Vyjayantimala was the first South Indian actress who made a national star and was one of the biggest ever Hindi Film female stars in a career spanning nearly two decades. Besides her ability as an actress, which was considerable, her greatest legacy to Indian Cinema perhaps is that it has become a must for any aspiring actress in Indian Cinema to be an accomplished dancer. Vyjayantimala has always been the compulsory dance sequence in practically every film reminiscent of her "classical art".
She started in Tamil films M.V. Raman direction with AVM Vazkai / Jeevitham (1949) a bilingual and later adapted as Bahar (1951), which was the first raid AVM and Vyjayantimala in Hindi movies.
She became a big star with Filmistan's Nagin (1954). Crowd's thronged to her snake-like turns to see that Evergreen Lata Mangeshkar hit - Man Dole Mera Man Dole.
With Devdas (1955), Vyjayantimala, playing the dancing girl Chandramukhi, proved herself an actress of great merit,. There was a hitherto unexplored depth in her characterization. Her silent expression in the scene where Devdas offers her money for her services was award-worthy, and indeed they won the Filmfare Award for Devdas as Supporting Actress. She refused, however, the price based on its role as equally important as the other heroine, Suchitra Sen who played Paro and the two leading roles.
She replaced Madhubala in Naya Daur (1957) and shot into the top echelons of stardom with Bimal Roy's Madhumati (1958) and its role as a prostitute in Sadhana (1958) fetched her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress.
Ganga Jamuna (1961) saw another flawless performance from her. It's her credit that in spite of its South Indian upbringing, her Bhojpuri dialect in the film is almost perfect and fetched her a Filmfare Award for Best Actress. She received her third Best Actress Award for Raj Kapoor's Sangam (1964), one of the best triangles in Indian Cinema. But while doing Sangam she got involved in a fatal romance with Raj Kapoor.
When they broke, was a changed person Vyjayantimala bitterly and even arrogant. The flop of dancing magnum opus Amrapali (1966) with her in the title role did not help. Having fought with Dilip Kumar, Ram Aur Shyam she left (1967) and was replaced by Waheeda Rehman. (Although they finished Sang Harsh (1968) with Dilip Kumar, the two barely spoke to each other by making the movie!)
Even after Sangam, except Amrapali, her later movies were fairly light in weight and no challenge to her as an actress. She has her moments in Jewel Thief (1967) did. Her dancing in the cult song Hoton Pe Aisi Baat was brilliant, it was a long and complex number with both companies shot character movement and character movement, but Vyjayantimala sailed effortlessly through the song. But it was clear she was losing interest in movies. Pyar Hi Pyar her from Costar (1969), Dharmendra, remembers he completed the entire film with her, without even introduced to her!
She married Raj Kapoor's personal physician Dr. Bali and left the film industry. She has since been a son Such Indra, dabbled in various businesses, such as shrimp and even stood before elections and was a member of the European Parliament in the year 1980, besides concentrating on her first love - dancing. Her son has now entered the Tamil film industry to try to make it as an actor.
Awards Won:
- 1951 Bahar
- 1954 Nagin
- 1955 Devdas
- 1956 New Delhi
- 1957 Naya Daur
- 1958 Madhumati
- 1958 Sadhana
- 1961 Ganga Jamuna
- 1964 Sangam
- 1967 Jewel Thief
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