A little under 20 years after its release, Meena Kumari’s Bahu Begum continued to run to warm response in the morning shows at cinemas in Delhi. Delhi’s Jagat cinema first showed the film in the late 1970s, then had a number of repeat screenings in the early 1980s. Almost always, the film did good business. Such was the film’s abiding affair with Jagat’s morning slot that its placards and leaflets stuck in the hall’s gallery had begun to fade. Meena Kumari’s legion of fans did not mind as, week after week, they turned up to watch the tragedy queen of Hindi cinema. More than a decade after Meena Kumari passed away, her fans continued to throng Jagat, often finding themselves singing, “ Hum intezar karenge tera qayamat tak”, a hit song from the film first released in 1967.
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In an industry which tends to pay inordinate obeisance to its leading men, Meena Kumari’s case was a rare exception. In the Walled City of Delhi, her films played at Jagat. It was the hall that showed Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah, the 1972 film that entered the record books of Hindi cinema after the news of Meena Kumari’s death soon after its release. It was also the hall that showed Meena Kumari’s Phool aur Patthar (1966). The O.P. Ralhan film completed a silver jubilee.
