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LoVeS of Hindi cinema have been shocked at the way the trust managing the Juhu cemetery in Mumbai, where bodies of some of the film industry’s legends were interred, recently demolished as many as 21 tombs, including those of stars like Mohammad Rafi, Talat Mahmood, Naushad Ali, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Ali Sardar Jafri, Jan Nisar Akhtar, Naseem Banu and Madhubala, etc., to make room for new graves.
Realising the gravity of the situation and the emotional upheaval the action of the cemetery managing authorities was likely to create, Dilip Kumar and Saira Banu requested the civic authorities well in time to allot the trust another plot in Juhu Koliwada to accommodate new graves. But nothing was done by the civic authorities to mitigate the problem. Sacrilege to the departed legends could have been avoided easily had the authorities done something to solve the problem being faced by the trust. In any other country,
these legendary artistes would have been knighted and appropriate
memorials erected for them. Unfortunately, here economic
considerations always rule the roost and when economic considerations
reign supreme, art and artists are sidelined or sidetracked. Under
these circumstances, the souls of these legends must be turning in
their graves, raising a hue and cry. A couplet by Bahadurshah Zafar
would hold true here, "Kitna hai badnaseeb Zafar daffan key
liye/Do gazz zameen bhi na milli koo-e-yaar mein" With the
destruction of the graves and dismantling of their tombs, their fans
have now no marker to go by when they could pay them respect on their
anniversaries.
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After
demolishing their tombs and digging the graves, the mortals remains
(the bones and skulls) of these legends have been disposed of without
even informing their families. After demolishing the tombs, the ground
has been levelled with truckloads of soil, nearly three feet high, and
another layer of graves has been created to overcome the shortage of
space in this cemetery. When their families and fans expressed
outrage, Asgar Ali, president of the Muslim Majlis, managing the
burial ground, justified the action saying that there was an acute
shortage of space on account of the increasing Muslim population.
"We are forced to turn over graves each year due to the shortage
of space."