Dharmendra landed in Mumbai with the prospect of becoming a movie star in the late 1950s, and while the idea was wildly exciting, he had no idea how to actually be one. He had seen Dilip Kumar on the silver screen and had spent years idolising the star, but in those early years, Dharmendra didn’t know how to casually walk into a frame and just make his presence felt. He had worked with Bimal Roy in Bandini, and Chetan Anand in Haqeeqat, and while both these performances were praised, Dharmendra was yet to mark his arrival in the movies.
During the same era, when Dharmendra was a newbie trying to establish himself as a mainstream working actor, Meena Kumari was at the peak of her career. After films like Baiju Bawra, and Parineeta, she had appeared in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, and had completely changed how Hindi cinema heroines were seen on screen. And while her life looked like a bed of roses from afar, she was struggling in her personal life with her bad marriage with filmmaker Kamal Amrohi. It was during this phase that she met Dharmendra. For him, she was a star who probably had the Midas touch, and she, perhaps, saw him as the innocent man who was yet to be consumed by the corrupt society around them. She believed he genuinely cared for her, unlike those who just saw her as a “meal ticket.”
Dharmendra was intimidated when he was told that he would be working with Meena Kumari. (Photo: Express Archives)
‘Petrified’ Dharmendra was asked to touch Meena Kumari’s feet
Meena and Dharmendra first met each other on the set of Purnima, which released in 1965. This was the first of the seven films they worked on in a span of four years. Dharmendra was a novice, and she was a star, and he was naturally nervous when he was first told that he would be working alongside the ‘tragedy queen’. As per ‘Meena Kumari – The Classic Biography’ by Vinod Mehta, first published in 1972, Dharmendra was “petrified” at the thought of facing her in front of the camera and would go around asking other members of the unit, “What is Meena ji like?” He was “unsteady” and was told by someone that he should, perhaps, touch her feet when he first saw her, because after all, she was his senior. She had been in the movies since the 1930s, and while she was only a couple of years older than him, the wealth of experience she carried was unmatched. It is unknown if he actually touched her feet, but she was quoted as saying, “This boy will rise. He is not the routine entry.”
Meena and Dharmendra’s first release was a film called Main Bhi Ladki Hoon. The plot here was excessively regressive as it had Meena wearing blackface as she tried to get in the good books of her husband, played by Dharmendra. This was the time in the movies where they were quite brutal in declaring that someone with a darker complexion was unlucky, as opposed to a fair person, who was constantly called beautiful. The film was forgettable, and if Dharmendra and Meena’s friendship was not flourishing during that era, no one would have even looked it up in hindsight.
Dharmendra and Meena Kumari in Main Bhi Ladki Hoon.(Photo: Express Archives)
Forgettable films that brought her unforgettable joy
Meena, in this stage of her life, was going through some terrible marital problems. Her rocky marriage with Kamal Amrohi was hanging on by a thread as they had just gotten separated. She had left her husband’s home and moved into Paradise, Mehmood’s house, as her sister was married to Mehmood’s brother. After living with them for a while, she moved away and bought herself a new house, Janki Kutir. It was here that an occasional brandy turned into a debilitating habit, and her health worsened.
When Dharmendra walked into her life, she was lonely. The love of her life, Kamal, had abandoned her, and her family, who had gotten used to the money she made, hardly gave her the love and attention she craved. Dharmendra’s charming presence reminded her of what she had lost after years of being in a business where she was now seen as a commodity. He too, was married to Prakash Kaur, who was still back in Punjab. Meena knew that, but she also knew that he was the rock who could help her get through this rough patch in her life, and so he did.
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Dharmendra and Meena Kumari worked in seven films together. (Photo: Express Archives)
They signed a couple of more films with each other, and while none of these films were anything close to what she had done on screen before, it gave them a chance to spend some time with each other. Purnima released and sank without a trace. Here, the two played star-crossed lovers who are forced to marry other people, but in a strange twist, they come back together again after their respective spouses die. They also worked together in Kaajal, where they were not romantically paired together, but shared a strange bond that seemed romantic at first, but was later revealed to be that of a brother and sister.
