‘Pakeezah’ Defies Logic. Meena Kumari Makes You Believe It.

The opening of Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah (1972) belies the labor behind it. You see a dark red background and hear the ghungroo of a dancer and the beat of a tabla. But you can’t see the face that would make the movie a masterpiece. After all, the director, writer, and producer had envisioned the project as a love letter to his wife, Meena Kumari. When you read it that way, it makes sense. But in every other aspect, the project is bewildering.

It took 16 years to make Pakeezah. The plot is nonexistent; there’s scant, often nonsensical, dialogue. Meena Kumari would halt production several times, rumored to have asked her husband for a divorce before she proceeded. She would also get sick, diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver, allegedly caused by excessive drinking. Understandably, much of the film upon its release felt dated. So, of course, when it came out on February 4, 1972,  audiences and critics were dumbfounded, calling it “a lavish waste.” It would take Meena Kumari’s death a few weeks later, at age 38, to pack theaters and make it one of the highest-grossing films of the year. But what would make it immortal, decades later, was something else entirely.