Vyjayanthimala Bali

Vyjayanthimala (born 13 August 1936) is a former Indian actress, dancer and parliamentarian. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards. She made her screen debut at the age of thirteen with the Tamil film '' Vaazhkai'' (1949), and followed this with a role in the Telugu film ''Jeevitham'' (1950). Her first work in Hindi cinema was the social guidance film '' Bahar'' (1951), which she headlined, and achieved her breakthrough with the romantic film '' Nagin'' (1954). She is currently 86 years old.

She garnered a lot of critical acclaim for her role in the period drama film ''Devdas'' (1955), where she played Chandramukhi, the Tawaif with a heart of gold. The film and her acting was praised, later considered to be her magnum opus. For ''Devdas'', she won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress which she refused, stating that she played a leading role equal to that of Suchitra Sen, her co-star, and so she could not accept the award for a supporting role. She went on to star in series of commercial successes, which include the romance film ''New Delhi'' (1956), the drama film ''Naya Daur'' (1957) and the comedy film '' Aasha'' (1957). Her roles in the social film '' Sadhna'' (1958) and the paranormal film ''Madhumati'' (1958) each earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Awards for Best Actress, winning for her work in ''Sadhna''.

In the 1960s, the crime drama film ''Ganga Jumna'' (1961) saw Vyjayanthimala playing a rustic village belle, Dhanno, a role which won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She won the award again for the romance film '' Sangam'' (1964). She went on reinvent her image, earning a mixed reception after notably appearing in a one-piece swimsuit in a film role. She later achieved acclaim for her performance in the historical drama ''Amrapali'' (1966) which was based on the life of ''Nagarvadhu'', royal courtesan of Vaishali, Amrapali. Her notable successes following were the swashbuckler film '' Suraj'' (1966), the heist film ''Jewel Thief'' (1967), the art film ''Hatey Bazarey'' (1967), the film ''Sunghursh'' (1968) and the epic film ''Prince'' (1969).

In 1968, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India, the fourth-highest civilian honor. After a starring role in the film ''Ganwaar'' (1970), Vyjayanthimala retired from the acting industry. She has since gained popularity for her dancing, particularly for her work in Bharata Natyam, a form of Indian classical dance, and was later given the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the highest Indian recognition given to practising artists.

Background and personal life

She was born in Triplicane near Parthasarathy Temple in a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family to Mandyam Dhati Raman and Vasundhara Devi. She was raised primarily by her grandmother, Yadugiri Devi. Her ancestors were from Mysore. Her mother was a leading actress in Tamil Cinema in the 1940s where her '' Mangama Sabatham'' was the first Tamil film to be declared a "colossal" hit at the box office.

At the age of seven, Vyjayanthimala was chosen to perform a classical Indian dance for Pope Pius XII while her mother was an audience in 1940 at Vatican City. Vyjayanthi attended Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Presentation Convent, Church Park, Chennai. She learned Bharata Natyam from Guru Vazhuvoor Ramiah Pillai and Carnatic music from Manakkal Sivaraja Iyer. She had her arangetram at the age of 13 and started performing in Tamil Nadu later. Her maternal uncle is Y. G. Parthasarathy. In 1938, her grandfather, Mandyam Dhati Gopalacharya, started a nursing home on Narayan Shastri Road, Mysore.

Relationships

In her heyday, Vyjayanthimala was the subject of many controversies, particularly for her misconstrued relationships with her co-stars. In the late 1950s, Vyjayanthimala was linked by gossip magazines with Dilip Kumar, who has acted with her the most compared to any other actress, which resulted in great on-screen chemistry between them. While working for his home production ''Gunga Jumna'' (1961), Kumar reportedly handpicked the shade of sari that Vyjayanthimala would wear in every scene. In the early 1960s, actor Raj Kapoor had commenced the filming of '' Sangam'' with Vyjayanthimala playing the female lead along with Rajendra Kumar and Kapoor himself as the male lead. The filming took four years to finish. During this time Vyjayanthimala is said to have been romantically involved with Kapoor and almost married him. Initially, she was vexed with him and kept him at a distance. However, Kapoor did not give up over her attitude. However, Vyjayanthimala in her autobiography mentioned that it was a publicity stunt by newspapers in North India to link her with Raj Kapoor and that she was never in any relationship with him.

Vyjayanthimala married the already married Chamanlal Bali, a Punjabi Hindu Arya Samaji from Delhi but lived in Anna Salai, Chennai in 1968. After marriage, she gave up her acting career and moved to Chennai. However, between 1968 and 1970, she shot for those films which she had signed before her marriage, such as ''Pyar Hi Pyar'', ''Prince'' and ''Ganwaar''. They have a son, Suchindra Bali. In 2007, she published her autobiography, titled ''Bonding'', with Jyoti Sabarwal as a co-writer.

