It wasn’t just Waheeda Rehman’s acting prowess and dancing talent that got her noticed in Hindi movies. The enigma and grace she brought on the silver screen was one few can match even today

Amitabh Bachchan has called her his favourite actress. Indeed, even now, as she was in her prime, Waheeda Rehman is the embodiment of classic beauty. While her contemporary Madhubala was the Venus of Indian cinema, Waheeda Rehman was the chaudhvin ka chand.

DANCING INTO THE LIMELIGHT

Rehman is the embodiment of classic beauty with a truly transcendental appeal, and one of the greatest actresses that Indian cinema has ever seen. Trained as a dancer, she took to acting as if born to it, instinctively. When she looked at the camera she could stun viewers with an indescribable photogenic magic, which was sensual in such an everyday way.

Born in Chinglepet in Tamil Nadu, Rehman’s parents, despite facing criticism, encouraged their daughters (all three of them) to train in Bharatnatyam. Rehman’s first public performance was in honour of then Viceroy of India, C Rajagopalachari, at the age of 10. It was perhaps because of the rigour of her dance training that she exploded on celluloid only through her dances. Her early films include the MGR P Bhanumathi starrer Alibabavum 40 thirudargalum (1955) where the popular song Salaam babu was picturised on her. Her dance number, Eruvaka sagaloi in the Telugu film Rojulu marayi (1955), was one of the primary reasons behind the huge success of the film.

“I started working in films when I was 12 or 13. I had lost my father by then. So all this is the power of destiny,” says Rehman. Recalling the state of mind of a young girl’s first brush with fame, she remembers, “My mother and I were sent by the producer to a theatre to see the reaction of the audiences. And it was true! They indeed were showering coins at the screen! At that time, my only thought was, who collects these coins?”

Director-actor Guru Dutt heard about the success of Rojulu marayi and Rehman’s dance when he was on a visit to Hyderabad. “It so happened that he was sitting in the office of a distributor and there was a lot of halla in the street below. It was my car that entered a film event and the people were cheering for me. And Guru Dutt ji was told how this non-actor and a dancer had caused the frenzy,” remembers Rehman. “Rojulu marayi literally means, the days have changed. For me, it did happen after all,” says Rehman.

GETTING THE HANG OF THINGS

Dutt met her and persuaded Rehman’s mother to appear in Hindi cinema as well. Recalling her interaction with Dutt when she was called from Chennai to Mumbai to sign C.I.D, Rehman says, “I was told my name was too aristocratic and lacked the glamorous appeal of cinema. I naturally put my foot down. Dutt cited examples of Dilip Kumar, Nargis, Meena Kumari, Madhubala and many others who had adopted a screen name. But he had to give up,” she says.

Her breakthrough role followed in the subsequent year’s Pyaasa, as Gulabo, a prostitute with the heart of gold. It is said it was during the making of Pyaasa that Guru Dutt lost his heart to her. But to be fair to Rehman, for all that has been written about her relationship with Dutt, she has always maintained an enigmatic and dignified silence over the entire “affair”, not saying anything even after Guru Dutt’s death in 1964.

Rehman completed Sahib bibi aur ghulam (1962) under some strain, owing to the relationship between the much-married Dutt and Rehman. With time, she and Dutt drifted apart professionally, too. Rehman did not renew her contract with him after the lukewarm response to the film at the Berlin Film Festival in 1963. She also worked with Satyajit Ray in Abhijan (1962), which by a strange twist is considered the maestro’s weakest film. Rehman considers it an experience of a lifetime and says, “Satyajit Ray had clarity of thought. He knew how and where to edit a shot and was flexible with his actors. It was amazing to learn the detailed planning he underwent so his actors were at ease during the shoot.”

However, it was with Guide (1965) that Rehman reached the pinnacle of her acting career in Hindi movies. Rosie was an audacious role to play then — that of a woman who goes against the grain of being a typical Indian woman and leaves her oppressive husband to live in with her lover, a guide who helps her in her ambitions to become a famous dancer. Yet, Rehman was able to humanise Rosie to get the viewer’s sympathy in spite of the socalled negative shades to her character that went against prevailing social norms

“I look back upon Guide as a turning point because I got an opportunity to dance — something that I had never done in my previous films. I told Dev Anand that I will do this film on one condition — that even if the duration of the film increases and you have to edit, feel free to edit my dialogues but please don’t cut my dance sequences.”

Remembering something her father said when questioned about why he was encouraging his daughters to dance, Rehman says, “Guide became my ode to my father. He said no art, no work, is shameful. It is how we conduct ourselves while doing it that it gets the reputation it does. I remembered that when I was shooting for Guide.”

Between Guide and her marriage in 1974 (to one-time co-actor in the film Shagun, Kamaljeet, also known as Shashi Rekhi), Rehman did roles that were commercially successful as well as histrionically challenging. Ram aur Shyam, Patthar ke sanam, Teesri kasam, Khamoshi, Reshma aur Shera were all made during this time.

This followed a gradual moving away from the arc lights, which also happened at a time when she moved with her family to her farmhouse on the outskirts of Bangalore. “That part of my life was very contented. Ek thehraav tha jisme mujhe koi bhi stress nahi tha,” she says. This was also the time when she busied herself marketing her brand of breakfast cereal.

LIVING LIFE

“I am thankful to the Almighty that I have had the opportunity to live life to its fullest, be it in my childhood, as a performer, or as a householder. Even now, I live each day as a new one. I have a circle of friends — Asha (Parekh), Helen, Shammiji — we go out for movie outings, picnics, even holidays abroad!” she says, adding, “We’ve been friends since the 1960s. We never saw each other as rivals and were friends from the start. There was no concept of any kind of jealousy or competition because our niches were so different.”

Bollywood’s most exuberant girl-buddy club recently visited Alaska and went on a Scandinavian sojourn. “We try to meet up as much as possible. We can gossip and talk forever! My daughter Kashvi knows she shouldn’t telephone me if I am out lunching with my friends,” she says laughing.

YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

Waheeda Rehman shifted back to Mumbai after her husband passed away. She came back into movies playing mother to Anil Kapoor in Mashaal and later Abhishek Bachchan and Fardeen Khan in Anupam Kher’s directorial debut, Om Jai Jagadish. She was also seen in Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue (2005), Deepa Mehta’s Water (2005) and Rakeysh Mehra’s Rang De Basanti (2006).

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