When Dharmendra said, ‘I don’t like women drinking’
The on-screen relationship might not have been working for the audience, but off-screen, they were starting to become each other’s confidantes. Dharmendra would frequently visit her at Janki Kutir and while people might believe that he accelerated her drinking habit, that wasn’t the case. As per her biography, he actively tried to curb her drinking, and to some extent, it worked as well. She would not drink much in his company, but as soon as he was gone, she would gulp down whatever was in front of her. Years later, when Dharmendra was asked during Aap Ki Adalat if he encouraged Meena to drink, he just said, “I don’t like women drinking.”
Their closeness was starting to get apparent in front of the world as well, and unlike her contemporaries, Meena did not believe in hiding relationships behind closed doors. If she liked someone, she made it known, and thus, their relationship soon became tabloid fodder. She was famously married to Kamal Amrohi and so naturally, there was more attention given to this relationship.
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She was a mentor-like figure to him as she helped him navigate the corridors of stardom, and he was like a project to her, someone who needed her guidance. It was widely believed that Dharmendra somehow used his relationship with Meena to get better film offers, but that wasn’t really the case as Dharmendra was doing just as many, or probably more films, with actors like Mala Sinha as well, who were also more popular than him.
‘I would just keep looking at her’
As Meena and Dharmendra’s relationship rumours increased, the tabloids started printing stories of her reciting shayari for him at cocktail parties, or Meena losing her patience when she wasn’t around him, but stories like these were unverified and could have been the product of anyone’s imagination. While Dharmendra tried to stay mum on the subject for almost all of his life, he once admitted his love for Meena as a star. At Aap Ki Adalat, when Rajat Sharma asked him if he was in love with her, he said, “It wasn’t love, I was her fan. As a fan, I would just keep looking at her. If you call the relationship between a fan and a star love, then call it love.”
Their next film, Phool Aur Patthar, in 1966, was another run-of-the-mill story, but luck favoured Dharmendra here, and after this, he was a star. His fortune changed, and he was now the next big Bollywood star. Meena’s fortune was starting to change as well, as her glory days were now behind her. She had given in to alcoholism completely and was now starting to look visibly sick. Their next film was Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Majhli Didi, which was almost a precursor to Amar Prem, had Meena giving a beautiful performance, but much like all of their other films, this one disappeared soon after the release as well. Their last two films – Chandan Ka Palna and Baharon Ki Manzil – were just as forgettable. And after 1968, the two never worked in any film together, and the unnamed relationship they shared with each other also ended.
Dharmendra and Meena Kumari starred together in Phool Aur Patthar. (Photo: Express Archives)
Kamal Amrohi rejected Dharmendra for Pakeezah
Around that time, Kamal came back into Meena’s life and they restarted work on Pakeezah, upon Sunil Dutt’s insistence. Kamal was yet to cast the male lead of the film, and Dharmedra was in the running for that role. But, Kamal did not want to cast someone who was close to his wife. When Dharmendra was asked about this by Rajat Sharma, he just laughed and said, “People were jealous.” Meena’s health was deteriorating with every passing day, and Dharmendra was no longer a part of her life. It was almost as if she had expected her husband to be there for her at this juncture of her life, but he disappointed her once again. And it was probably this disappointment that made her believe that Dharmendra was there for her with absolutely no ulterior motives.
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In 1972, after Meena died, Dharmendra paid his respects at her funeral, and Nargis wrote an open letter where she finally declared Meena’s love for him. “If Meena has ever loved anyone passionately, the person is Dharmendra. If Meena ever turned crazy in love for someone, it was Dharmendra.” Describing it as the “most beautiful” phase of her life, Nargis made it clear that Dharmendra was nothing but a positive influence on her.
Dharmendra moved on and eventually fell in love with Hema Malini, but the years he spent with Meena Kumari gave her life.
