Mumbai If we talk about the “Tragedy Queen” of Hindi cinema, Meena Kumari, the immensely beautiful and accomplished actress, is a must. She was not only a talented actress but also a deeply sensitive Urdu poet. She wrote many poems under the pen name “Naaz,” which clearly reflect the loneliness, pain, longing for love, isolation, and emotional struggles of life.
Meena Kumari’s poems reveal her soul beyond the glamour of cinema. Even today’s generation reads the poetess within her with great interest. “Meena Kumari the Poet: A Life Beyond Cinema,” translated by Noorul Hasan and published by Roli Books, includes English translations of selected Urdu poems by Meena Kumari. The book contains poems in which the late actress poignantly expresses themes such as love, loneliness, desires, illusions, the window of dreams, silence, and innocence.
The late musician Naushad Ali said of Meena Kumari’s writing, “Her anguish was clearly evident in her poems.”
She became so despondent over her lifelong pain that alcohol and poetry became her solace. She herself said, “To combat the feeling of betrayal, I began drinking and writing poetry.”
Meena Kumari’s poems are poignant, simple, and conversational. They possess a striking immediacy that immediately captivates the reader.
Writer Noorul Hasan says, “Few people know that Meena Kumari possessed a remarkable penmanship. Her poems are far more sensitive and self-aware than her film persona.”
Soon after her death in 1972, Gulzar published a collection of her poems through Hind Pocket Books. Hasan recounts finding this slim book by chance at Howrah Railway Station, which he read repeatedly. Her poems contain both personal experience and philosophical depth. Poems like “The Dumb Child,” “Khali Dukaan,” and “Aakhri Khwahish” are deeply moving.
Poetry was Meena Kumari’s medium to express herself, eschewing public image. Her works document both the film industry and her inner world. Meena Kumari’s poems feel like diary fragments. The pain of loneliness and unfulfilled love resurfaces in them. Lines like “Zindagi sirf mohabbat se nahi chalti naaz…” reflect her marital life and personal struggles.
In “Aakhri Khwahish,” she wrote: “Tonight, this loneliness, this sound of heartbeats, this strange silence, this silent rendition of ghazals, the setting stars, this last vibration of love… this all-pervasive symphony of death, come for a moment, paint dreams of love in my closed eyes.”
