Miran Trivedi
It's no wonder that Lumna fell in love with her co-stars after spending long periods of time together on film sets. The list of blossoming lush romances with fellow actors is long. Among the couple's names written in pink ink is Dharmendra and Meena Kumari. Veteran actor Dharmendra and tragedy queen Meena Kumari's love affair was in the limelight in Cinejagat but then what happened that they got separated? Dharmendra was already married when he entered the film industry. He was also a father of four children. He was married to Prakash Kaur at a young age. Due to family obligations, Dharmendra did not want to cross the line in his relationship with Meena Kumari in the early stages of his career. The credit of bringing Dharmendra into films goes only to Meena Kumari. Meena Kumari insisted on casting Dharmendra in the lead role in each of her films. The filmmakers had to accept Meena's insistence because coins bearing Meena's name were being minted at that time. Dharmendra and Meena Kumari met for the first time on the sets of the film Purnima in Meena Kumari's biopic, but it was not their first film release. It is recorded that 'Main Bhi Ladki Hoon' released in 1964 is the first film of both of them. During the shooting of the film, Dharmendra and Meena Kumari started getting close. After this, the duo worked together in 'Kajal', 'Phool Aur Pattar', 'Majli Didi', 'Chandan Ka Palna' and 'Baharon Ki Manzil'. Baharon Ki Manzil was the last film Dharmendra and Meena Kumari worked together. The fragrance of their rosy relationship started spreading in the film industry. The affair of these two artists was being discussed so much that during an event organized in Delhi, the then President Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan himself tried to make Meena Kumari know about the truth of their relationship. However, when the car of Dharmendra and Meena Kumari's personal life was running on the tracks, an incident disturbed Meena Kumari's sleep. Dharmendra's popularity started to grow after the success of the film 'Phool Aur Patthar'. Dharmendra was offered many films and the shooting of these films also increased his busyness. Due to this engagement, the distance between Dharmendra and Meena Kumari began to grow. Gradually their relationship reached the verge of breaking. In the meantime, Meena Kumari's health deteriorated and Dharmendra did not inquire about her. After this incident, Dharmendra and Meena's relationship was marked by a breakup. What happened after the breakup? They met each other at the party of the movie 'Love and God' but there was no conversation between them. Dharmendra neglected Meena Kumari a lot. Due to this, Meena's eyes turned red with anger and left the party. In the personal life of Meena Kumari, many people including Dharmendra came like spring and went like autumn. The setbacks in every love affair made this actress a tragedy queen. With this alcohol took the place of his favorite character. In the history of Bollywood, many love stories like Dharmendra and Meena Kumari remained limited enough to spread the fragrance of love. In an interview, Dharmendra said about his relationship with Meena Kumari, 'I was a big fan of Meena Kumari. I loved it. If you give the tag of love to the relationship between a fan and a star, what else can I say about it? But yes, I got very close to Meena on the sets of a film.' Meena Kumari's life was going through many ups and downs when Dharmendra came into Meena Kumari's life. Depressed in life, Meena got a strong shoulder from Dharampaji. Actually Meena Kumari married Kamal Amrohi secretly. Her husband's restrictions broke them when Meena Kumari moved in with him. Dharmendra entered Meena's life when Meena broke up with him after being together for almost a year. Both liked each other, but Meena Kumari never said or admitted anything publicly about her relationship with Dharmendra. However, Dharmendra ended his romantic relationship with Meena Kumari after meeting Hema Malini. Dharmendra was punished for flirting with Meena when filmmaker-director-writer and Meena Kumari's husband Kamal Amrohi dropped Dharmendra from the film Pakeeza and replaced him overnight with actor Raj Kumar. When Dharmendra was asked about this, he said, 'People are jealous of me.' Dharampaji didn't hold back even in flirting. Before 'dream girl' Hema Malini entered his life, his wife was Prakash Kaur. Apart from this, Meena Kumari, Hema Malini and Anita Raj also ruled the hearts of Dharam. }
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).