Veena (4 July 1926 – 14 November 2004), also known as Veena Kumari, real name Tajour Sultana, was an Indian actress.
Early life and background
Veena was born as Tajour Sultana on 4 July 1926 in
Quetta
Quetta (; ur, ; ; ps, کوټه) is the tenth List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan with a population of over 1.1 million. It is situated in Geography of Pakistan, south-west of the country close to the ...
,
Baluchistan Agency
The Baluchistan Agency (also spelt Balochistan Agency) was one of agencies of British Raj during the colonial era. It was located in the present-day Pakistani Balochistan province.Administration report of the Balochistan Agency for 1888–89:
s ...
,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
Lahore
Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...
and they lived in Lahore.
She married actor-hero Al Nasir in 1947 in
Junagadh
Junagadh () is the headquarters of Junagadh district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Located at the foot of the Girnar hills, southwest of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar (the state capital), it is the seventh largest city in the state.
Literally t ...
and had two children with him. Al Nasir was from a royal family in
Bhopal
Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...
and had already been married, first to actress
Meena Shorey
Meena Shorey (13 November 1921 – 3 September 1989) was a Pakistani film actress who worked first in Indian cinema and later Pakistani cinema. She appeared in Hindi/Urdu and Punjabi language, Punjabi films. Credited in films by her mononym ...
and then to Manorama. They both worked together in a few films but their films flopped at the box-office. Al Nasir died in 1957 due to
tetanus
Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...
.
Career
Veena started out playing heroine roles in pre-partition films. She made her debut with ''Garib'' and ''Gawandhi'' (1942) at around sixteen years of age. ''Garib'' was made in Urdu and ''Gawandhi'' was made in Punjabi and directed by
Mehboob Khan
Mehboob Khan (born Mehboob Khan Ramzan Khan; 9 September 1907 at filmreference.com. – 28 ...
. In ''Garib'', she played the role of Lata and in ''Gawandhi'' she played heroine opposite
Shyam Shyam is a name of Krishna and an Indian masculine given name and surname. Notable people with this name include:
;Shyam
*Shyam (actor), Indian Hindi film actor
*Shyam (composer), an Indian music composer from Kerala
* Shyam Benegal, Indian film di ...
, who played the hero. She became known for her roles in pre-partition
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
Humayun
Nasir-ud-Din Muhammad ( fa, ) (; 6 March 1508 – 27 January 1556), better known by his regnal name, Humāyūn; (), was the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, who ruled over territory in what is now Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Northern ...
'' (1945). Her last film before the
Partition of India
The Partition of British India in 1947 was the Partition (politics), change of political borders and the division of other assets that accompanied the dissolution of the British Raj in South Asia and the creation of two independent dominions: ...
was ''Rajputani'' (1946), in which she played a supporting role. She decided to remain in India after the partition in 1947, and she acted through the mid-to-late-1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. She played roles in big productions such as ''Halaku'' (1956), ''
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi
''Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi'' () is a 1 January 1958 Indian musical comedy film directed by Satyen Bose. Starring Madhubala with the Ganguly brothers —Ashok Kumar, Anoop Kumar, and Kishore Kumar— the film revolves around a middle-aged man who ...
'' (1958), ''
Kaagaz Ke Phool
''Kaagaz Ke Phool'' () is a 1959 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced and directed by Guru Dutt, who also played the lead role in the film along with Waheeda Rehman. It is the first Indian film in CinemaScope and the last film off ...
'' (1959), ''
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
'' (1963),''Do Raaste'' (1969) and ''
Pakeezah
''Pakeezah'' (; ) is a 1972 Indian Hindustani-language musical romantic drama film that was written, directed, and produced by Kamal Amrohi. The film stars Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumari, and Raaj Kumar. It tells the story of Sahibjaan, a Lucknow ...
'' (1972). She retired in 1983 after the release of '' Razia Sultan'' (1983) in which she played Empress Shah Turkhan.
Death
Veena died in
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...
on 14 November 2004 after 21 years of retirement when she was 78 years old after suffering from a protracted illness. She had appeared in over 70 feature films in a career spanning 41 years (1942 – 1983).