“I’m simply blessed by being born at some point aside from Amitabh Bachchan”
She retains the identical attract at this time, certainly one of thriller, of promise, of a depth unseen by man. Of a blinding vitality that’s greatest beheld from a distance. Of a easy charming woman 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 way in which 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 mentioned 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 baby turns 80? To a mom, whether or not a baby is 80, she continues to be a baby. My perception is that my inside 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. Generally I can learn her ideas, generally it’s onerous to decipher. Outdoors the orange solar casts a lambent glow on the ocean. She ties and unties her superbly 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 I keep in mind again within the outdated days, my producers would have these grand birthday bashes.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, big bouquets,” she recollects good-naturedly.
Me, being me at all times attracts her into trying again with affection. She gently chides me that I solely wish to know what appeals to me. She tut-tuts at my incapacity to effective tune into her senses. She says, ‘‘Bete, to me day-after-day is a celebration, a renewal of your vows to your self. My goals, 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 things that I didn’t achieve this 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 outdated, however mentally I feel I’m 80. But, I really feel born once more each single day, keen and excited to reside each second with love and compassion. I’d reasonably use all my energies to resolve the issue, battle it and emerge a greater human being. My life has been uniquely designed for me. I did what I assumed was greatest then…after 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 concerning the time she had celebrated her thirtieth birthday. “After I turned 30 I keep in mind considering I needs to be extra mature, no choodis and jhumkas for me. I’d need to act mature. Simply have a look at me! How naïve I used to be. At present, 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 capable of obtain the issues I’ve achieved and advanced to be the individual I’m at this time, with out the unconditional help 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. Actually she says modestly, “Look it’s been 20 years since I’ve accomplished something substantial to put in writing dwelling about. However I’m so grateful to all that God’s bestowed upon me. What we would like in life isn’t essential, 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 joyful that individuals are nonetheless curious to know what I’m upto. Each 5 years after I make a film, it’s termed as a comeback. It’s at all times been like that with me. After I did Khoobsurat, they mentioned 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 mentioned, be pleased about 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, ‘‘After I look again and consider all that’s occurred, I simply catch my breath. I joined motion pictures at a time, after I barely knew something. I used to be simply 13, an excessive amount of was taking place 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 goals of a doll’s home could have come unstuck however Rekha slalomed to massive bucks, massive automobiles, massive 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 big maw. The tresses come undone once more and I stare as she shortly tucks away the hair. “Within the late ’70s and early ’80s, I used to be doing three shifts in Annapoorna studio. Hyderabad grew to become 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 virtually 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 automotive. Generally 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. Moreover the studios which had been our second houses, we additionally had been fixtures on the cellphone cubicles within the studio. Actually, there was a cellphone sales space exterior RK, which had my handwriting on it…the acquainted cellphone numbers…,” she checks herself.
The late ’60s was additionally a time when the outdated order was altering and a brand new order, a more moderen breed of actors got here into the business. Rekha being the sharpest software within the shack. Recollections come cascading concerning the older lot of actors who welcomed this sprightly teenager with the heat of a protracted misplaced relative. The diva significantly recollects how Meena Kumari would acquire pebbles, rocks and preserve it on her mattress stead. Rekha recollects, “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 preserve saying me and my good friend resembled one another lots. So I requested Meena aapa if we did really look comparable and he or she 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 capable of 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 full of many extra unforgettable incidents and other people. All of which is able to hopefully make to a biography. Whereas she poo-poohs the very thought of penning her ideas right into a ebook, she recollects the smart phrases of the late Balraj Sahni. He informed 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 girls 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 with no consideration.”
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 motion pictures, my picture shoots. Sometime all of this can come collectively in some kind which even
I don’t know proper now.”
The following 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? And not using a hint of self-importance, she says, ‘‘Tv is prepared for me. I feel the small display is doing significantly better than its massive display counterpart.’’
What the gorgeous actor additionally learnt early on was self-preservation. She says sagely, “Many of the occasions I used to be mom to my mom and to my siblings. The mom intuition in me was too robust from the time I used to be born…and has been overflowing all my life. However then once more I assume it’s a lady’s prerogative to really feel this fashion. Some individuals are marked for all times.
I used to be a breadwinner. I needed to develop up in a single day and deal with my siblings. My brother died prematurely, I had seen so many siblings of co-stars hooked on to alcohol, medicine. I promised myself way back that I’d protect myself. Many ladies assume they want a wedding or man to finish them. However have a look at somebody like Lataji who has again and again bolstered superbly that marriage is just not 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 offers her a sure vulnerability. She virtually 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 instructor 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 virtually informal about all the things I did, there have been others who had been satisfied I had potential. However having mentioned that I additionally assume my biggest reward is that I’ve beloved and acquired 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 appears 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 indulge 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 individual behind his true to life performances. His fixed move of constructive vitality, 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 all his trials and tribulations, he’s emerged triumphant. Might he reside 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 need to learn between the traces once more! The shadows of the night lengthen. It’s in all probability my hundredth assembly with the girl for whom my fascination continues unabated. With any methodology, she had mastered the peak of excellent comedian timing, she had mastered the artwork of summoning tears for the digicam. The artwork of efficiency.
Based on me, she is certainly one of India’s biggest actors ever whose potential continues to be to be tapped. The girl 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 mentioned, “I’m nonetheless massive…it’s the flicks which bought smaller.”
…Simply when she’s prepared for her close-up.
The interview was first printed in November 2011
