Google on Thursday honoured Bollywood icon Madhubala with a doodle on the occasion of her 86th birth anniversary. The doodle by Bengaluru-based artist Muhammed Sajid shows the actor in a pose from the landmark 1960 film Mughal-e-Azam.
Madhubala, whose original name was Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehlavi, was born in 1933 and was raised in the slums of the present-day Mumbai. She acted in her first film at the age of nine, for which she was credited as Baby Mumtaz. She took her screen name Madhubala after bagging a lead role in Neel Kamal at the age of 14. She appeared in nine films in 1949.
On International Women’s Day last year, The New York Times published an obituary of Madhubala as part of a series of 15 obituaries of trailblazing women from across the globe. She was the only Indian featured.
Written by Aisha Khan, the article painted Madhubala as a tragic figure in Indian cinema whose life was cut short at the age of 36 because of prolonged illness. The article drew parallels between the actor’s life and Mahal (1949), in which she portrayed an enigmatic woman haunting an abandoned palace. “A Bollywood legend whose tragic life mirrored Marilyn Monroe’s,” the article noted.
Madhubala appeared in over 70 films, and was called “The biggest star in the world” by Theatre Arts magazine in 1952.
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