Religious views

Vyjayanthimala is a devout Vaishnava Hindu and a vegetarian. She grew up listening to holy chants and devotional songs. She is an admirer of Aandaal, one of the 12 Alvar saints of Hinduism. She prays to Goddess Saraswati before any public performance to gain her blessing.

Entertainment career

Early success in South Indian films

When director M. V. Raman was looking for a new face to cast in AVM Productions's '' Vazhkai'', he saw Vyjayanthimala performing Bharata Natyam in Chennai's Gokhale Hall. He tried to convince her grandmother, who was apprehensive about Vyjayanthimala joining films as she felt her grand daughter was too young to act in the films and also it would come in the way of her education and dance. Vyjayanthimala played a college girl named Mohana Shivashankaralingam and acted along with senior actors S. V. Sahasranamam, M. S. Draupadi, T. R. Ramachandran and K. Sankarapani. The movie was a big success and was remade in Telugu after one year as ''Jeevitham'' with a slightly different cast, namely C. H. Narayana Rao, S. Varalakshmi and C. S. R. Anjaneyulu. This film enjoyed great success upon release. For the Telugu version, Vyjayanthimala did her own voice dubbing with a little assistance from her father who knew Telugu well and coached her during the filming process. Vyjayanthimala also did a guest appearance in the 1950 film ''Vijayakumari'' which had actress T. R. Rajakumari in a dual role. She danced for the song "laalu...laalu...laalu" which was choreographed by Vedantam Raghavayya. Though the film was not a commercial success, her western-style of dance became popular and was considered one of the major highlights of the film.The success of her Tamil film '' Vazhkai'' in South India inspired AVM Productions to remake it in Hindi as '' Bahar'' in 1951. In their first Hindi venture, they decided to cast Vyjayanthimala again in the lead role with Karan Dewan, Om Prakash and Pandari Bai (who was credited as Padmini in the film). She learned Hindi at the Hindi Prachar Sabha to dub her own voice for her character in the film. Upperstall.com in their review, wrote that "She does bring the film to life with her dances though, something which was new then for the North Indian audience". The film became sixth highest-grossing film of 1951 with a verdict of box office hit. After the success of her debut films in all three languages, Vyjayanthimala again acted in a multilingual film which was produced by Avichi Meiyappa Chettiar of AVM Productions. The first version was in Tamil as '' Penn'' where she co-starred with actor Gemini Ganesan, S. Balachander and Anjali Devi. "Kalyanam...venum" sung by J. P. Chandrababu for Balachander became an instant hit. The second version was in Telugu titled '' Sangham'' which was released in the same year with N. T. Rama Rao, Vyjayanthimala, S. Balachandran and Anjali Devi in the lead. The Tamil and the Telugu films were big successes across South India. The film was once again remade in Hindi as ''Ladki'' starring Kishore Kumar and Bharat Bhushan, while Vyjayanthimala, along with Anjali Devi, reprised her role from the original film. Her performance was described by Upperstall.com as, "Vyjayanthimala's dances are the film's saving grace although it is unintentionally funny now to see how deliberate and obviously tacky the sequences are which lead into her dances... Ladki too makes no real demands on "feminist" tomboy Vyjayanthimala histrionically". The movie became second highest-grossing film of 1953.

In 1954, Vyjayanthimala acted in the film '' Nagin'' with Pradeep Kumar. The film got favourable responses from the audience and became the highest-grossing movie of 1954 where it was labelled as a blockbuster. Her performance as the Nagi tribe's chief got Mala favourable reviews from the critics, as in 1955, a critic from Filmfare magazine had said that "Vyjayanthimala in the title role puts over a commendable performance besides looking ravishingly beautiful as the belle of the hills. Her dancing, too, is very graceful, specially in those eye-filling colour sequences and delightful ballets towards the finish", while in The Hindu review Vijay Lokapally similarly praised her portrayal: "The ethereal Vyjayanthimala, barely 18, illuminates the screen with her stunning beauty, moving around daintily from one song to the other... The close-up shots of Vyjayanthimala highlight her ability to convey so much with so little effort... Nagin was a precursor to her rise in Hindi cinema as an iconic actor, who combined her talents, performing and dancing, to rule the screen on her terms... biggest recall values of Nagin are Vyjayanthimala". Post ''Nagin'' Vyjayanthimala had established herself as one of the leading actresses in Hindi films because of the film's nationwide success. Hemant Kumar's music and her dance on the song, "Man Dole, Mera tan dole", rendered by Lata Mangeshkar was one of the highlights of the film. In the same year she acted in ''Miss Mala'' with Kishore Kumar, which was a box office success. Vyjayanthimala debuted in Kannada cinema through a film called ''Asha Nirasha'' which was produced by G. D. Venkatram. The film had Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle and Mohammed Rafi as the playback singers, but the movie was unreleased, though the producer's son Srikant Venkatram claimed that the film was released and flopped miserably at box office which made the film obscure.

''Devdas'' and breakthrough

In 1955, Vyjayanthimala acted in five Hindi films. The first one was director Abdur Rashid Kardar

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