Madhubala: Her Real Life Story

2. Career as a Child Star

With his six remaining daughters to provide for, Ataullah Khan decided that his daughter Mumtaz Jehan, being the prettiest and brightest, would support them provided she could find a job in films. So, without a job for himself and with the young Mumtaz Jehan holding his hand, he began to frequent the film studios of Bombay in the hope of finding work. These film studios were in their backyard at Malad, where they would audition. It did not take long before Mumtaz Jehan bagged a role in Amiya Chakravorty's film 'Basant' as Baby Mumtaz. In this film, which was released in 1942, she also sang two songs and one of them, "Mere chhotey se man mein chhoti si duniya re..." became immensely popular. At the tender age of nine, this marked her first step into the movie industry, which would provide financial sustenance to her family as long as she lived. A contemporary of Mumtaz Jehan was Nimmi, who, of the same age or so, saw this film and was captivated by Mumtaz Jehan's self-assured acting and song.

It seems Mumtaz Jehan took to acting as a fish takes to water and in one of her interviews, her sister Shahida said: "Our father brought all of us to Mumbai. Aapa, who was just seven, loved to sing and dance and was fond of music and poetry." In her very first film, 'Basant', Mumtaz Jehan sailed through like a veteran actor. Actor Ashok Kumar, who went on to act as her hero in many films, said that when he set eyes on her on the sets of one of his films at Bombay Talkies, he noticed Mumtaz Jehan pass the door of his make-up room and peep in nervously. When he asked her to come in, she ran away and, in his words, she 'never lost that innocence, that spark'.

Despite the success of this film, Ataullah Khan could not support his family and so took all the members back to Delhi to hunt for a job. In 1944, Amiya Chakravorty met the family again in Delhi to assign a role in his film 'Jwar Bhata', which she did not do but it prompted Ataullah Khan to settle down with his family at Malad, a suburb of Bombay, for good.

In 1944, Kedar Sharma of Ranjit Movietone made her act in his film, 'Mumtaz Mahal', wherein she impressed him with her talent. He said much later in life, "Acting seemed to be an instinct with her. There was lustre in her eyes, which expressed the great depths of her soul. Her diligence, discipline and ardour for work, for all of which Madhubala (Mumtaz Jehan) is so well known, were her notable qualities even as a child star. Her most important characteristic was her boundless eagerness to learn. Her devotion to duty, her desire to do her best and her dogged perseverance made me call her by the affectionate appellation, ghaatan."

Thespian Dilip Kumar, who was ten years older than her, remembers her as "a little girl who used to play around when I was in Bombay Talkies. She was plumpish, mischievous and very lively. But the aptitude and flair for acting were there from the beginning".

It was now time for Mumtaz to make a transition from child roles. So, after doing four more films – 'Dhanna Bhagat' in 1945, 'Phoolwari', 'Pujari' and 'Rajputani' – all three in 1946, she acted as the heroine in Kedar Sharma's 'Neel Kamal'.

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