Nukkad Cafe
and The Yellow Room Poet’s Club’s weekly online poetry meet-up — Ustadon Ki Mehfil — an event organised to pay tribute to renowned poets, recently saw poetry lovers come together to celebrate the legendary actress Meena Kumari and her poems. Meena Kumari, was a 'tragedy queen' on-screen and an accomplished poet off-screen. Apart from her acting career, she was also renowned for her poetry and ghazals and wrote poetry under the pseudonym Naz. The actor began her career as a child, and went on to act in films like ‘
Majhli Didi
’, ‘
Pakeezah
’, ‘
Baiju Bawra
’ and ‘
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
’.
Titled ‘Poetries of Meena Kumari,’ the virtual meet witnessed fans of the late actress, recite, share and listen to poems written by her. The evening kicked off with the host introducing Meena Kumari a.k.a Mehjabeen Bano with one of her ghazals — Chand Tanha — from her popular album 'I write, I recite'. Poets who were a part of the meet, recited poems based on her childhood, her career in the film industry, her marriage, and her relationships. Atharva, one of the participants, spoke about how the Bollywood diva expressed her true feelings in her poetry. Ganesh Rasal, a regular in the meetups, performed one of his favourite nazm, ‘
Thaka Thaka Sa Badan
.' by
Meena Kumari Naz
.
Vaibhav Paliwal, the owner of Nukkad Cafe, says historians and critics often write that poetry was the medium through which the actress distanced herself from her public image and criticised the industry that had brought her to public attention in the first place. The discussion also focused on the tragic life and untimely death. The group also talked about the importance of addressing mental health.
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