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It is said that her complexion was so fair and translucent that when she ate paan, you could almost see the red colour going down her throat. It is also said that she once refused to shoot a scene in a water stream because her skin was allergic to not-so-clean water, and it turned blue when pressed too hard. Madhubala, who started working in the movies at just 8-years-old, was a delicate and fragile girl who lived under the authoritarian rule of her father Ataullah Khan all her life, until her death at 36. Such was the extent of his strictness that Madhubala was not allowed to make friends, decide the films she wanted to do, be with the man she loved, and make her financial decisions. Attaullah was the one who controlled everything and she didn’t dare go out of line.
Ataullah Khan had a modest job at a tobacco company. He had 11 children with his wife Aayesha Begum, but only five of his girls survived. He moved from city to city and ultimately settled in Mumbai (then Bombay) where he decided that his daughter Mumtaz, who was yet to get the screen name Madhubala, would work in the movies. It is said that Madhubala was a radiant beauty from a very young age. She was just seven-years-old when Bombay Talkies founder Devika Rani saw her for the first time and she instantly knew that this girl was a star. For Ataullah, who was an immensely conservative and orthodox man, women going out of the house to work was a big no but he bended his rules when he saw an opportunity where his young daughter could make money for the whole family. He instantly turned into a stage dad and pushed young Mumtaz into the work force.
An account in Shooting Stars written by Colin Pal, who was one of the very few public relations experts of the time, suggests that Ataullah was begging on the streets when Madhubala landed this opportunity and as soon as she got it, he started protecting her like a goose who was going to lay golden eggs for decades to come. But Madhubala’s sister Madhur Bhushan has a different story to tell. In a chat with The Times of India a few years ago, Madhur said that it was her seven-year-old sister who insisted that she wanted to dance and sing in front of the camera and told her father to take her from studio to studio. Madhubala was just eight when she made her debut as a child artiste in a Bombay Talkies film called Basant.
It didn’t take too long for the family to get comfortable as Madhubala worked round the clock. Despite her heart condition (she was born with a hole in her heart), no precaution was taken to keep her safe. Ataullah was very rigid about her daughter’s schedule, which gave her discipline, but also robbed her off all the other joys of her life. She was only allowed to go out when she had to shoot during fixed hours. There were no parties, no friends, and no other companions. Even at home, she never got any time to spend with her little sisters. It was said that her rigid schedule was maintained so she doesn’t overwork herself but Dilip Kumar has another story to tell. In the book titled I Want To Live: The Story Of Madhubala, written by Khatija Akbar, Dilip, who was once romantically involved with her said, “No proper advice was given, nor was a practical, workable course of life drawn for her. At the same time, she herself had an obsession for her work,” he said. Famous dancer Sitara Devi recalled that when Madhubala came to learn from her, she could hardly go on for more than ten minutes as her heart did not allow her. In fact, on occasions when she fainted on set during an overnight shoot in Bombay for Gateway of India or vomited blood during a schedule in Chennai for Bahut Din Huwe, doctors advised her to take it slow but Ataullah Khan kept her working at the same pace, and she just followed his orders.
Ataullah was a very calculative man who pushed Madhubala to work for extended hours in bulky costumes for films like Mughal-e-Azam, but put his foot down when there was any conversation about shooting outside of Bombay on the pretext that there wouldn’t be a hospital nearby, like in the case of Naya Daur which starred his daughter’s lover Dilip. He liked to keep her close so he could monitor her himself and was fearful that if she spent time with anyone outside of the family, she might raise her voice. Madhur Bhushan, in the same book, says that he had a strict ban on parties because he did not want any harm to come to his darling daughter, and she added that while he never hit any of his daughters, “his stern, blue eyes had us cowering,” which explains that Madhubala’s decisions were taken out of fear.
Soon after Madhubala’s career took off, Ataullah decided that he was the man in charge. He chose which filmmakers and films she would do and how much money she would make per project. In fact, he wasted a lot of Madhubla’s hard-earned money in “futile attempts at picture making,” as per Dilip Kumar. He even wanted Dilip to come under his umbrella and as per the actor, this was the major point of contention that led to his and Madhubala’s break up. In his autobiography, Dilip Kumar: The Substance and the Shadow, he shared that Ataullah wanted Dilip to work under him in his production company. The actor resisted as he did not want to “surrender to all his dictates and strategies.” Madhubala could not oppose her father so when the time came, Dilip and Madhubala parted ways. For a woman with a hole in her heart, this was a huge heartbreak as she did not expect things to go downhill this quickly.
When BR Chopra sued Madhubala and her father for backing out of the allotted dates for his film Naya Daur, it led to a huge showdown but in the end, it was Madhubala who suffered the most. Ataullah refused to send his daughter to an outdoor location, and Chopra said that he was incurring losses because of the last-minute changes. RD Chadha, who was then a junior lawyer from Madhubala’s side told Khatija Akbar that Dilip seemed so “inimical in his attitude towards her” that at one point, Madhubala turned to him and said, “I wonder if this is the same man who loved me and whom I loved.”
Ataullah continued to make enemies in the press and within the film industry for he was a stubborn man. At one point, he banned the press from entering the studio when his daughter was shooting. He also banned all kinds of interviews and promotional activity around her films and this resulted in the press reporters printing nasty stories about her personal life. Madhubala saw all of this but stayed quiet as she was the “obedient daughter” who could not raise her voice against her father.
For actor Shammi Kapoor, who was admittedly once in love with her, Madhubala couldn’t break ties with her father and this was the biggest drawback in her life, as he continued to control her like a puppet. Even her mentor Devika Rani told Khatija Akhtar, “Her over-ambitious father ruined her life.” Even when she married Kishore Kumar, and came back to her own home to spend her last years, Ataullah Khan made sure that she had no visitors. She was a caged bird to him for all of her life and continued to be so until the end. Towards the end, when she called for Dilip, who was married by then, he gave her hope that she would live a long and healthy life, but this couldn’t happen.
Madhubala’s life revolved around her father. Despite her being an independent woman who made her own fortune in the 1950s, she was heavily dependent on her father and waited endlessly for his permission to live her life. The permission was never granted.
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