Meena Kumari (book)
OCLC 586134668 | |
Meena Kumari is a biography by
Luiz Vaz of Jaico Publishing House approached Mehta, then a copywriter, to write a biography on Kumari soon after her death in March 1972. Though unfamiliar with
Summary
Meena Kumari opens with a foreword by the author, Vinod Mehta, on its development. The book is divided into two sections: the first contains six chapters—"Lies", "Birth", "Rise", "Fall", "Pakeezah", and "Death"—and the second, titled "Personal Appraisal", contains three chapters: "How I Got to Know Her", "The Actress", and "The Woman".
The book starts with brief coverage about
Kumari subsequently starred in more commercially and critically successful films, including
The last three chapters in the second section are about the writing of the book and Mehta's analysis on Kumari's career and film roles.
Development and writing
Mehta was working as a copywriter for the advertisement agency Jaisons that was run by Harsh Jain and his four sons,[1] when Luis Vaz of Jaico Publishing House approached Mehta to offer him writing a biography on Kumari as soon as she died in March 1972.[2] He had previously written Bombay: A Private View, about his experiences in Bombay during the 1970s and earlier decades. The book, finished in under eight months at his apartment, was self-published and distributed by Thacker and Company. The book costed ₹5 (equivalent to ₹230 or US$2.80 in 2023) and became a commercial success. All 3,000 copies of the first edition were sold out after six days. Although he continued to work as a copywriter, the book's success gave him motivation to write more books in the future.[3]
Mehta subsequently accepted Vaz's offers, with ₹500 (equivalent to ₹22,000 or US$280 in 2023) as his advance. He took the opportunity to broaden the scope of his work, though he almost had no insights about
The book emulates the writing style of several writers—often called New Journalism—including Norman Mailer in The Armies of the Night (1968). The author is placed inside the narrative, and the use of the pronoun I is common.[7] In Meena Kumari, Kumari is generally referred to by Mehta as "my heroine".[8] He said, though still journalistic, the style is author-centric and personalized.[7] He added that he copied their idea, asserting that, since he was a new writer that time, he had not many of his own.[2] He added: "All the solecisms and structural weakness were cringingly visible, but ... it was not as bad as I thought. My self-created proximity to the subject posed an obvious and clear danger. Nevertheless, despite the naivety and exhibitionism and hurried judgements, I thought I had managed to capture some fleeting essence of the controversial actress."[7]
Release and reception
By October 1972, seven months after Kumari's death, Mehta had finished the book's manuscript and sent it to Jaico Publishing House. It was published as a paperback book that costed ₹5 (equivalent to ₹230 or US$2.80 in 2023) the same month in Bombay, India. Abbas, whom Mehta interviewed for his research, wrote a positive review of the book for the weekly tabloid Blitz in December. Abbas called it "the most objective, the most sympathetic, the most comprehensively researched, and the most readable book" on Kumari. He complimented Mehta's effort to write the biography, and praised him for his ability to write on her explicitly with "restrained and civilised language".[9]
The book's second edition was published by HarperCollins on 10 July 2013 on Amazon Kindle;[10] the paperback version was released on 13 August the same year.[11] Re-titled Meena Kumari: The Classic Biography, this edition has another foreword from Mehta dated May 2013. Prior to HarperCollins, many publishers had approached him to re-publish the book, but he rejected their offers, as he believed it does not "[merit] the honour"; he later described the book as a part of his "mediocre past".[12] While its original edition was acclaimed by book reviewers, critical reception to Meena Kumari: The Classic Biography was mixed. Jai Arjun Singh noted it has many grammatical mistakes,[13] and Rasheeda Bhagat of Business Line added: "... a poor caricature of the actress whom Mehta keeps calling, to my great irritation, 'my heroine', through the entire book. What somewhat redeems this atrocious narrative, in which he largely appears cocky at best and flippant and ignorant at worst, is the shy at honesty in the introduction to the new edition."[14]
Mumbai Mirror's Chandrima Pal believed it "is as relevant today as it was at that time".[15] Baradwaj Rangan thought Mehta's writing made the book look more like an autobiography rather than a biography on Kumari.[16] Ziya Us Salam praised Mehta for "[bringing] alive memories of an actress and her illustrious career".[17] The Hindu called it a "riveting account" about Kumari.[18] Frontline concluded it would need talent equal to Billy Wilder's to write a book on her, and the book "suggested a possibility of how it might be done".[19] Utpal Kumar from The Pioneer asserted, "So far so good, but the book is not a biography in the true sense, far from being a 'classic' biography. It's a pacy, juicy and engaging account of the country's greatest tragedienne and her marriage and affairs."[20] Biswadeep Ghosh from India Today believed "reading this biography will be a fulfilling experience".[21]
Publication history
Region | Release date | Format | Publisher | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
India | October 1972 | Paperback | Jaico Publishing House | [22] |
10 July 2013 | Amazon Kindle | HarperCollins | [10] | |
13 August 2013 | Paperback | [11] |
References
- ^ Mehta 2011, p. 73.
- ^ a b c Mehta 2013a, pp. vi–vii.
- ^ Mehta 2011, pp. 74–75.
- ^ a b Mehta 2011, p. 76.
- ^ Mehta 2013a, p. 166.
- ^ Mehta 2013a, p. 114.
- ^ a b c Mehta 2013a, p. vii.
- ^ Mehta 2011, p. 78.
- ^ Abbas 1972, p. 9.
- ^ a b Mehta 2013a.
- ^ a b Mehta 2013b.
- ^ Mehta 2013a, pp. vii–ix.
- ^ Singh 2013, Death and the.
- ^ Bhagat 2013, Finding Meena... and.
- ^ Pal 2013, Men who loved.
- ^ Rangan 2013, An admirer's account.
- ^ Salam 2013, After Mahjabeen turned.
- ^ The Hindu 2013, Printpick.
- ^ Frontline 2013, Two legends.
- ^ Kumar 2013, Starry life, tragic.
- ^ Ghosh 2013, An ode to.
- ^ Mehta 2013a, p. vi.
Sources
- Abbas, Khwaja Ahmad (December 1972). "Meena Kumari by Vinod Mehta". Indian Book Industry. Vol. 7, no. 3. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
- Bhagat, Rasheeda (17 October 2013). "Finding Meena... and failing". Business Line. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- Ghosh, Biswadeep (28 July 2013). "An ode to tragedy queen Meena Kumari". India Today. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
- Kumar, Utpal (18 August 2013). "Starry life, tragic tale". The Pioneer. Archived from the original on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
- OCLC 783522585.
- Mehta, Vinod (10 July 2013). Meena Kumari. HarperCollins. ASIN B00E9Y3RX0.
- Mehta, Vinod (13 August 2013). Meena Kumari. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-93-50296-25-7.
- Pal, Chandrima (15 August 2013). "Men who loved and left Meena Kumari". Mumbai Mirror. Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- "Printpick". The Hindu. Thiruvananthapuram, India. 28 August 2013. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- Rangan, Baradwaj (3 December 2013). "An admirer's account of Meena Kumari". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- Salam, Ziya Us (16 August 2013). "After Mahjabeen turned Meena". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 February 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
- Singh, Jai Arjun (14 August 2013). "Death and the heroine: Vinod Mehta does Meena Kumari". Jabberwock. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
- "Two legends". Frontline. 15 November 2013. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.