Photo Caption – Meena Shorey in London, broadcasting a women’s talk in Hindi on the B.B.C (1951).

She is today the acknowledged top comedienne of the Indian screen and ranks second only to Raj Kapoor in the hierarchy of comedy artistes.

Meena was born in Ferozepore on September 13, 1926. Her father owned a considerable piece of land and a dyeing factory. Meena had two brothers and a sister. She was the naughtiest of the lot. Her father put her to school but she ran away saying : “I have no interest in study — the teacher is not good-looking”. She befriended the street-waifs and stalked the streets with them, playing pranks on the neighbors. It was only natural that she often got a thrashing.

Acting coursed through Meena’s blood and she longed for a life on the stage. So she frequently slipped away from home to visit a theatre situated nearby. She was 12 when she was caught acting on the stage. With the help of a friend she had secured the role of Leila, legendary love-swain of Persia, in a public performance, and, without knowing her father was one of the audience, moved forward dramatically from the wings into the glare of the footlights. “Farewell, my love”, Meena cried aloud to her stage lover waving her hands (“Ruksat mere pyar”–was the Urdu sentence).

Her outraged papa leapt on to the stage, caught and dragged her down by the hair. As they struggled out of the hall she wiped away her tears and turning to the stunned audience waved her arms to repeat “Farewell, my love”, and in a more natural fashion than she had done on the stage. But it was not farewell, only “au revoir”. A few years later she returned to her first love, the stage, as a full-fledged artiste in a theatrical company in Calcutta and on a monthly salary sufficient to support her ageing parents.

The morning after her father awoke to a realization of Meena’s attachment to the stage the family left the city, fearing that she would bring disgrace to their fair name. But as if to warn, from that moment misfortune began to dog the head of the house. Before he left Ferozepore with his two wives and children the family lost all their belongings in a theft. They moved to Lahore and then to Calcutta, but their troubles kept pace with them and kept on increasing. Then came the offer of a leading role in a theatre in Calcutta on a monthly salary of Rs. 350, which was quite a princely sum in those days for the 13-year-old girl Meena was. Her father was first bitterly opposed to the proposal but later reconciled himself to it on taking into account that his daughter’s earnings would considerably ease his financial straits and help in the education of Meena’s brothers and sisters.

Meena was a roaring success from the day the curtains first rose on her. She was a gifted artiste and was possessed of a voice that enraptured or tugged at the audience’s heart-strings. She was ably assisted by Nurjehan, Ramola, Mubarak and Jagdish Sethi, stage stars of the day, all of whom became famous later on the screen.

But success was short-lived as Meena had to leave the footlights when her family moved back to Lahore. To add to her personal tribulations her father wanted her to marry. Meena refused, saying that she would only wed the man of her choice. She had faith in her judgment — judgment that was to serve her ill in her later life for she was thrice confronted with matrimonial disaster.

After some months in Lahore, she left to call on Sohrab Modi in Bombay. She went to the muhurat of his film “Sikandar”. The movie mogul was struck by her winsome personality. He invited her for a screen test the next day and satisfied that she had the makings of a popular star engaged her on a monthly salary of Rs. 650 on a three-year contract. She acted an important role in “Sikandar”, played the lead in Modi’s next three films, “Phir Milenge”, “Pathroan ka Saudagar” and “Prithvi Vallabh” to win a position in the front rank of Bombay’s film artistes.

But she had signed the contract without knowing what it meant for she could neither read nor write. It gave rise to a bitter legal dispute when Meena left Minerva Movietone after four years. She then starred in “Shehr Se Dur”, “Patjhar”, “Arsi”, “Chaman”, “Ek Thi Larki”, “Raaj Rani”, “Dukhiayri”, “Kali Badal”, “Zevrat”, “Dholak” and “Actress”. Five of these films were jubilee hits.

While working in “Ek Teri Nishani” in Lahore, she met Roop K. Shorey, then a well-known film director and producer in the Punjab. They had many opportunities of meeting and Shorey was charmed by her naive simplicity and exotic beauty. They were married in Calcutta in December, 1949 and spent their honeymoon in Simla among the snow-clad mountains. Her success story is incomplete. The years have left her beauty unblemished and she is still excitingly photogenic with those large blue eyes and an intriguing dimple. At 26 she is the top comedienne of the screen.

Working almost exclusively for her director-producer husband Roop Shorey, she finds leisure and opportunity to indulge in the social graces—but she doesn’t. A quiet home life shared with her two adopted sons and a collection of rare and expensive dolls from all over the world is her idea of happiness. Sober and serious at home, she presents a sharp contrast to the giggling, laughing, howling Meena on the screen.

Yet Meena is nothing if not versatile. At a reception given to the Chinese Cultural Delegation at the Central Studios, Bombay, the organizers ran short of a musician to provide the music for a Punjabi song. Meena immediately volunteered to play the dholak and thrilled the audience with her performance. When giving a stage show for Indian troops in Kashmir, a storm swept over the Valley and the rain poured down in torrents. But the soldiers insisted that the show must go on and Meena acquiesced. “It was one of the best stage shows I ever participated in”, she says reflectively.
Meena will soon have her first Technicolor role in Roop Shorey’s next film “Abdullah”. When asked about her reactions she answered in her characteristic way : “Do I need Technicolor to look charming?”

She is beautiful and she knows it. (This interview was conducted in 1952)