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Geeta Bali's dancing eyes and her animated, expressive face which mirrored her
soul were her most outstanding features bagged 70 odd films in a ten-year
career.
She married struggling actor-turned-megastar Shammi Kapoor and mothered two
children: a son and a daughter. Today, she is remembered as a wonderfully
natural actress and a fabulous human being. Geeta's reputation as an actress
rests more on her performances than her roles. Natural, spontaneous and gifted
with a spot-on sense of comic timing, she never really found a vehicle worthy of
her talent. Largely a shade better than the movies she starred in, she frittered
away her talents in B-grade films.
Geeta, who was born Harikirtan Kaur, had done a few small-time dancing roles in
pre-Partition Punjab in films like Badnami, before moving to Mumbai. Impressed
by her off-screen vivacity, Sharma cast Geeta in his Suhaag Raat (1948).
Audiences related to her instantly and watched wide-eyed as she nonchalantly
tossed her unconscious hero, Bharat Bhushan over her shoulder in a scene.
She won raves even in supporting roles like in the 1949 Suraiya starrer Badi
Behan and the Madhubala starrer Dulari. In 1951, she became a major star
with Guru Dutt's first hit, Baazi (she went on to do three other films under
his direction). Geeta played gangster's moll with a golden heart to Kalpana
Kartik's conventional heroine. But Geeta played her role with such gay
abandon that hero Dev Anand divulges, "People came repeatedly to theatres to
see Geeta's spirited dancing to Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana de.
Geeta proved she could do tragedy (Sharma's Raj Kapoor starrer Bawre Nain) or
and play the lighthearted heroine to comedian Bhagwan in the super successful
AlbelaAlbela's swinging C Ramchandra composed songs like Shola jo bhadke and
Sham dhale mere khidki tale made front-benchers dance with the stars and even
fling coins on screen.
Geeta Bali in the Guru Dutt-directed Jaal (1952). Dev Anand, a cigarette-smoking
smuggler on the run from the police, tries to entice morally upstanding heroine
Geeta into his web. Geeta evocatively communicates her struggle against, and her
eventual surrender to, handsome Dev's seduction call Yeh raat, yeh chaandni phir
kahan. 35 years after her death, her secretary Surinder Kapoor's (Boney Kapoor's
father) productions begin with a shraddhanjali to Geeta Bali.
Geeta, who had not been vaccinated for small pox, contacted the dreaded disease
while shooting the film. The best care was rushed to her, but her fever
apparently reached 107 degrees. Her doctor saw a picture by his patient's
bedside and asked who the pretty lady was. The disease had so wracked Geeta's
frail frame that he didn't recognise her as the same person!
Geeta Bali passed away on January 21, 1965, leaving behind eight-year-old Aditya
and three-year-old Kanchan in the care of a devastated Shammi Kapoor.
Awards Won:
- 1948 Suhaag Raat
- 1949 Badi Bahen
- 1950 Bawre Nain
- 1951 Baazi
- 1951 Albela
- 1952 Jaal
- 1955 Vachan
- 1958 Jailor
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