Jamuna

QAMYAB – THE FORGOTTEN GEMS OF BOLLYWOOD

Qamyab is our humble tribute to all those lesser-known actors, one hit wonders and junior artists who we see umpteen times but don’t know about; beyond their faces. These actors have been an integral part of Bollywood but didn’t get their due. This series is our sincere attempt to put a name to these faces, familiarize them to our readers and celebrate their achievements in life – however big or small. We believe that every artist contributes in his/her own way to the cinema’s success. Qamyab will explore the unknown lives of such actors and artists as we believe even these forgotten gems of Bollywood deserve their due recognition today.

The Ramsay Brothers can be credited to start the commercial horror genre in Bollywood with their shoestring budgeted Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche (1972) and then following it up with hits like Purana Mandir (1984) and Veerana (1988).

With Veerana, the Ramsays introduced their first female ghost – Nakita – played by two beautiful actresses, Kamal Roy and Jasmin. We have already covered them both in our forgotten gems’ series. The super success of Veerana led to many such female ghost/ monster dramas in the late ’80s and early ’90s and our forgotten gem for today, has appeared in few of these horror flicks.

This actress did experimental characters in B and C grade movies as well as tried to balance her filmography by doing small roles or item numbers in mainstream A list films. In case you haven’t guessed yet, we are talking about the lovely and gorgeous Jamuna. She is considered to be the first leading lady during her career peak to play a ghost in horror films. Yup, Prema Narayan had done it earlier in Mangalsutra (1981), but she had shifted to character roles by that time.

We had received a lot of requests to feature Jamuna in the Qamyab series as there is hardly any information available on her. After long exhaustive research on her, we take you through Jamuna’s filmy life. Ready? Well, let’s start…

While her exact birthdate is unknown, Jamuna was born between 1963-1965 and went only by her first name. Not much is known about her personal life but she is said to come from a middle-class Maharashtrian family. Jamuna was always fond of films and being a trained dancer, aspired for an acting career in Bollywood. However, her acting debut happened with the Telugu film Tarzan Sundari in 1983, which also featured Vinod Kumar and Silk Smitha. Tarzan Sundari was a moderate success and later, got dubbed in English and French languages.

Jamuna’s Bollywood debut as a lead actress, came two years later with the lesser known Main Chup Nahi Rahungi (1985). The film’s censor certificate displays Main Chup Nahi Rahungi as its title while the actual credits show the title as Pratijwala. The movie went totally unnoticed and we are sure Jamuna herself, might not like to remember this rape revenge drama today!!

In the coming years, Jamuna went on to act as the main heroine in films like Mohabbat Ki Kasam (1986), Suhaag Ka Balidaan (1987) and Kanoon Kanoon Hai (1987). Unfortunately, none of these films could do anything for her career.

The 1986 release Mohabbat Ki Kasam is often mistaken to be Jamuna’s debut movie. It had big names like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Vinod Mehra and Anita Raj in cameos, but the audience rejected it totally.

The year 1988 proved lucky for Jamuna as she got to work with stars like Mithun Chakraborty, Hemant Birje and then upcoming handsome stud Aditya Pancholi. Her first release, Geeta Ki Saugandh with Hemant Birje, was considered a B grade film as the ‘Tarzan’ star had already got slotted in that category. Qatil released at the end of the year, was the first solo movie of Aditya Pancholi and his acting skills were much appreciated in it, which actually overshadowed Jamuna’s good performance.

In the summer of 1988 came Charnon Ki Saugandh, her first film with superstar Mithun Chakraborty, in which she grooved to the popular item number ‘Aaja mere mithu miyan’. Charnon Ki Saugandh was a decent success and proved to be a turning point in Jamuna’s career. Later in the same year, she appeared in another Mithunda starrer Agnee.

After this, Jamuna started getting movie offers with top actors and directors, but these were not lead roles. She was either playing a dancer or a character role in these films. Jamuna accepted all the offers coming her way and went on to appear in big films like Dost Garibon Ka, Prem Pratigyaa, Daata, Hisaab Khoon Ka, Apna Desh Paraye Log and Naqaab (all in the year 1989). Her popularity during this time reached such peak, that her old Telugu debut film was dubbed in Hindi and released as Lady Tarzan in 1990.

Sadly, Lady Tarzan got categorized as B grade, joining the ranks of sleazy flicks like Jungle Love (1990), Jungle Beauty (1991) and Jungle Ka Beta (1992). Such adult movies were mostly patronised by the labour class audience in small centres and the red-light area of Mumbai.

Kafan was a revenge horror story, where a witch takes control of Jamuna’s body and avenges her killers. It had Javed Khan, the superstar of low budget horrex movies, as the hero. After Kafan, Jamuna played the lead in another horrex film titled Hathyarin (1991), which again had Javed Khan as the male lead. But here, he was cast opposite Amita Nangia. In Hathyarin too, Jamuna played a witch, who kills the family members of three friends responsible for her death. Interestingly, she played a white saree clad ghost in both the movies. She would transform in to a hideous witch, which would give goosebumps to the audience.

Films like Kafan and Hathyarin, were doing quite well in the interiors and small centres and had their own fan following, who loved such scare fest laced with sex. Jamuna had competitors like Amita Nangia and Sriprada with their common hero being Javed Khan.