Meena Kumari the Poet : A Life Beyond Cinema By, Philip Bounds

Meena Kumari the Poet: A Life beyond Cinema is a compelling collection of poems written by the actress and poet. They are originally in Urdu, and are translated into English by Noorul Hasan.

Summary of the Book

Meena Kumari was not only an exemplary, beautiful actress of Hindi cinema, but was also an excellent poet of great flair and gracefulness. This book contains a captivating selection of her poems, both in Urdu as originally penned by her, and in brilliant English translations. Poignant, sparkling and precisely perceived, Meena Kumari’s poetry discloses a dimension of her personality that was seldom portrayed in her films. She was a much more profound and self-aware woman than most of her fans tend to know her as. This book, with a selection of critical and biographical material on the ethereal actress of the bygone era, includes a terse introductory essay, in which Daisy Hasan and Philip Bounds assert that much of Meena Kumari’s poetry is a barbed critique of Indian prevalent culture. Discover the poet behind the actress in Meena Kumari the Poet: A Life beyond Cinema.

About the Authors

Philip Bounds is a historian, critic and journalist. His doctorate is in Politics, from the University of Wales. He has authored several books including: Orwell and Marxism, Cultural Studies, and British Communism and the Politics of Literature and Cultural Studies.

Daisy Hasan is a Research Associate at the India Media Centre, University of Westminster. Her doctoral and postdoctoral research is about media, film and art in South Asia. Her first novel, The To-Let House, was shortlisted for the Hindu Best Fiction Award 2010 and longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize, pre-publication, 2008.

Noorul Hasan studied at Allahabad University and the University of Manchester in the UK. He has authored Thomas Hardy - The Sociological Imagination, and has edited Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. His brilliant translations of Firaq Gorakhpuri’s poetry have appeared in the collection The Selected Poetry of Firaq Gorakhpuri. He frequently contributes articles to several journals and magazines.