Name : Meena Shorey
Full / Real Name : Khursheed Jahan
Born :
Died : 13-Sep-1987
Notable Films : Ek Thi Ladki
Contributed by : Afzal A Khan
For today's generation, the name Meena Shorey may mean nothing, but music lovers would definitely remember the ever-popular song "Lara Lappa" from the film "Ek Thi Ladki". The film, which starred Meena Shorey opposite the debonair Motilal, was a huge success. Some years back, a vernacular magazine had published an inter- view with the (late) actress where she had talked about her life and film career. An English rendition of this autobio- graphical sketch is given below :
My real name is Khursheed Jahan. I had two sisters and a brother. Wazir Begum was my elder sister. Rukhsana and Siddique were younger to me. Our father Mian Barkat Ali was an agriculturist from Multan. But due to his irresponsible ways, all lands had to be sold off one by one, and ultimately we shifted to Lahore. Here, he started a dyeing business, but this too failed. Money problems led to domestic squabbles and things became very very difficult. My elder sister then got married to one Aslam, who was from Bombay and had some connections with the film industry. After some time, she called our mother and the other siblings to come over and live with her in Bombay. Rather than feel sad, my father was in fact happy at getting rid of his "liabi- lities". Soon afterwards, he remarried.

Times were hard. Bombay was a much costlier city. I wanted to join the film industry. Once I accompanied my brother-in-law Aslam to attend the muhurat of a film. It was Sohrab Modi's "Sikandar". One of my friends had loaned me a beautiful dress to wear. Though I was only about 12 years at the time, I looked a little older and was the cynosure of all eyes at the studio set which was very crowded. Some people even thought that I was the heroine of the film. Actually, Vanmala had been cast in this film opposite Prithviraj Kapoor. Sohrab Modi was busy in arranging the lights etc. but, seeing the commotion, he came to where we stood, looked me over, and straightway told Aslam that he wanted to cast me in his next film. He said that he was in fact on the look-out for a beautiful girl like me, who could pose a worth- while challenge to Naseem Banu, who was renowned for her beauty. I was of course overjoyed and succeeded in persuading my mother to let me join films and thus my career began. Sohrab Modi got me to sign an agreement where, he told me, there was a stupulation that I couln't accept any outside film for one year. This film (made by Sohrab Modi) was a great hit and my career was really launched.

It was the beginning of a very happy and prosperous period. We moved into a new house. There were lots of offers which I couldn't accept. The well-known Director-Producer Mehboob Khan wasnted to cast me in his film "Humayun" and even spoke to Sohrab Modi but the latter refused to release me from his contract. In his next film "Prithvi Vallabh", I was cast opposit a very handsome actor Al-Nasir. We fell in love and got married. The film too proved very successful. Life couldn't have been better. Around this time, a film-maker Roop K. Shorey came to Bombay from Lahore. He wanted to cast me in his new film "Shalimar" but my contract with Sohrab Modi again came in the way. Instead, Begum Para did the film, opposite Chandramohan. In those days, Bombay film-stars often visited Lahore, which was another big film centre. On one such visit, I met Dalsukh Pancholi. He announced two films "Shehr se Door" and "Arsi" where I was to star as the leading lady. But, after the shooting had begun, Sohrab Modi sent a legal notice to me and Pancholi, claiming damages of Rs. 3 lakhs. I was surprised, as the one-year period was long over. It turned out that Modi had taken advantage of my being illiterate and fraudulently altered the restrictive provision from one to three years. I came back to Bombay and pleaded with Modi not to destroy my film career but he refused to budge. For about an year, I had to remain idle. Then, Modi demanded Rs. 60,000/- from me as his price for releasing me from the contract. I met his wife, Mehtab, and requested her to intercede on my behalf. Ultimately, the matter was resolved on payment of Rs. 30,000/-.

I then returned to Lahore. My husband Al-Nasir remained behind in Bombay and continued to work in films. He was a philanderer and had relations with many women, betraying my faith and love. First, he befriended Kuldip Kaur, who saw through his game. After some time, he married Manorama but left her soon. Then he married Veena. Faced with this situation, I obtained a divorce from him. In Lahore, I began shooting for Pancholi's "PatJhar" with a new leading man. Geeta Bali too was cast in the movie. It was only half-completed when the country was partitioned and Pakistan came into being. Since I had several films lined up in Bombay, I decided to go back there, along with my family.

I acted in films like "Actress". "Kale Badal" and "Dukhiari". In those days, I lived in a flat near Shivaji Park. Majnu, a comedian and character-actor, also lived nearby. He told me that, following Partition, Director Roop Shorey had come to Bombay and was living in a hotel. Financially, he was so hard up that he had no money to even pay his hotel bills. I felt very sad. I had seen him in his heyday. He was a very generous man and had helped me in my early career. I had also acted in his film "Rut Rangeeli". On hearing of his plight, I went to see him, paid off all his bills and brought him to live in my flat. I suggested to him that he could resume film-making and promised to finance his ventures. Shorey's next film, made with my finance, was "Chaman" and it was quite successful. Om Prakash had acted in this movie. Then, Shorey made "Ek Thi Ladki", where the biggest hero of the day, Motilal, acted opposite me. The film was hugely successful and its song "Lara Lappa" became a phenomenal hit. Right from the days of our earlier association, I had felt a sort of gratitude towards Shorey. In Bombay, we became very good friends. Once, we went to Calcutta, where he proposed to me. Though he was already married, I was told that the (bigamy) laws were not applicable in Bengal. Accordingly, we decided to get married in Calcutta. He was in fact prepared to become a Muslim. But, in order to repay him for all his past favours, I decided to marry him according to Hindu rites. Thus I became Meena Shorey.

In 1954, the Pakistani film industry started a fierce agitation against Indian films, although Indian films and film-stars remained very popular with the Pakistani people. Two years later, I decided to come over to Pakistan and straightway began receiving film offers. My first film here was "Miss 1956", which was made in Karachi. On its release, I came to be known as the topmost heroine in Pakistan. Then a well-known film-maker Anwar Kamal Pasha signed me on for his film "Sarfarosh", where I had to play a Princess. A great many costly costumes were got prepared for the role. Just then, I came to Bombay for a few days to meet my husband (Shorey). In my absence, another Pakistani actress Sabeeha Khanam plotted against me and got my part changed to that of a bandit queen. Feeling outraged, I declined the film. But then I relented, when the producer's father Hakim Shuja Pasha came to my house and pleaded with me to save him and his son from financial ruin.

Time continued to elapse. I met actor Asad Bukhari when he was cast opposite me in "Jamalo". We fell in love and got married during the making of this film. But he proved to be a most selfish person. For his sake, I made another film which bombed at the box office. Although he didn't spend a single paisa on this film, he started distancing himself from me. Once when we met in a studio, he even went to th extent of denying our marriage. All this broke my heart and I decided to leave the film industry for good.


Note : This interview was done in 1985. Meena Shorey died on the 13th September 1987.