Someone has written that the life of Meena Kumari starts with her death. As long as Meena was alive, there were very few days of happiness in her life. She started her life in poverty and when she died she did not have the money to pay the hospital bill. She got fame, immense wealth, respect, dozens of awards in her youth … but of no use, she wandered in search of love, and eventually started drinking. The wine gave her comfort, but the same liquor took her on the path of death too. At the age of 39, on March 31, 1972, the tragic queen of Hindustani films died.
Just one month before her death, his superb film ‘Pakiza’ was released. On the day when she died, black curtains were hanged on his posters in the entire India where Pakiza was being showcased. Famous writer and journalist, Vinod Mehta wrote many memoirs related to her in his book ‘Meena Kumari, The Classic Biography’ . He was a great fan of her. Vinod Mehta has also narrated the reasons, how liquor became the part Meena Kumari’s life. He has written that it was getting difficult for her to manage her married life with Kamaal Amrohi and her career together at the same time. Meena also wanted to do something for her maternal family members. From here on, the differences between the two began, the result was stress and to overcome it she turned to liquor.
According to Vinod Mehta, later on Meena Kumari started going to the parties by lying to Kamaal Amrohi and when Kamaal came to know about this, both of them used to fight with each other. Then Kamaal started keeping an eye on Meena Kumari, started spying began to suspect her. In one party Meena Kumari was talking with Dilip Kumar, Kamal Amrohi reached there 
and created ruckus. Then came famous slap scandal in Meena’s life which Vinod Mehta wrote very decently in his book. After this scandal, they separated. Once again, Meena Kumari resorted to liquor and the condition was such that she began drinking heavily.
Meena Kumari was an extraordinary artist. She was a great actress, she was also a class poet. A book has also been published on her poetry. Many of his ghazals and urdu poetry have been sung by many famous singers. If she was not an actor then she would have been a great poet.
Meena Kumari was a person of unmatched talent, liquor entered her life in a form of medicine and when it became addiction she also didn’t knew it. The people around her even told that there was a time in her life when she use to gargle with liquor when she woke up. By then Dharmendra had entered in her life and after this, liquor became regular companion of Meena Kumari. Those who are familiar with the fact that Meena Kumari, who started with Brandy, sometimes used to drink country liquor in her later days.
Cheers.com pays homage to Meena Kumari on the date of her 47th death anniversary March 31, 2019.