This biography provides deep insight into the life and times of Meena Kumari, India’s greatest tragedienne. This riveting account of her life begins with her death, weeks after the release of her swansong Pakeezah. It goes back in time to Meetawala Chawl in Dadar East where she was born, and to the flats and mansions she lived in, the studio where she worked, the hospital where she died and the cemetery she was buried.

Based on the talks with all those who were close to her—her much-maligned husband Kamal Amrohi, her sisters, her in-laws, her colleagues and co-stars, it creates a complex portrait of a woman who carefully cultivated the image of someone ‘unfairly exploited and betrayed by her lovers and lady luck’.