Kamini Kaushal, one of the earliest stars of Hindi cinema, who turned 91 years today.
When it was considered socially unacceptable for girls from ‘good’ families to act in films, Kamini Kaushal, whose original name is Uma Sood, went on to carve a decisive career for herself despite being married at an early age. Her father, Shiv Ram Kashyap, was a leading botanist of his tim e. She completed her BA (Hons) in English from Kinnaird College in Lahore. Her first film itself, Neecha Nagar (1946), won the Golden Palm at Cannes. Her elder sister’s untimely death made her marry her brother-in-law, BS Sood, chief engineer at the Bombay Port Trust, for the sake of her two little nieces. Dilip Kumar was said to be besotted by her but she couldn’t return his affections as she was bound by vows of matrimony. But despite the extraordinary circumstances, the chemistry was very much alive on screen. She went to give hits like Shaheed (1948), Nadiya Ke Paar (1949), Shabnam (1949) and Arzoo (1950) with him. It helped that he played the pining lover in all. Sh...