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Reply to "MEENA KUMARI:"

'Pakeezah' became a milestone that it did because of Meena Kumari's presence and the pathos she effortlessly brought to her role. It was released at the beginning of the Seventies, a period when things rapidly began to change both within the film industry and the country at large. In a sense it marks a culmination of an earlier period of filmmaking where Urdu language and Muslim socials marked the apogee of refinement and grace and the audience lapped it up. For two decades between 1970 and 1990, the vast teeming masses were the strongest determinant of Hindi cinema and that whole period is personified by Amitabh Bachchan. With that the Muslim social also took its curtain call notwithstanding the freak success of an odd 'Nikaah' or 'Tawaaif' in the 80s. This was amply evident when 'Razia Sultan' was released.

The times had changed as they always do. One can lament that process but regret for things past is also a comment on what takes its place, and therefore on the taste of one's contemporaries. A dubious exercise, but nevertheless not an entirely useless one. 'Pakeezah' represents the passing of an era. And we must remember it for that as well. For those who do not remember their past are condemned to relive it.

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