Maanik Mahna has vivid memories of Meena Kumari’s death. The businessman was only six years old when the actor died from liver failure on March 31, 1972, but he remembers the shocked reactions of his family in Delhi.

“The news had spread like wildfire – they discussed whether she did 77 films or 100 films,” Mahna recalled. A bus was organised to transport grieving fans from the neighbourhood to a theatre to watch her final film Pakeezah, which had been released a few weeks before her death, Mahna said.

Mahna’s obsession with Meena Kumari became even more magnificent over the subsequent decades. A few years ago, he teamed up with filmmaker Geetika Narang Abbasi for a documentary on Meena Kumari. The result is a biographical non-fiction film tentatively titled Mahjabeen, which is Meena Kumari’s birth name.

Mahjabeen follows from Narang Abbasi’s interest in films that go behind the scenes of showbiz. Narang Abbasi’s credits include Urf (2022), the acclaimed documentary about the world of .

“Cinema on cinema is my favourite genre,” Narang Abbasi said. Through Mahjabeen, Narang Abbasi hopes to “draw the line between how skilled an actor she [Meena Kumari] was and what impact her personality had on people”.

She added, “The idea is to also look beyond the star....