Helen (actress)
Helen (October 21 1939) was a Bollywood actress best known for playing vamps and vixens in Bollywood movies of the 1960s and 70s. She was famous for her cabarets in scores of films of that era. With her unusual yet unique look she was often used for flamboyant dance sequences. The actress often collaborated with the Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle when filming her song and dance scenes.
Career
Helen was born as Helen Richardson in a christian family of Bettiah, Bihar in Burma in 1939. The young Helen accompanied by her mother had to move to India to escape the perils of World War II. Helen's mother soon became a nurse in India. Because her mother's income as a nurse was very limited, Helen quit school to work in films. Helen soon underwent training in the dancing of Kathak. While undergoing training in Kathak, Helen realized she had a flair for dancing. She got her break as a chorus dancer through family friend Cukoo in Shabistan and Awaara (1951). She continued during the early 1950s and soon made it as a solo dancer in films like Alif Laila (1952) and Hoor-e-Arab (1953)
She shot into stardom and earned fame with O.P. Nayyar's showstopper Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu in Howrah Bridge (1958). Now Helen had become a major dancer in the film industry as she danced to nightclub dances in the 1950s which made her quite famous and established her as a skilled Westerised danncer. During the 1960s Helen made it big with her Cabaret numbers and she became known as the Cabaret Queen. However, Helen's anglicized looks made it hard for her when she tried to make it as a heroine. At the end, Helen stuck with being a vamp and she enjoyed 20 years at the Cabaret Queen of the film industry.
By the 1970s, new actresses began to decamp with meatier vamp roles and better cabarets. Soon she found herself in a financial mess with little roles coming her way. At this time, she became involved with writer Salim Khan. He helped bail her out of the mess and offered her important roles in three films he was co-scripting with Javed Akhtar: Imaam Dharam, Don, and Dostana.
Mahesh Bhatt also offered her a demanding role in Lahu Ke Do Rang (1979). Towards the end of her career she won Filmfare's Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Vinod Khanna's wife. Thereafter, helen shocked many by playing Zeenat's mother in Ram Balram (1980). She married Salim Khan, working out an amicable equation with his first wife and family and receded from the screen.
Selected filmography
- Mohabbatein (2000)
- Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999)
- Khamoshi: The Musical (1996)
- Ram Balram (1980)
- The Great Gambler (1979)
- Lahu Ke Do Rang (1979)
- Don (1978)
- Amar Akbar Anthony (1977)
- Khoon Pasina (1977)
- Imaan Dharam (1977)
- Bairaag (1976)
- Sholay (1975)
- Madhosh (1974)
- Anamika (1973)
- Caravan (1971)
- Bombay Talkie (1970)
- The Train (1970)
- Pagla Kahin Ka (1970)
- Jaal (1967)
- Teesri Manzil (1966)
- Woh Kaun Thi (1964)
- Cha Cha Cha (1964)
- Aaya Toofan (1964)
- China Town (1962)
- Hum Hindustani (1960)
Trivia
- Helen is the step-mother of Bollywood actor Salman Khan.
- In all her cabaret dance routines, Helen achieved the illusion of showing skin without actually doing so by wearing skin colored body clothing.
- The 1999 documentary film, Desperately Seeking Helen by Eisha Marjara is an autobiographical tale of an immigrant experience in Canada using Helen as a symbolic backdrop for India's dream factory, Bollywood.
Quotes
- I could never walk on the streets. I had to wear a veil. They used to go berserk when they saw me.