Trip down the memory lane with Mala Sinha 
By Screen Weekly, March 13, 2007 - 03:41 IST
Traffic-stopping curves, exotically beautiful Nepali looks coupled with tremendous talent turned out to be her ticket to fame and glory. She was Yash
Chopra’s heroine in his directorial debut blockbuster social Dhool Ka Phool , and by teaming up with Guru Dutt in Pyaasa she became part of Indian
cinema’s legend. Reigning supreme as a leading lady over two decades, perhaps her greatest achievement has been the sheer longevity of her
allure… Screen felicitated her with the Lifetime Achievement Award this year and the glittering trophy stands proudly in her palatial Bandra
bungalow in Mumbai where she lives with her daughter and five ferocious dogs. The grand lady rewinds to her Kolkata days where she imitated
Nargis and dreamt of dazzling the silver screen…
A singing prodigy
Born to Christian Nepali parents in Kolkata, she was their only child and they fondly christened her Alda. “But my school mates would tease me
Alda-Dalda after the hydrogenated oil brand so my parents started calling me Baby,” she laughs. Her businessman father would take her and her
mother along for film shows and young Baby would come home and imitate the song and dance sequences exactly as she had seen those on
screen. “Baba (father) spotted the spark in me right there and hired music and dance teachers for me. And it wasn’t too long before I came to be
regarded as a singing prodigy. I was often invited to perform at Durga Puja festivities, and at music shows by famous singers like Punkaj Mallik and
Gonda Mukherji,” she reminisces. School text-books got blurred whenever she heard songs on the radio; music became the mainstay of her life.
Her father, a good singer himself who could not fulfill his wish of pursuing a singing career as he was weighed down with family responsibilities,
encouraged his talented daughter whole-heartedly. And when she was offered Roshanara, her first feature film as a child artiste by Ardhendu Bose,
a Bengali filmmaker, after he watched her play the title role in the school drama, Chitrangada her father gave her a go ahead promptly much against
her grandmother’s wishes who felt it were better to drown the girl than let her join films!
Five flops, yet Screen declared Mala a star Her waif-like adolescent form metamorphosed into traffic-stopping curves as she starred in a couple of
Bangla films, but it was a stamp-size picture in a Bangla newspaper that turned out to be her ticket to fame in Hindi filmdom, “Director Amiya
Chakravorty was already a name to reckon with, when he approached Baba with the heroine’s role in Badshah which was the adapted version of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame , we shifted to Mumbai,” elaborates Mala.
As her career progressed her alias changed for the final time from Alda to Baby to Baby Nazma to Mala Sinha. But life wasn’t going to be easy for
the plump young Mala who spoke only Bangla; she faced flops and failures early in her career. “Five flops in a row was no joke! Badshah, Seema,
Ekadashi(a mythological!), Riyasat and Kishore Sahu’s dream project Hamlet in which we wore gowns crashed in quick succession. But I remember
even though Hamlet failed, Screen gave me a glowing review declaring ‘A star is born’. After watching Hamlet, Geeta Bali recommended me to Kidar
Sharma in Rangeen Raatein opposite Shammi Kapoor. But for Geetaji, we had all but packed our bags to return to Kolkata,” she admits with a
shrug.
Raj Kapoor spoke in Bangla to put her at ease
Mala had grown up on a staple diet of Raj-Nargis romances, hoping that she would replace Nargis in Raj Kapoor’s arms one day. She would tie two
pleats with ribbon bows just like Nargis and would be delighted when her schoolmates started calling her Nargis, “With my oval face-cut and
aquiline nose, I really believed them! So picture my excitement when I was offered Parvarish opposite my dream man Raj Kapoor. I didn’t sleep the
night before the shoot; I rehearsed my scene with Baba through the night. I didn’t know a word of Hindi then, I would write my lines in Bangla script
and mug them up,” she confesses bemusedly. She developed cold feet the next morning when faced with her screen god, but Raj Kapoor was not
just a performer par excellence but also a compassionate co-star. He sat down with her before the take and spoke to her in Bangla to put her at
ease. “Rajji noticed that during a dramatic scene in which I was talking and emoting, the director had trained the camera on his face and on my back
in accordance with our star status, Rajji advised the director to shift the shot and focus on me. He was not only a great artiste but also a director
within,” she acknowledges gratefully. She was paired twice more opposite Raj Kapoor in Main Nashe Mein Hoon and Phir Subah Hogi.
She also co-starred with reigning superstar Dev Anand in Love Marriage and Maya.
Compassionate and caring Guru Dutt
When young Mala was offered the role of Guru Dutt’s sweetheart who spurns his affections and opts to marry the richer man Rehman, she never
thought she was to be a part of an all time classic Pyassa. “I was in awe of Guru Dutt, if he asked me to report on the sets at nine, I would be there
with full make-up on at six! But he was never overbearing, in fact he gave me full freedom to enact my scenes,” she reasons. She recalls the
maverick maker as someone who would often be lost in his creative thoughts and looking at the skies through his viewfinder. A strict, no-nonsense
director who called the shots but also a compassionate and caring boss who would personally supervise that each and every unit member was
well-fed.
“The most challenging scene in the film was the unspoken-conflict elevator scene where Guru Dutt and I come face to face for the first time since I
have ditched him for the rich man not realizing that he is there seeking the help of my publisher husband. Guru Dutt’s only instruction to me was to
feel the emotions which I did,” she stresses. She also featured in Suhagan and Bahurani with Guru Dutt.
