Rekha’s seventieth birthday: I will at all times treasure my vulnerability – Unique
“I’m simply blessed by being born at some point aside from Amitabh Bachchan”
She retains the identical attract in the present day, one in all thriller, of promise, of a depth unseen by man. Of a blinding power that’s greatest beheld from a distance. Of a easy charming lady whom Destiny has taken to be Her personal. The one and solely Rekha completes 56 years of her life and 42 years of existence in showbiz. On the best way she has bewitched and captivated, saved us guessing, made us dance to her beat and watch some beautiful performances. All alongside, defeating the stereotype and ensuring that each step is nearly of her personal volition. Of guidelines that she selected to create, of glass ceilings that she selected to interrupt, of paths that she dared to cross. On her personal. A lot has been stated about her roles. Lots has been written about her performances. Speculations have been whispered on her relationships. However the unwritten emotion, the waiting-to-be-expressed persona, the larger-than-life character is one thing nobody will deny. She is the one and solely. Interval. A Gemstone. That sparkles with a deep lustre. She is Rekha
I ask her to faucet into and elucidate her ideas. Wanting resplendent in a white kurta and denims, her face scrupulously scrubbed, glowing, she turns her ideas inwards and sallies, “How do I really feel? I can’t actually clarify it. How does a mom really feel when her little one turns 80? To a mom, whether or not a baby is 80, she remains to be a baby. My perception is that my internal core is ageless and timeless a part of the everlasting divine entire. Just like the digicam, I’ve a perspective and with each passing day, my perspective will get into sharper, deeper focus.”
Like a slowly growing image, she reveals herself by and by. Typically I can learn her ideas, generally it’s laborious to decipher. Outdoors the orange solar casts a lambent glow on the ocean. She ties and unties her fantastically unruly hair after which fluffs them right into a tiny ball. “How does one really feel on each birthday? I don’t like consideration as a rule. I really feel very self-conscious. I keep in mind again within the previous days, my producers would have these grand birthday bashes. For need of a greater phrase it was embarrassing. It was good publicity for them. So there we’d be in our bouffants, chalky make-up, enormous bouquets,” she remembers good-naturedly.
Me, being me at all times attracts her into wanting again with affection. She gently chides me that I solely wish to know what appeals to me. She tut-tuts at my incapability to wonderful tune into her senses. She says, ‘‘Bete, to me day-after-day is a celebration, a renewal of your vows to your self. My desires, my passions, my aspirations will all come to a head. I’m effervescent, exploding with artistic concepts. So on this birthday I’ve resolved to do all the pieces that I didn’t accomplish that far. What I plan to do is for me to do and also you to maintain guessing. Bodily, I really feel like a 28 12 months previous, however mentally I feel I’m 80. But, I really feel born once more each single day, keen and excited to stay each second with love and compassion. I’d reasonably use all my energies to unravel the issue, battle it and emerge a greater human being. My life has been uniquely designed for me. I did what I believed was greatest then…once I knew higher…I did higher…” she trails off.
So many inquiries to ask, so little time. As if seizing my ideas and yoking them collectively, she talks in regards to the time she had celebrated her thirtieth birthday. “Once I turned 30 I keep in mind pondering I ought to be extra mature, no choodis and jhumkas for me. I’d should act mature. Simply take a look at me! How naïve I used to be. As we speak, I feel I’m extra emotionally match, mature. It’s taken me years to know and perceive that I shouldn’t carry extra baggage, remove individuals who add to emphasize. I’ve learnt to just accept life, I could not perceive it absolutely even now,’’ Rekha says with a Zen-like understanding of that which lies past.
She continues, “I wouldn’t have been in a position to obtain the issues I’ve achieved and advanced to be the particular person I’m in the present day, with out the unconditional assist of my household, my buddies and to not point out my eternally loyal followers with out whom I couldn’t have ventured this far or be within the place that I’m proper now.”
India’s most enigmatic star whose reigned on the marquee and the mindscape for years is loath to tom-toming her achievements. The truth is she says modestly, “Look it’s been 20 years since I’ve completed something substantial to put in writing dwelling about. However I’m so grateful to all that God’s bestowed upon me. What we wish in life isn’t vital, we are able to’t gauge what’s good for us. Solely
the creator is aware of what’s the most effective for us.’’
