Mahjabeen.........

March end came and gone, as usual. We all are busy during the last week of March every year to complete the year end work. People in taxation and finance like me are particularly running from piller to post for clients and self. Often I feel that all this last minute rush is due to human tendency of procrastination. We all know well the deadline, 31st March, but every year the rush is common.
There is a day, 30th March, which is almost forgotten for one thing. That's Mahjabeen's anniversary. In Urdu, in the context of a girl, Mahjabeen means as beautiful as the moon. In the film world, she was known as Meena Kumari. Her real name was Mahjabeen and I like that name rather than Meena Kumari. She is one of the two old time actress I like. The other is Mala Sinha.
I have seen all films of Mahjabeen. But I liked two most. First, Choti Bahu and other is Pakeeza. Her performance in both the films was fantastic! Her expressions were unmatched. If seen in the context of the background story, you can just 'read' her expressions.
When I was studying at VJTI, I attended a small course of one week duration on Film Appreciation at Dadar. I think that was organised by some film society. They explained all the aspect of film making and acting. They also explained how to appreciate the technicalities of the film and the acting performed by various artist. The most important of that was to understand the story and the psychology of each character and how it is presented by the Director and performed by the artist.

I have seen Pakeeza umpteen times. Each time, I experience and find something new in the film. The most dominating aspect of Pakeeza is not the Ghazlas or story; but its the tehjeeb what is shown all through the film. To understand and enjoy Pakeeza throughly, one must know the notions and customs prevailing in northen India at that time. Unless you have at least some exposure to that, you can't understand that movie. I came across many persons, who wrote off Pakeeza as a film merely on life of a girl who unfortunely landed in the vocation of what we call as naach-gaana. Even if that is taken as the theme of the movie, the fact that the performance of Mahjabeen was ultimate by any count can not be disputed.