The first Yash Chopra heroine
If the yardstick of a heroine’s success is a Yash Chopra banner today, Mala heads the list of Chopra charmers. She played the unwed mother who
abandons her illegitimate child in Yash Chopra’s path-breaking directorial debut Dhool Ka Phool. It was a huge moneyspinner and her “bold” role
went down well with the masses. But the role was no cakewalk for the young director-heroine team as Mala recalls, “I accepted the role as a
challenge and things were going on pretty well until the day I had to enact the delivery scene in the forest. When I asked Yash how to emote labour
pains, he scratched his head and admitted that he had no clue either, ‘Ask your mother,’ he advised. My mother told me that the pain came in waves
and when it hit you just saw stars in the daylight,” she laughs, “And that is how it was to be the first Yash Chopra heroine.”
Meena Kumari passed on Jahan Ara to Mala
Mala was on a winning spree, what with a string of hits in a row - Geet, Lalkar, Aankhen, Himalaya Ki God Mein, Suhagan, Bahurani, Anpadh and
Hariyali Aur Rasta- Mala was much in demand not only as the oomph girl but also as a sensitive actor. Of her rich and varied repertoire of films, Mala
is rather partial to Jahan Ara, a historical that Meena Kumari passed on to her, “Meenaji turned down the role saying that she wouldn’t look the part
whereas I would. Given my ignorance of Urdu, I was rather skeptical but Meenaji was convinced that I could do justice to the role. Playing Mumtaz
Mahal’s eldest daughter entailed grueling Urdu classes and learning royal tehzeeb. It was hot on the grand sets erected at Ranjit Studio and the film
had Madan Mohan’s haunting music. It was a film replete with lyrical moments,” she recalls fondly.
Shy Dharam, impish Rajesh, jovial Raj Kumar, child-like Sanjeev, reserved Amitabh…
Mala launched many a new hero in her heyday; Dharmendra was but a lanky newcomer when he was cast opposite her in Anpadh. “He was so
handsome and well built Hindi cinema’s first he-man. But he was no struggler, he already had a moderate hit to his credit when he was chosen for
Anpadh but this was a bigger banner and a better break for him,” stresses Mala, elaborating on how Dharam turned beetroot-red and broke into a
cold sweat when their very first scene turned out to be that of the suhaag raat and only 3-4 takes later he got his act right, “But success changes
everything, later when we acted in Aankhen, Dharamji became bold and beautiful especially with the fairer sex,” she reveals with a hearty laugh.
Her Maryada hero Rajesh Khanna was really naughty and always playing pranks. “We were shooting the song ‘Chup ke se dil de de ...’ in Filmalaya
Studios, I was all dressed to kill with a plunging neckline and on my way to the set I heard a piercing wolf-whistle. I turned back to lash out in anger
and there I saw Rajesh sitting under a tree telling me mischievously, “My compliments!”. My anger just evaporated,” she recalls.
Raaj Kumar ranked among Mala’s favourite leading men, she remembers him as someone who didn’t change at all with times, “He was the same
jovial person I knew from the Nausherwan-E-Adil days. Sohrab Modi directed as well as acted in the film and he was a very strict person with stiff
ways, Raj Kumar would mimic his mannerisms and keep us in splits. He was a jolly good man, I have never seen him grumpy,” she relates.
Mala is full of fond memories of Sanjeev Kumar, “He was a very sensitive actor, he never acted he just became the character. But off-screen he was
very child-like; he dropped by at our place unannounced one day and declared that he would lunch with us. My Baba was embarrassed because we
are fish-eaters and we had nothing much to offer a Gujarati vegetarian! But he assured us that he didn’t mind eating fish at all. He ate heartily picking
out fish-bones as deftly as we do.” Rivaaz and Zindagi are two of the films in which they co-starred.
Amitabh Bachchan, who co-starred with her in Sanjog, was “always a very cultured young man who spoke Hindi flawlessly”, Mala recalls his rich
baritone and his true-to-life performances, “Somehow he never opened up to me, perhaps owing to my seniority, but he was always respectful
towards me,” she remarks.
Adieu Baba, adieu films!
During her first Nepali film Maitighar, Mala fell in love with her hero C P Lohani. They were soon married and were blessed with a lovely daughter
Pratibha. Domestic responsibilities never came in the way of her career, Mala continued acting even after marriage and child-birth and graduated to
substantial character roles with Zindagi, “Which was just like Baghban, perhaps not as glamorous,” she admits. She was last seen in Khel (‘91),
Raadha Ka Sangam (‘92) and Zid (‘94). Her heart was no longer in acting, and she missed her father sorely.
“Baba took care of everything the banner, the script and even my costumes all I did was to perform; I wasn’t allowed to answer phone calls directly.
After he passed away I never felt up to facing the camera again, I missed him too much on the sets. He was my guru, my strength and my source of
inspiration, ” she states emotionally.
Since then she leads a simple, reclusive life in suburban Bandra, and she is often spotted in the market buying fresh-water fish or some furnishings
for the bungalow. Sans pretense, sans scandal, she leads a peaceful life, sans any regrets in life. She is philosophical about daughter Pratibha’s
none-too scintillating stint in films, “That was her destiny and this was mine. Otherwise tell me how did the little girl from Diocesan Girls High School,
Kolkata, land up here in films?” she asks pertinently.
Screen India
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Mala Sinha in Nepal's honour list
