come to his rescue and he had packed his bags to give up hope in himself and was lucky enough to have a friend like Anwar Ali, the brother of Mehmood who stopped him and within a few months, Amitabh got “Zanjeer”and the rest as they say is history.
It seemed as if the prayers of Mumtaz were heard when Pahlaaj Nihalani and David Dhawan offered her the role of a mother in “Aandhiyaan”with Shatrughan Sinha and Prosenjeet, the son of veteran actor Biswajeet. The film was not only bad but was made in bad taste. There were scenes between the mother (Mumtaz) and the son (Prosenjeet) which seemed to be more romantic than the young lovers in the film. A whole generation had passed and not many seemed to know the greatness of Mumtaz and those who knew wondered why she had to ruin her success story….
That night Mumtaz finished telling me her story much later than midnight and made sure that I was sent home in the same six-door Mercedes she had sent for me…….
She is seventy now and is seen as an ordinary house wife doing her marketing and looking after her house. If there are biographies and biopics being made or planned on every ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’and Silk Smitha, then I surely think Mumtaz deserves a biography written by a good writer and a biopic made by a sensitive and sensible filmmaker. Will this other dream about Mumtaz I dream of now also come true???