She provides, “I’m simply so completely satisfied that persons are nonetheless curious to know what I’m upto. Each 5 years once I make a film, it’s termed as a comeback. It’s at all times been like that with me. Once I did Khoobsurat, they stated she’s again. It occurred when Silsila, occurred. The so-called comeback sample has dogged me even when Umrao Jaan, Khoon Bhari Maang and Aastha occurred. I can solely, like I stated, be thankful for all the eye. Persistence is an efficient advantage to have, no?” Maya memsaab asks tongue firmly in cheek.
Virtually taking sheaves out of sepia-tinted time she says, ‘‘Once I look again and consider all that’s occurred, I simply catch my breath. I joined films at a time, once I barely knew something. I used to be simply 13, an excessive amount of was occurring too quickly. I used to be signed by brothers Kuljeet and Shatrujeet Pal. I used to be adrift, I didn’t perceive Hindi. I couldn’t inform if individuals had been being impolite or being good to me. All I wished to do was return and play with my dolls.”
One other nugget: “I used to be not born with a golden spoon however a movie spoon. My Tamil and Telugu background was in my DNA. Whereas mother labored within the studios, me and my siblings performed Paandi (hopscotch) within the studios. Whereas I didn’t perceive something however could have registered subconsciously. Possibly it was karmically ordained that I’d at all times be an actor.”
The desires of a doll’s home could have come unstuck however Rekha slalomed to huge bucks, huge vehicles, huge banners. In a trice, her world had modified. The daughter of the illustrious Gemini Ganeshan and Pushpavalli was deluged and matinee magic had enveloped her in its enormous maw. The tresses come undone once more and I stare as she rapidly tucks away the hair. “Within the late ’70s and early ’80s, I used to be doing three shifts in Annapoorna studio. Hyderabad turned my dwelling away from dwelling. Jeetendra was the hero of most of my movies. I keep in mind at one level, some 5 movies of mine had been operating within the theatres together with Ek Hello Bhool, Judaai, and God is aware of what number of extra? Don’t ask me how, at one level I had nearly upto 40 movies on the ground, unreal, no?” Madame M asks playfully.
She continues, ‘‘I used to sleep in my Volkswagon trailers. I might be studio hopping fortunately, altering make-up in my automobile. Typically ready endlessly for late lateef co-stars to show up, catch my forty winks. I keep in mind the studios had been so musty. I’d carry my very own Dettol to sanitise the loos. Apart from the studios which had been our second properties, we additionally had been fixtures on the telephone cubicles within the studio. The truth is, there was a telephone sales space exterior RK, which had my handwriting on it…the acquainted telephone numbers…,” she checks herself.
The late ’60s was additionally a time when the previous order was altering and a brand new order, a more recent breed of actors got here into the business. Rekha being the sharpest software within the shack. Recollections come cascading in regards to the older lot of actors who welcomed this sprightly teenager with the heat of a protracted misplaced relative. The diva notably remembers how Meena Kumari would acquire pebbles, rocks and hold it on her mattress stead. Rekha remembers, “As soon as I had the great fortune to fulfill her. I went with a co-star buddies of mine to her home at Landmark constructing. Everybody these days would hold saying me and my pal resembled one another lots. So I requested Meena aapa if we did truly look comparable and she or he husked, ‘Bilkul nahi. Woh meethi hai. Tum namkeen ho. Aur namkeen zyada khaya jaata hai…”
That spice was acknowledged by different film-makers like Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra and naturally the fabulous Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The actor acknowledges his immense contribution to her oeuvre. “Hrishida helped me to find myself. I used to be his chinna ponnu. I at all times thought I used to be born an grownup. However he made me see myself as he seen me and confirmed that facet to the world. He was in a position to seize a joie that I didn’t know existed in me in movies like Khoobsurat and Jhooti…”
Like blotting paper absorbs the sharp slashes of ink, Bhanurekha’s impressionable teenagers had been stuffed with many extra unforgettable incidents and folks. All of which is able to hopefully make to a biography. Whereas she poo-poohs the very concept of penning her ideas right into a e book, she remembers the sensible phrases of the late Balraj Sahni. He advised her, ‘Beta be within the business, however be out of it. Don’t let it outline your persona…’
The clue to her mystique she admits additionally has been heightened by the inexorable affect of the late Jennifer Kendall, Sunita Pitamber, and the divine Gayatri Devi, “I used to be at all times like a sponge, soaking in magnificence, aesthetics, artwork. The grace and the large artistry of ladies like Jennifer influenced me. Gayatri devi generously opened her coronary heart and residential to me and for that I’ll at all times be indebted. I’ve at all times been conscious of the impression I’ve had on individuals and that’s why I’ve additionally learnt to not take any of it as a right.”
