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Mumtaz could be considered the most underrated Bollywood movie star of the 60s
and 70s. She was never given the critical accolades that lesser stars received
and producers and directors never gave her the plumb lead roles she deserved.
However in the over 120 films she appeared in Mumtaz shone. Maybe it was her
vivaciousness and carefree spontaneous energy that turned her off to the critics
that just couldn't seem to take her seriously? She was in the 60s full of 'zing'
she was groovy, Mumtaz was Mod maybe too Mod for a traditional 'serious' star.
In the rollicking sixties comedy, Pyar Kiye Jaa, a still adolescent Mumtaz
played a naive starlet who dreams of seeing her name up on billboards. In
hindsight, the role seemed to have a few semi-autobiographical shades. Mumtaz
started her career as a bit role player, made the transition to stunt hero's arm
candy (Samson, Rustom-e-Hind), to vamp (Mere Sanam, Kaajal), to comedian's girl
(Pyar Kiye Jaa), to second lead (Humraaz, Aadmi Aur Insaan), before finally
striking it big as a much sought after leading lady who gave three hits with
superstar Rajesh Khanna (Do Raaste, Bandhan, Sachcha Jhoothaa), in a span of
just six months.
She oozed oodles of oomph, but the appeal of the bubblacious, button-nosed
beauty lay significantly in her innate joi de vivre, dazzlingly expressed in
sunlit smiles and sparkling-like-champagne eyes. Despite the fact that Mumtaz
had all the prerequisites of a made-to-order Hindi film heroine --- she could
dance, pout, exude sex appeal and speak Hindi fluently --- she was relegated to
supporting roles for a long chunk of her abbreviated-by-marriage career.
Mumtaz, accompanied by her sister Mallika, began carrying her vanity box to
studios when other children her age were carrying a lunch box to school. Her
infectious insouciance, evident even in early films like Sehra and Rustom
Sohrab, soon gave her an edge over her sister Mallika. Mumu, as she was known,
started zooming up the ladder of success, one rung at a time. She accepted small
roles in big films like Mujhe Jeene Do and big roles in B-grade stunt films like
Boxer, Samson, Tarzan and King Kong. In the 1960s, she starred in as many as 16
actioners with freestyle wrestler Dara Singh.
However, even while she held the audience's gaze captive with simmering
sensuality in songs like Yeh hai reshmi (Mere Sanam), and Aye dushman jaan
(Patthar Ke Sanam), she always kept her eyes open for the big chance. Lore has
it that when the hazel-eyed beauty Rajshri gave her father V Shantaram a run
around for the dates of Boond Jo Ban Gayi Moti (1967), the veteran maker decided
to prove a point to his errant daughter and replaced her with second runger
Mumtaz.
Also, the role of Dilip Kumar's sugarcane-chewing, fire-spitting lover in Nagi
Reddy's Ram Aur Shyam (1967) proved a boon for Mumtaz. Destiny delayed Mumtaz's
success, but failed to deprive her of her share of limelight. While Ram Aur
Shyam gave Mumtaz the A-level stamp, she had to wait two years before she was
anointed the box-office princess.
969 was the watershed year for Mumtaz. Raj Khosla's Do Raaste was a golden
jubilee hit. Though Mumtaz's character was extraneous to the plot, she had four
hit songs picturised in Khosla's inimitable style: a duet (Chhup gaye saare
nazare), two male solos (Yeh reshmi zulfein and Khiza ke phool pe), and the solo
(Bindiya chamkegi). For the next five years, Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz went on to
do eight films in all --- seven of which (Do Raaste, Bandhan, Sachcha Jhootha,
Dushman, Apna Desh, Aap Ki Kasam, Roti) were immense crowd pleasers.
Mumtaz never looked as glamorous as she did in Yash Chopra's Aadmi Aur Insaan.
Mumtaz stole the thunder from heroine Saira Banu as she flung her high
heeled-shoes and danced with abandon to the Sahir Ludhianvi-penned Zindagi
ittefaq hai, while Dharmendra and Feroz Khan watched with admiration. A year
later, Mumtaz delivered a sensitive performance as the nautch girl paid to pose
as a deranged man's (Sanjeev Kumar) wife in Prasad's Khilona. She won the Best
Actress trophy for this film.
Mumtaz who had once played second lead to Sharmila Tagore in several films
(Saawan Ki Ghata, Yeh Raat Phir Na Aayegi, Mere Humdum Mere Dost) was now her
arch rival. Unfortunately, producers frittered away spunky Mumtaz's talent in
fare like Himmat, Jigri Dost and Roop Tera Mastana (all three opposite
Jeetendra). Like Geeta Bali before her, Mumtaz got fewer performance-oriented
roles than she deserved.
On the few occasions that Mumtaz was offered a good role, her dormant desire to
prove her metier found successful expression -- witness her trio of meaty 'wife'
roles in Tere Mere Sapne (a wife disillusioned by her husband's success), Aap Ki
Kasam (an anguished wife of a suspicious husband), and Prem Kahani (a faithful
wife traumatised by the return of her former lover). In Aaina, she played the
all-sacrificing elder sister, but the film failed.
Mumtaz's fairytale story had a prince in it too. At the peak of her career,
Mumtaz married millionaire Mayur Madhwani. She quit films in 1974, even as her
starrers Roti, Aap Ki Kasam and Chor Machaye Shor were creating a shor in the
theatres.
Mumtaz busied herself with cooking for her husband, caring for her two
daughters, Natasha and Tanya, and surviving a hiccup in her married life. An
attempt to comeback to films with David Dhawan's Aandhiyan (1990) 16 years after
she had left the profession proved disastrous --- the trousers-sporting,
middle-aged mem was not the phataka the audience had loved in Dushman and Apna
Desh.
For the last couple of years, Mumtaz has been battling with cancer. But she
still retains that spirit that saw her rise from being Rajendra Kumar's sister
in Gehra Daag to his romantic lead in Tangewala, from the heroine Shashi Kapoor
refused to work with in Sachcha Jhootha (eventually Rajesh Khanna stepped in the
role) to the heroine he sought out for Chor Machaye Shor.
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