The courtesan Nargis (Meena Kumari) is rejected by the family of her husband Shahabuddin (Ashok Kumar). She dies in a graveyard, giving birth to a daughter Sahibjaan who also grows up to be a courtesan (Meena Kumari). Sahibjaan falls in love with a mysterious, noble stranger who turns out to be her ...
Two close childhood friends, Veeru Singh (Dilip Kumar) and Rajeshwar Singh (Raaj Kumar), become bitter enemies over misunderstandings created by Chuniya. Their granchildren, Vashu and Radha, fall in love and meet secretly. They decide to help in healing old wounds and bring back love between their ...
To get the right donkey for the movie, the director travelled to Sirham, a village on top of the mountains, since Kashmir had only mules and no donkeys.
Pakeezah took nearly 14 years to shoot because of a change in relationship between Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi the director from warm to worse and then back to a compromise. Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi were married when Pakeezah was first conceived.
The movie is silent, with no dialogue whatsoever, yet it deals with a complex and realistic plot.The film is notable for its inventive recasting of the silent film form. Though shot in color and featuring incidental noise, the film does not have any dialogues.
