Veena (4 July 1926 – 14 November 2004), also known as Veena Kumari, real name Tajour Sultana, was an Indian actress.
Early life and background
Veena was born as Tajour Sultana on 4 July 1926 in
Quetta
Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه) is the tenth most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in south-west of the country close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is the capital of th ...
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...
and they lived in Lahore.
She married actor-hero Al Nasir in 1947 in Junagadh and had two children with him. Al Nasir was from a royal family in
Bhopal
Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...
and had already been married, first to actress Meena Shorey and then to Manorama. They both worked together in a few films but their films flopped at the box-office. Al Nasir died in 1957 due to
tetanus
Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...
.
Career
Veena started out playing heroine roles in pre-partition films. She made her debut with ''Garib'' and ''Gawandhi'' (1942) at around sixteen years of age. ''Garib'' was made in Urdu and ''Gawandhi'' was made in Punjabi and directed by
Mehboob Khan
Mehboob Khan (born Mehboob Khan Ramzan Khan; 9 September 1907 at filmreference.com. – 28 ...
. In ''Garib'', she played the role of Lata and in ''Gawandhi'' she played heroine opposite Shyam, who played the hero. She became known for her roles in pre-partition
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
Phool Phool may refer to:
* ''Phool'' (1945 film), a Bollywood film
* ''Phool'' (1993 film), a Bollywood film directed by Singeetam Srinivasa Rao
* ''Phool'' (magazine), an Urdu-language Pakistani children's magazine
See also
*
*
{{disambigu ...
'' (1945) and ''
Humayun
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northe ...
'' (1945). Her last film before the
Partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: India and Pakistan. T ...
was ''Rajputani'' (1946), in which she played a supporting role. She decided to remain in India after the partition in 1947, and she acted through the mid-to-late-1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. She played roles in big productions such as ''Halaku'' (1956), '' Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi'' (1958), ''
Kaagaz Ke Phool
''Kaagaz Ke Phool'' () is a 1959 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced and directed by Guru Dutt, who also played the lead role in the film along with Waheeda Rehman. It is the first Indian film in CinemaScope and the last film offi ...
'' (1959), ''
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, ...
'' (1963),''Do Raaste'' (1969) and '' Pakeezah'' (1972). She retired in 1983 after the release of '' Razia Sultan'' (1983) in which she played Empress Shah Turkhan.
Death
Veena died in
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...
on 14 November 2004 after 21 years of retirement when she was 78 years old after suffering from a protracted illness. She had appeared in over 70 feature films in a career spanning 41 years (1942 – 1983).