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Information On Geeta Bali | ||
Name: | Geeta Bali | |
Family: | Husband- Shammi Kapoor, Son- Aditya, Daughter- Kanchan | |
Debut Film: | USHA KIRAN-1940 | |
Geeta Bali's Profile |
Geeta Bali's dancing eyes and her animated, expressive face which mirrored her soul were her most outstanding features bagged 70 odd films in a ten-year career. She married struggling actor-turned-megastar Shammi Kapoor and mothered two children: a son and a daughter. Today, she is remembered as a wonderfully natural actress and a fabulous human being. Geeta's reputation as an actress rests more on her performances than her roles. Natural, spontaneous and gifted with a spot-on sense of comic timing, she never really found a vehicle worthy of her talent. Largely a shade better than the movies she starred in, she frittered away her talents in B-grade films.  Geeta, who was born Harikirtan Kaur, had done a few small-time dancing roles in pre-Partition Punjab in films like Badnami, before moving to Mumbai. Impressed by her off-screen vivacity, Sharma cast Geeta in his Suhaag Raat (1948). Audiences related to her instantly and watched wide-eyed as she nonchalantly tossed her unconscious hero, Bharat Bhushan over her shoulder in a scene.She won raves even in supporting roles like in the 1949 Suraiya starrer Badi Behan and the Madhubala starrer Dulari. In 1951, she became a major star with Guru Dutt's first hit, Baazi (she went on to do three other films under his direction). Geeta played gangster's moll with a golden heart to Kalpana Kartik's conventional heroine. But Geeta played her role with such gay abandon that hero Dev Anand divulges, "People came repeatedly to theatres to see Geeta's spirited dancing to Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana de. Geeta proved she could do tragedy (Sharma's Raj Kapoor starrer Bawre Nain) or and play the lighthearted heroine to comedian Bhagwan in the super successful AlbelaAlbela's swinging C Ramchandra composed songs like Shola jo bhadke and Sham dhale mere khidki tale made front-benchers dance with the stars and even fling coins on screen. Geeta Bali in the Guru Dutt-directed Jaal (1952). Dev Anand, a cigarette-smoking smuggler on the run from the police, tries to entice morally upstanding heroine Geeta into his web. Geeta evocatively communicates her struggle against, and her eventual surrender to, handsome Dev's seduction call Yeh raat, yeh chaandni phir kahan. 35 years after her death, her secretary Surinder Kapoor's (Boney Kapoor's father) productions begin with a shraddhanjali to Geeta Bali.  Geeta, who had not been vaccinated for small pox, contacted the dreaded disease while shooting the film. The best care was rushed to her, but her fever apparently reached 107 degrees. Her doctor saw a picture by his patient's bedside and asked who the pretty lady was. The disease had so wracked Geeta's frail frame that he didn't recognise her as the same person!Geeta Bali passed away on January 21, 1965, leaving behind eight-year-old Aditya and three-year-old Kanchan in the care of a devastated Shammi Kapoor. Awards Won:
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