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Smita Shah/Gudiya
Neelima Kumari is an actress known as the Tragedy Queen who Ram lives with as a servant for a while. Although fictionalized, her life and her name are loosely based on the real-life “Tragedy Queen” Meena Kumari. Neelima is obsessed with the past and with trying to maintain her former glamor. Ram notices that she seems to be in an abusive relationship, and he later learns that it’s with Prem Kumar. In the end, Neelima Kumari dies by suicide, weighed down by her fame and the fact that as she ages, nobody will offer her younger “heroine” roles—they offer her roles as older mothers.
Neelima Kumari Quotes in Q & A
The Q & A quotes below are all either spoken by Neelima Kumari or refer to Neelima Kumari. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 10 Quotes
So I got the job, and only then did I discover that life with a movie star is not as glamorous as it appears from the outside. When you get to see them without make-up you find that they are exactly like you and me, with the same anxieties and insecurities. The only difference is that we are mainly concerned with money, or lack of it, and they are mainly concerned with fame. Or lack of it.
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I find her the same evening on my return from the market, looking like a beautiful new bride sleeping on the bed. But I don’t have to touch her cold skin to know that she is dead. In her hand she holds a trophy. It says, “National Award for Best Actress. Awarded to Ms Neelima Kumari for her role in Mumtaz Mahal, 1985.” What I see before me can only be described as the height of drama.
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Chapter 12 Quotes
It is easy to pick up a loaded gun and point it in someone’s face. But when you know that a real bullet will strike a real heart and that the scarlet liquid will be blood and not tomato ketchup, you are forced to think twice. It is not easy to kill a man. You need to first switch off from your brain. Drinking can do that. And so can anger.
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Neelima Kumari Character Timeline in Q & A
The timeline below shows where the character Neelima Kumari appears in Q & A. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...stayed in together for the past three years. Ram briefly lived with an actress named Neelima Kumari in her flat but had to adjust to life in a chawl (tenement).
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Chapter 4
...coin. Ram wins the toss, so he suggests that they try to find the actress Neelima Kumari, whom one of the boys at the school told them about, saying she needs...
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In the present, Ram explains to Smita that he managed to get a job with Neelima Kumar, while Neelima arranged for Salim to stay at a room in the chawl, where...
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Chapter 5
...for a while in his household, long enough to forget things like Mr. Shantaram and Neelima Kumar. Ram likes going shopping with Rebecca to the local markets. Ram finds his work...
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Chapter 8
...the war against Pakistan. At the time, Ram is 12 years old and working for Neelima Kumari, although she’s given him the week off due to the curfew. It’s his third...
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Chapter 10
Ram says the time he spent with Neelima Kumari was like a family drama that includes comedy and action but ends in tragedy....
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Ram comes to see that despite Neelima’s past success in acting, her fame comes with consequences, and she lives in a “fishbowl.”...
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Neelima’s success is offset by other factors in her life, like her mother’s poor health and...
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One day, Neelima’s mother dies in her sleep. Soon after, Neelima asks Ram to move from the chawl...
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...and sees a man with a black mask holding a sack. Ram yells and draws Neelima’s attention too. The burglar takes off his mask and protests that he’s just a student...
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Neelima begins telling Ram certain days that he has to spend the night at the chawl....
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Another day, Ram walks in on an interview between a journalist and Neelima. Neelima gets angry when the journalist asks if the reason Neelima quit films is because...
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Neelima’s mood improves some days later when she hears a famous producer wants to visit her....
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Neelima’s injuries after her visit with her lover become more serious. Ram again tries unsuccessfully to...
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One evening, while Neelima is watching Mumtaz Mahal, her 1985 film that was the only film she won any...
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...Ram a different question than the one he promised. He asks in what year did Neelima Kumari, the Tragedy Queen, win a National Award. Ram realizes he’s been tricked but knows...
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Chapter 11
...the police might arrest him for the death of Mr. Shantaram, the dacoit, or even Neelima Kumari.
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Chapter 12
Ram explains that he saw Prem Kumar leaving Neelima’s flat once and realized he was her abusive lover. He also realized that he was...
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