By: Vatsala Gurunath

Mumtaz stepped into the film industry at 14-15 years of age .Too young to be cast as leading lady, she started with bit roles only, but was not missed, and quickly graduated to lead roles in low budget movies.

Slowly with determination and good work, she became one of the leading actresses of the 70's. She was extremely versatile, beautiful and had great charm. She acted in more than 100 films during a short career span of 14 years, and has excelled in every little character that she has enacted. In her very first film with significant banner and role, KHILONA [1970], she won the most coveted best actress award Filmfare in 1970. She has also been awarded the Lifetime Achievement award by Filmfare in 1997.

This good period further extended with her pairing with the then superstar Rajesh Khanna giving many blockbusters including DO RAASTE, SACHCHA JHOOTHA, AAP KI KASAM and more. Some of her major movies which were box office hits as well critically acclaimed too are, RAM AUR SHYAM (1967) with Dilip Kumar, DO RAASTE (1969) and SACHCHA JHOOTHA (1970) with Rajesh Khanna, KHILONA (1970) with Sanjeev Kumar, and AAP KI KASAM (1974) with Rajesh Khanna and Sanjeev Kumar.

Though, Zeenat Aman got all the attention in HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA, Mumtaz was also eye catching and impressive as the naive Nepali lass. Her other film with Dev anand, which made good business at the box office and also earned her good reviews was TERE MERE SAPNE.

Mumtaz, as an actress was largely untapped. Only her exceptionally appealing looks and charisma were made use of and never the actress in her. She was more prone to tragic and also emotional and serious acting if her character demanded it. She would have been remembered as an actress of mettle if she had been wiser in choosing roles, which wouldn't typecast her.

By a stroke of bad luck Mumtaz walked out of ZANJEER, fearing failure being paired with the new comer Amitabh Bachchan and hence missed out a great chance of creating history. She was paired previously with Amitabh in a movie titled "BANDHE HAATH" which failed miserably and was responsible for her reluctance to act again with him. Mumtaz, was among the leading actresses of the yesteryears who quit the industry for a contented home-life. She tied he knot in her prime and stayed away from the limelight for a long time.

Mumtaz also, is one of those many actresses from the Bollywood whom, the audiences and the industry have failed to give their due credit for the contribution made by them.

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