Rekha – the sweet actress of bollywood.
Rekha is one of the most dynamic actresses of bollywood of all times. She provided sweet performances in the early part of her career, in Sawan Bhado, opposite Navin Nischal and Gora aur kala, opposite Firoz Khan. From mid-70s she became the leading actress of bollywood with powerful performances one after the other.
Her performance in Khoon Pasina and Mr. Natwarlal, opposite Big B is worth mentioning. She was sublime in Gulzar’s film Ghar, opposite Vinod Mehra. It was a romantic film, and Rekha with her soft performances had given adequate expression to outstanding songs sung by Lata and composed by Rd Burman, including “aaj kaal pao zameen par”, “tere bina jiya jaye na”, etc. Kishore also sang well the songs “phir wohi raat hai”, “aap ki aankhon me”, etc.
Rekha acted in the role of her lifetime in the film Umrao Jaan, as a tawaif, and got public praise, honour, etc., for the dynamic performance. Khayyam’ s music and Asha’s songs are evergreen even today including “in ankhon ki masti”, “justju”, etc. Even Aiswariya Rai had faced the challenge of matching Rekha in the new version of Umrao Jaan, and could not rise beyond the dynamic performance of Rekha along with powerful performance of Farooq Sheikh.
Rekha was brilliant in the film Silsila opposite Big B and Jaya Bacchan, which was a triangular love story. The songs composed by Shiv Hari and sing by Lata were given adequate expression by Rekha including “yeh kahan a gaye hum”. Her other notable films include Mugaddar ka sikandar, Do anjane, etc.
Even these days, she makes her presence felt whenever she acts in any role in the contemporary films, like the one she had done in the film Parineeta along with Saif Ali Khan and Vidya Balan. Her lips in the song “kaisi peheli zindagani” at Moulin rouge in Kolkata, caught everyone’s attention. She also performed in the dance sequence of the song “ om shanti on” with Shahrukh Khan in the film Om Shanti Om. She is still a big asset of bollywood and is expected to perform even better in the years to come.
By: CR Chatterji.
