Meena Kumari's original name was Mehjabeen. She changed her name when she became an actress. Very few people know that Meena Kumari was connected to the grand Rabindranath Tagore family. Meena Kumari's grandmother, Hem Sundari Thakur (Tagore) was married into the Tagore family but after she lost her husband Rev Bill, she was compelled to give up all her rights to the family name or property by her in-laws.

The politically powerful and rich family of the Noble Laurate Rabindranath Tagore, were too powerful for her. Due to this sudden severance of connection, not many were aware of Hem Sundari's relationship with the Tagores.

Hem's daughter Prabhawati was Meena Kumari's mother. Prabhawati too was a stage actress and a dancer. Her stage name was Kaamni. Prabhawati later got married to a Pathan called Ali Bux. He was a Sunni Muslim. He played the harmonium and wrote Urdu poetry. He was already married when he met Prabhawati. He composed music for small films like Shahi Lutere and also did some bit roles in films like Idd Ka Chand.

Mehjabeen was born on August 1, 1932 in Dr Gadre's hospital in Mumbai. Her father Bux almost left her in a Muslim orphanage but went to pick her up again after a few hours. Bux was upset that his wife had given birth to another daughter.

"I don't want to work in films. I want to go to school," was the first protest of Mehjabeen. What followed was an intriguing love-hate relationship that she always had with films.

Though her father was against her doing films as he knew what went on inside those four walls of a producer's office, her mother pushed her into the industry as a means of livelihood. Her first role was as a child-artiste in Farzand-e-Watan (renamed Leather Face) by Vijay Bhatt of Prakash Studios. Her first ever scene didn't have lines. There was a scene in which a cat was supposed to lick her cheeks. She was terrified but the cat's tongue was less terrifying than the whip lashing words of her mother.

Ali Bux, Meena's father, who was initially against his daughters joining films, became Meena's full time manager after she became a successful star.

Once while returning from Mahableshwar in their Plymouth, Meena and her family met with a serious accident. And though three of them suffered injuries, Meena's were the worst. Her left hand was seriously injured, and doctors weren't sure if she would be able to use it again. No one knows how much damage was caused to her hand and how it looked after the surgery. Being very image conscious, Meena always hid her hand in her sari pallu, and viewers often tried spotting it. This only added to her charm.

Released on Oct 5, 1952, Baiju Bawra became a hit. And she a star. The reviews were very good. The film ran for 100 weeks in Bombay. It did Silver, Golden and Diamond jubilees. From a heroine who had signed Anarkali for Rs. 15,000, her price immediately jumped to one lakh.

After her accident since she was indisposed, Meena Kumari lost some good films to other actresses. Even one of her favourite films, Noor Jehan, slipped out of her hands. The film was instead made with a little known Asha Mathur, Kamal Kapoor and Pradeep Kumar but the film couldn't be completed. 12 years later Meena got to play Noor Jehan.

During the shooting of Baiju Bawra, for the shooting of the song Tu Ganga ki Mauj, Meena Kumari was alone in a boat and from the shore and the camera. She wasn't looking at the direction she was going in, suddenly unit hands started shouting, but she couldn't hear them. She was excitedly rowing the boat, unaware of the fact that she was at the edge of a waterfall. A couple of unit hands who could swim, jumped into the water and started swimming towards her, luckily her boat was stopped by some boulders from going over. By then one of the unit hands had been able to reach her boat, and climb aboard. Only then she realized just how close to death she had come.

Meena Kumari, once walked out of Mehboob Khan's film Amar, because she couldn't spare the dates for shooting. For a heroine to actually walk out on Dilip Kumar was akin to sacrilege in those days. But Meena Kumari was like that, she made her own rules and lived by them.

She was also a poet. A couplet taken from one of her poems describes her perfectly: Dilsa jab saathi paaya bechaini bhi saath mili. (If I found a companion of my liking I found restlessness with it too). She kept longing for a perfect mate all her life. In her search for that soul mate she also made some very significant friends like Gulzar, Pradeep Kumar, Dharmendra.

After receiving the Filmfare award for Kaajal from President Radhakrishnan, she had dined with him and conversed at length with him in her faltering English. Meena was very excited upon receiving a letter from the Pesident within a week of their meeting. She immediately wrote back to him, and didn't let anyone correct her language in the letter, as she had wanted him to know that she had written the letter on her own.

The actress was also awed when she was looking out for a bungalow and found that the one suited her requirements was inhabited by Mahatma Gandhi in 1930. She was so excited by this that she made it a point to find out from the old gardner, where Bapuji used to sit, where he kept his charkha, where he used to meet his visitors and hold evening prayers etc.

Meena Kumari did the bathing scene in Footpath much against the wishes of her husband Kamal Amrohi. Drinking and ill health took its toll on her career soon. At one point in time she was away from films for five years. Meena Kumari came back to work after that gap with Pakeezah.

She was unwell even while the film was being shot. Meena Kumari rushed out of the sets and started crying when she couldn't dance on Thare rahiyo o banke yaar ve. "I can't do it... it is too late." Kamal Amrohi got Padma Khanna to do the song in place of Meena Kumari but of course in a ghunghat. Meena Kumari had a chat with Padma before the picturisation. The perfectionist that she was, she wanted Padma to walk like her in the music pieces. Padma had to practise for hours before she got the nod from Meena Kumari.

Pakeezah released on February 4, 1972. The film was declared a flop. Three weeks after the release of the film, Meena Kumari fell seriously ill and on March 31, 1972, at 3.25 pm, she died. Pakeezah became a hit.