Hindi cinema\u2019s most famous unfinished love story has an unusual last chapter. Madhubala and Dilip Kumar never married, but they lie almost side by side in Mumbai\u2019s Juhu. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are buried very close to each other,\u201d says Madhur Bhushan, Madhubala\u2019s sister. \u201cJust five to 10 metres apart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madhur has spent decades as the keeper of her sister\u2019s memory. In a recent conversation with Vickey Lalwani, she set out to correct one version of that story that has circulated for years.<\/p>\n
‘The statement is completely wrong’<\/p>\n
Veteran actress Mumtaz once suggested in an interview that Dilip Kumar walked away after learning that Madhubala had a heart condition and could not have children. Madhur rejects that account outright.<\/p>\n
A collapse on set and a diagnosis<\/p>\n
Madhur is not entirely sure when the illness began. At one point she linked it to Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958). But the first warning sign she describes happened on the set of Bahut Din Huwe, released in 1954, where Madhubala fainted and vomited blood for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we visited the doctor, they said we feel there is something wrong in the chest,\u201d Madhur recalled. She admitted the film titles blur together for her: \u201cI don\u2019t remember these film names as Abba didn\u2019t allow all this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madhubala was shooting in Chennai at the time. She travelled to Bombay for tests and was told she had a hole in her heart. \u201cNo doctor in Bombay was capable to treat her as technology wasn\u2019t so advanced then. It was a complicated surgery,\u201d Madhur said.<\/p>\n
The final months<\/p>\n
Madhur\u2019s most painful memories come from the very end. The family lived in the same Bandra house, on different floors. When Madhubala\u2019s condition turned critical, Ataullah Khan phoned Kishore Kumar to tell him she might die at any moment. According to Madhur, Kishore replied that he had an outdoor shoot and his tickets were booked. He came only after her father pleaded with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe couldn\u2019t speak when she was sick. She had lost her speech about four months before death. Her lips had become blue,\u201d Madhur said. \u201cShe was breathing her last and she died.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madhubala died in 1969, aged 36.<\/p>\n
The first love that stayed<\/p>\n
In those last weeks, Madhur moved into her sister\u2019s room to nurse her, and it was there that Madhubala confided in her. \u201cShe told me she cannot forget Yusuf Sahab,\u201d Madhur said, using Dilip Kumar\u2019s birth name, Yusuf Khan.<\/p>\n
Madhur doesn\u2019t see that as a betrayal of anyone. \u201cIt is impossible to forget your first love, and if somebody claims they have, then they are lying about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dilip Kumar\u2019s memoir describes a final meeting that fits with what Madhur says. Shortly after he married Saira Banu in 1966, Madhubala sent word asking to see him urgently. With Saira\u2019s encouragement, he went. He found her frail, her famous smile now an effort, and he wrote that she told him she was happy her \u201cprince\u201d had found his \u201cprincess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three years later she was gone. Today, the two rest just metres apart.<\/p>\n
Lakshana is an entertainment and lifestyle journalist with over a decade of experience. She covers a wide range of stories\u2014from community and health to mental health and inspiring people features. <\/p>\n
A passionate K-pop enthusiast, she also enjoys exploring the cultural impact of music and fandoms through her writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hindi cinema\u2019s most famous unfinished love story has an unusual last chapter. Madhubala and Dilip Kumar never married,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-660659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}