She provides, “Don’t underestimate the grace of an Indian girl. I learnt a lot from designers like Bhanu Athaiya, Mani Rabadi. Instinctively, I began designing my very own garments too for my films, my picture shoots. Sometime all of this can come collectively in some type which even
I don’t know proper now.”
The subsequent step: may it’s a vogue label, zillion of endorsements, unique signature line ensembles. She holds her playing cards to her chest. Might it’s tv then? With no hint of self-importance, she says, ‘‘Tv is prepared for me. I feel the small display screen is doing a lot better than its massive display screen counterpart.’’
What the attractive actor additionally learnt early on was self-preservation. She says sagely, “A lot of the instances I used to be mom to my mom and to my siblings. The mom intuition in me was too sturdy from the time I used to be born…and has been overflowing all my life. However then once more I suppose it’s a girl’s prerogative to really feel this manner. Some persons are marked for all times.
I used to be a breadwinner. I needed to develop up in a single day and maintain my siblings. My brother died prematurely, I had seen so many siblings of co-stars hooked on to alcohol, medication. I promised myself way back that I’d protect myself. Many ladies assume they want a wedding or man to finish them. However take a look at somebody like Lataji who has again and again bolstered fantastically that marriage will not be the be all and finish all. My independence is the largest reward I gave to myself.
Like her on-screen character in Umrao Jaan, her insatiable curiosity for what lies past provides her a sure vulnerability. She nearly appears to acquiesce, ‘‘My vulnerability is what I’ll at all times treasure about myself. Beta do you keep in mind the traces from Umrao when the music trainer tells me, ‘Ya to kisike ke ho lo…ya kisiko apna bana lo… So I say koshish toh ki thi…so he says tum koshish ki cheez nahin ho Umrao…tumhare liye to duniya padi hai… Equally, whereas I at all times under-valued myself and was nearly informal about all the pieces I did, there have been others who had been satisfied I had potential. However having stated that I additionally assume my best reward is that I’ve cherished and obtained sufficient love… to let go.”
As inexorable as waves lapping a sea-shore, can any Rekha interview be full with out the point out of Amitabh Bachchan? Mais non. She seems to be at me half-disapprovingly, ‘‘As soon as a journalist, at all times a journalist. Okay, go on ask?”
So I wish to learn about her fellow Libran who’s jamming the airwaves and creating historical past as soon as once more on the tube. She remarks with equanimity, ‘‘I’m simply blessed by being born at some point aside from him. To have the ability to perceive his interpretation of his craft, character, impulse is nothing in need of karmic. The great thing about it’s that Amitji is completely oblivious of his energy and potential. Look how he pertains to his contestants on Kaun Banega Crorepati. Amitji’s upbringing, his character he brings to bear. You simply soak in and take pleasure in all that studying. He’s like a textbook. He’s made no matter he touches bigger than what it’s meant to be. I see him every day. We get to see the particular person behind his true to life performances. His fixed circulate of constructive power, his pure compassion for his fellow nation males ensures the truth that he’s the true-blue son of India. When Amitji is switched on, it’s not actuality TV, it’s actual TV.
“Be it Paa or …Crorepati, I really feel constructive seeing what he makes us all really feel. By way of all his trials and tribulations, he’s emerged triumphant. Might he stay to be a 100 and proceed to bless us lesser mortals.” Any extra well-known final phrases on AB? Madame M quotes a couplet, ‘‘Allah agar taufiq na dein…insaan ke bas ka kaam nahin, Faizan-e-mohabbat aam sahi…irfaane mohabbat aam nahin.’’
As at all times along with her much less is extra and you must learn between the traces once more! The shadows of the night lengthen. It’s in all probability my hundredth assembly with the lady for whom my fascination continues unabated. With any technique, she had mastered the peak of excellent comedian timing, she had mastered the artwork of summoning tears for the digicam. The artwork of efficiency.
In keeping with me, she is one in all India’s best actors ever whose potential remains to be to be tapped. The woman who will in all probability depart us with many unanswered questions.
Reams have been written about her, movies will obtusely make references to the florid life she as soon as lead. Like Gloria Swanson as soon as stated, “I’m nonetheless huge…it’s the flicks which received smaller.”
…Simply when she’s prepared for her close-up.
The interview was first printed in November 2011
