Miss Mary (1957 film)

Miss Mary
Poster
Directed by	L.V. Prasad
Produced by	A. V. Meiyappan
Starring	Meena Kumari Gemini Ganesan Kishore Kumar Jamuna Om Prakash
Music by	Hemant Kumar
Cinematography	T. Muthuswamy
Edited by	K. Shankar
Production company	AVM Productions
Release date	1957
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Miss Mary is an Indian comedy film from 1957 directed by L.V. Prasad. The movie is an AVM production, written by Hargobind Duggal, and directed by L. V. Prasad. The original Missamma was directed in Telugu in 1955 and was remade as Missiamma in Tamil with Savitri playing the title role in the both films. It was remade in Hindi as Miss Mary in 1957 with Meena Kumari in the titular role, keeping Jamuna as the constant factor in all these films. L. V. Prasad directed all three versions. The music was by Hemant Kumar with the lyrics and dialogue written by Rajendra Krishan. The songs were sung by Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar.

Meena Kumari, who was to later become famous for her tragedy roles meriting the soubriquet "Queen of Tragedy", acted in a few light-hearted roles in the 1950s in films like Azaad (1955), Mem Sahib (1956), Kohinoor (1960) and Miss Mary. For Gemini Ganesan (who was introduced to the Hindi-speaking film audience with this film), and for Meena Kumari, Miss Mary was one of the biggest hits of that year.

The film is a light-hearted comedy with Meena Kumari (who regularly played tragedienne roles) performing one of her rare comic acts. The story is about Arun (Gemini Ganeshan), an unemployed teacher who comes across an advertisement offering a job at the Lakshmi School with the proviso that only married couples need apply. He meets Miss Mary (Meena Kumari), a Christian girl who is badly in need of a job to pay off her parents’ debt. She agrees to pose as his wife. They hire Nakdu (Om Prakash), a beggar cum conman as a servant to keep up the pretense. The school owner couple (Rai Sahib and his wife), is looking for their long lost daughter Lakshmi (hence the Lakshmi School), who went missing sixteen years ago and the only thing tying her to them is a locket and an identification mark in the form of a mole on her left foot. They employ a detective Raju (Kishore Kumar) to find her. Raju is an orphan brought up as a nephew by the Rai Sahib. The old couple find a resemblance in Mary to their daughter and show her a photo of Lakshmi that looks like her. Mary tells them that she can’t be their daughter as she was brought up in a Christian environment by Christian parents.