Early Career
Mumtaz’s first movie Basant (1942) was a box-office success. She played the character of the daughter of the popular actress Mumtaz Shanti. She further went on to act in several movies as a child artist. Actress Devika Rani was impressed by her performances and potential and advised her to assume the name Madhubala, which meant "a woman of honey". Madhubala soon garnered reputation as a reliable professional performer. By the time she entered adolescence, she was being groomed for lead roles.
Her first break came when producer Kidar Sharma cast her opposite Raj Kapoor in Neel Kamal (1947). She was fourteen when she was given the lead role in the movie. The film was not a commercial success, but her performance was well received. This was also the last film in which she was credited as Mumtaz before assuming her screen name Madhubala.
During the next two years, she blossomed into a captivating beauty. However it was not until she was cast in the coveted female lead role in Bombay Talkies prestigious and anticipated production Mahal in 1949, (a role intended for super star Suraiya) that Madhubala attained immense popularity. Madhubala along side many established actresses screen tested for the role before she was finally groomed and selected by the director Kamal Amrohi. Upon the film's release, audiences and critics alike enthused over the new star's enigmatic beauty and screen presence. Though she was only 16 at the time, her subtle and skillful performance was widely acknowledged to have upstaged her seasoned co-star Ashok Kumar. The film was the third biggest hit at the box office in 1949 and the song Aayega Aanewala heralded the arrival of two new superstars: Madhubala and playback singer Lata Mangeshkar.
She consolidated the emphatic success of Mahal with subsequent box office hits like Dulari (1949), Beqasoor (1950), Tarana (1951) and Badal (1951). These successful films placed her among the most bankable and prolific actresses of the early 1950s alongside established contemporaries Kamini Kaushal, Suraiya and Nargis.
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