How Mumbai's don Karim Lala once helped 'queen of dance' Helen reclaim her home

Long before she became one of Bollywood's most iconic dancers, actor Helen faced a personal crisis when her ex-husband, filmmaker PN Arora, threw her out of her own home, eventually forcing her to seek help from an unlikely quarter — "the Mumbai underworld", reveals a new book "When It All Began: The Untold Stories of the Underworld".

Written by former Mumbai police commissioner Rakesh Maria, the book, which offers a detailed account of the rise and fall of Mumbai's underworld — including the rise of the first generation of dons such as Karim Lala, Haji Mastan and Dilip Aziz — documents the little-known incident in which Lala intervened to help Helen reclaim the house she had been evicted from by Arora.

The book recalls that Helen, who turned 87 this month, was born in Rangoon in 1938 and arrived in Bombay after escaping wartime Burma. Financial struggles pushed her into films, and she soon emerged as one of the most prolific performers of the 1950s and beyond, with over 700 roles.

But, as the book explains, behind the glamorous screen persona, Helen was a vulnerable young woman who had entered into a relationship with a much older Arora and even handed over control of her finances and properties to him.

“Not wanting in talent, Helen got her first break in 1958 when she was just nineteen. Gradually, she began bagging good roles, and the number of films to her credit is a whopping 700 or more. However, the control of her properties was in the hands of Arora, who was not progressing well in his career. He started ill-treating her, but she bore the suffering patiently,” reads the book.

Eventually, the relationship soured to the point that Arora refused to give Helen the property that was rightfully hers and one day threw her out of her own house.

Desperate, Helen sought help from veteran actor Dilip Kumar and writer-actor Salim Khan, both close friends within the industry, the book notes.

Dilip Kumar first attempted to contact Lala himself. When he was unable to reach the don, he wrote a note addressed to him and asked Helen to rush to Lala with it.

Lala, born Abdul Karim Sher Khan in Afghanistan, rose from a worker in 1920s Bombay to one of the city's most feared crime bosses. As head of the notorious 'Pathan Gang', he controlled liquor, gambling and extortion rackets through the 1960s and early 1980s, and was known both for his clout and his strict personal code, particularly his respect for women.

"When Karim Lala came to his darbar, he sensed an unusual excitement in the air. The gathering had recognised the distinguished woman waiting for him for the celebrity she was. Karim Lala was not much of a film buff... When he learnt who she was and saw the note, he asked his aide to take her to his wife Fatima and joined the ladies after a while.

"Helen explained to him her plight. He could see that she was not lying. He promised her she would get her house back, and asked her to reach it after a couple of hours," reads the book.

What followed took her by surprise. When she reached the house, Arora had left the house, leaving all her goods behind and the keys with the guard.

"Karim Lala's baton had worked. So the business of ‘matter pataana' had been added to the portfolio of liquor dens, gambling clubs and narcotics," it added.

Karim Lala died in 2002, marking the end of an era in Mumbai's crime history.

To be officially launched in Mumbai on Friday, "When it All Began", priced at Rs 999, is published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI).