Google Doodle celebrates actor Madhubala on Valentine's Day

Google Doodle has found a great way to celebrate two important events with one doodle. Across the world, February 14 is celebrated as Valentine's Day. It also happens to be actor Madhubala's birthday; she would have been 86 years old today. Google Doodle has found a way to celebrate both days with a tribute to Madhubala, legendary not for just her simplicity and beauty but also some of the roles she has portrayed.

One such epic was the movie Mughal-e-Azam, a historical saga, where she played the role of Anarkali, a court dancer who dares to fall in love with the Mughal prince and heir and defies everyone to own and express her forbidden love. For decades, the movie has inspired romance and love in the hearts of the audience. And the song Jab pyar kiya toh darna kya... has resonated with millions of Indians across age groups. It was a performance that won her awards and accolades.

Born in 1933 as Mumtaz Jehan Begum Dehalvi, she started acting very early on. Madhubala made her debut at the age of nine and was known as Baby Mumtaz. Her career took off a few years later and for the next two decades she went on to do more than 70 movies with leading actors of the industry. She has given stellar performances in movies such as Mughal-e-Azam, Barsaat Ki Raat, Amar, Mr & Mrs '55, and Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi. She was in a long relationship with Dilip Kumar and later on married her co-star Kishore Kumar, the famous actor and singer.

Dubbed the "Venus of Indian cinema", Madhubala was featured in Life magazine in 1951 when she caught the eye of photographer James Burke. Over the years the photos have made way to the digital world and just a single glance is enough to reveal why the photographer was enchanted.

Madhubala's beauty is something that Khatija Akbar, who wrote Madhubala's biography, I Want to Live: The Story of Madhubala,

constantly highlights. Khatija writes, "The picture of Madhubala that is summoned up at the mention of her name is of a very beautiful face -at times pensive, at times mischievous - with its trademark slightly crooked smile. But surrounding it is a vast silence. In trying to penetrate that silence which bothered me so long ago, I have attempted to give to the picture voice and soul."

Madhubala died young; she passed way at the age of 36 due to illness. Her work and her contribution to Hindi cinema continue to inspire film makers and actors. She also appeared on a commemorative postage stamp in India in 2008. Today's Google Doodle on her birthday and Valentine's Day so many decades later is a testimony to the mark she left on Indian cinema.