Vyjayanthimala

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Her Grandmother termed her as ‘Dancing Toes’ Even as toddler young Vyjayanthimala displayed that she would be an iconic dancer. Her grandmother had nicknamed her ‘Dancing Toes’ judging from her excellent dancing movement and predicted that she would be a great dancer in future. Hence she taught Vyjayanthimala Bharata Natyam from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and Carnatic music from Manakkal Sivaraja Iyer. At the young age of seven, Vyjayanthimala proved her excellence when she was selected to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XI at Vatican City in 1940. Her proud mother watched her perform sitting in the audience.

Vyjayanthimala’s finds man of her own choice In Dr. Chamanlal Bali Vyjayanthimala’s marriage to Dr. Chamanlal Bali was an emotion saga of a typical Bollywood film because Dr. Chamanlal Bali was a married man with three children and this was opposed by his grandmother, who had reared Vyjayanthimala from birth. But in Dr. Chamanlal Bali, Vyjayanthimala found a man of her thought, who encouraged her and supported her to relish her dream career in dance.

Wanted to follow Academics but destiny made her film star Vyjayanthimala was an intelligent student and did her education from the Convent Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Chennai. Her grandmother wanted her to pursue academics. In an interview Vyjayanthimala confided, “I wanted to follow higher education because in those days working in cinema was looked down and children from respected family were not allowed to join cinema. But destiny made me a film star.” Recalling her early days Vyjayanthimala, “When I was performing a dance show on stage, eminent film producer MV Raman of AVM Pictures was so impressed by my dance that he immediately approached my grandmother and cajoled my granny and signed me for the Tamil movie Vazhkai (1949). I was just 15 years. I felt embarrassed and did not tell my friends as I felt they would ridicule me. But to my surprise the film was a huge hit and I made me a star overnight!” With Nagin Vyjayanthimala became Bollywood’s top heroine With the huge success of Tamil movie Vazhkai (1949), AVM remade the film in Hndi as Bahar (1951) having hit songs including the immortal hit song Saiyan Dil Mein Aana Re, Aake phir na jaanaa re…. The movie was a bigger hit than the South version. The highlight of the film was that Bollywood filmmakers and the Hindi audience were left stunned by the dance of Vyjayanthimala, which was never experienced before. Her dance was genuine marked with appropriate mudras and apt facial expressions. Hence she was flooded with multiple offers. But she did not get carried away with success and with cool mind she selected the right film that gave her excellent opportunity to display her forte – dance. Thus she signed S. Mukherjee’s Nagin (1954). In this film she played a tribal girl and film maker Nandlal Jaswantlal gave ample exposure to her dance. The movie had (Hold Your Breath) 13 songs but kudos to music director Hemant Kumar, who scored excellent music because each of the 13 songs were super hit. Remember Man Dole Mera Tan Dole.....; Mera Dil Ye Pukare Aaja....; Jadugar saiyan chod mori baiyan.... ; Oonchi Oonchi Duniya Ki Deewarein … The movie was a box office bonanza and made Vyjayanthimala Bollywood’s top heroine With Devdas Vyjayanthimala proved she was an actress par excellence After the mega success of Nagin, Vyjayanthimala was declared the undisputed star of Bollywood but still she was regarded more as a brilliant dancer than a competent actress. Hence she was looking for a role where she could tight lip her critics. Eventually when the great filmmaker Bimal Roy, impressed by her dancing skills, cast her in the role of Nautch girl Chandramukhi, Vyjayanthimala, put her best in acting department too, Though the role of Chandramukhi exploited the dancing expertise of Vyjayanthimala to the hilt yet it had immense emotion and it gave Vyjayanthimala to prove her acting prowess, which she did brilliant by fetching her first Filmfare Award! Vyjayanthimala discards her First Filmfare Award! Shocked! But, it is true!! When Filmfare announced Vyjayanthimala as the Best Supporting Actress in Devdas; Vyjayanthimala declined to receive the award! Reason?? Well in her reply Vyjayanthimala said, “When Bimal Roy offered me the film he clearly told me that the film has two parallel roles - Paro and Chandramukhi and both are heroines of the film. Hence there was no question of a supporting actress tag! There was no arrogance from my side. It was simply a matter of opinion which unfortunately was blown out of proportion by media and it created misunderstanding between me and Filmfare for some time. Later things were normal.” Bimal Roy repeats Vyjayanthimala in Madhumati Bimal Roy was one filmmaker who was known for his artistic brilliance and selected only those artists who were actors in real sense. Hence after Devdas when Bimal Roy repeated Vyjayanthimala in Madhumati it was a great feat for Vyjayanthimala because it consolidated her credentials as an actress par excellence. Recalling the film Vyjayanthimala says, “Actually Madhumati was not the typical Bimal Roy kind of film. It was more of a commercial cinema with elements of songs, dance and action but surprisingly it became the most successful film of Bimal da’s career and established me as a major star.” Rumors of Vyjayanthimala romance with Dilip Kumar After sharing screen space with Dilip Kumar in Devdas and Madhumati; Vyjayanthimala had became Dilip Kumar’s favorite actress. But still Dilip Kumar’s jodi with Madhubala was at its peak in the late 50’s as the two were romantically involved. Hence when B.R.Chopra announced his film Naya Daur his first choice was Madhubala but Madhubala’s father Ataullah Khan was against the union of Dilip Kumar and Madhubala and in a fist of fury had even dragged Dilip Kumar into the court for allegedly misbehaving with his daughter. This enraged Dilip Kumar so much that he replaced Madhubala with Vyjayanthimala in Naya Daur. With the success of Naya Daur, the Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala Jodi became popular. They did a chain of movies together like Paigham, Ganga Jamna, Leader and Sunghursh. As a result rumor mill began to blow about their romance. Vyjayanthimala and Raj Kapoor Romance While the Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala romance was the imagination of the media but it is alleged that the romance between Vyjayanthimala and Raj Kapoor during the making of Sangam (1964) created a storm in the teacup. According to Rishi Kapoor, son of actor Raj Kapoor, during the making of Sangam, his father Raj Kapoor was madly in love with Vyjayanthimala and the impact of this romance was so intense that there were frequent quarrels between his mother and dad. Rishi Kapoor claims, “My mummy was quite tired of my dad’s obsession for Vyjayanthimala so much so that one day she left the house taking all of us to Natraj Hotel in Mumbai, where we lived separately from dad for many months.” However in contrast Vyjayanthimala in her autobiography ‘Bonding - A memoir’ discards this love affair as a mere publicity stunt employed by Raj Kapoor to make his film hit!