Daily Times

‘Glamour, grace, gumption’… that’s how filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra describes the legendary Waheeda Rehman in his memoir Stranger in The Mirror.

There couldn’t be a better summation of the legend. Her beauty outshone celestial orbits. Her talent powered blockbusters. Her elegance has outdone time. But what remains stellar is her influence as an actor. Unassumingly, Waheeda Rehman has symbolised the woman of agency. Someone, who through her characters familiarised you with women empowered by choice and conviction. Women who reflected the evolving social ethos of India and the world.

“As an actor, her connect is evergreen and across every generation. She’s timeless. Even my daughter, who’s 21, can identify with her characters,” says Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra.

“During my growing years the go-to for entertainment was cinema. Out of my 10 most favourite films, Waheeda Rehmanji’s films feature the most. Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Mujhe Jeene Do, Guide, Teesri Kasam, Khamoshi, … The list goes on and on… What was extraordinary about Waheedaji was that she never got caught in a typecast. Innocence and dignity are definitely part of her persona. But as an actor, the foundation is her fearlessness to attempt roles that were ahead of their times. She can be regarded as a great personality of the era when our country was finding itself. An icon of a generation not by just the way she looked and danced… but for the spirit of Waheeda Rehman, which makes her larger than her films.

Looking back, in Vijay Anand’s Guide, she played a wife, who walks out on her impotent and uncaring husband. She falls in love with a guide, who supports her talent and becomes a star. Then she ruthlessly cuts him off from her life too. To play that kind of a rebel in the early ’60s, when the woman was regarded as Sati Savitri, was so daring. We need to applaud her for that.

Guru Dutt’s Kaagaz Ke Phool… has left an indelible mark in our subconscious. Waheedaji brought sheer honesty to her character of Shanti. An actress discovered by the greatest director, Shanti eventually ‘abandons’ him. In the beautifully choreographed song, Waqt ne kiya kya haseen situm… Waheedaji’s silent yet powerful. To do justice to such a great song is not easy. The tragedy comes from the fact that you hurt someone you love the most. In terms of portraying tragedy and romance, I can’t think of anyone but Waheedaji. Maybe, Meena Kumari… but in a different way.”

Mehra continues to add, “Beauty has never been so well-captured in Indian cinema or anywhere else in the world as in the title song of Guru Dutt’s Chaudvin Ka Chand. In one particular shot, Waheedaji turns and looks into the camera. As the camera keeps going close to her, the effect is hypnotizing.

Another favourite is Asit Sen’s Khamoshi. Here, she plays a nurse, who falls in love with her patient, something she’s not supposed to. There’s hardly any dialogue, no song, no dance and no formula in the film. Rather it’s her silence that’s compelling. Other wonderful reminiscences of her would be in the song Nadi naare na jaao, Paan khaiyo saiyaan hamaar and Piya to se naina lage re.

In my film, Rang De Basanti, she played the wife of a wing commander, whom she loses to the country. Yet, she inspires her son to be a fighter pilot. I’ve always believed the woman to be the stronger gender. And Waheedaji’s was such in RDB. Once we were shooting for RDB in a bungalow at Pali Hill. My home, which is also in the same area, became the make-up room. My library or my ‘den’, was given to Waheedaji. There in the den, I had the laser disc of Kaagaz Ke Phool. With great nervousness, I asked her to sign it for me. As I am speaking to you, I am holding the disc in my hands. Her message reads, “May you become a great and very successful director of our country. Aameen.” This is something I will treasure and treasure.

Coming to my next with her, Delhi-6, that again was a tough role. The film spoke about the totality of religion as opposed to divisiveness. Waheedaji, as a woman pining for her roots, took it to a different level altogether. I vividly recall one night when we were shooting in the desolated ghost town of Sambar in Rajasthan for Delhi-6. We had constructed a set of a temple under a tree. It was December and the desert chill recorded minus 4 degrees! Om Puri, Rishi Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Prem Chopra, Vijay Raaz, Atul Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, KK Raina… an eclectic group of artistes sat in the temple set as it was less windy there. It was 2 am and to keep up the morale, I said, “Let’s have tea.”

Suddenly, I noticed that Waheedaji was standing bare feet on the marble floor of the temple. Taken aback, I asked her why she wasn’t wearing anything on her feet while everyone had double socks, sweaters and shawls. She replied, “Woh mandir hain na!” I said, “Ma’m woh mandir ka ‘set’ hai!” She reasoned, “Hai toh mandir hi na mere dil mein.” How do you view this beautiful thought? This is about respecting someone else’s belief and making it your own.

Another interesting memory is of the time I went to narrate the script of Rang De Basanti at her Bangalore farmhouse. It was brunch time. The first thing she asked me, “Are you hungry?” I said, “I was famished.” She prepared pizzas and we both shared it. Touchwood her appetite was far better than mine! Fortunately, today she happens to be my Bandra neighbour. Whenever there’s a festival, there will be a huge casserole of kebabs sent from her house and some delicacy sent across from mine. On a playful note… once my wife Bharathi, Waheedaji and I were having an easy evening on our terrace, when with Bharathi’s permission, I ‘proposed’ to her, “Will you marry me?”. And I got a nice, cute, slap… a lovely one on my cheek!”

He concluded by saying, “On a serious note, Waheedaji’s one of the most inspiring persons I know. She’s always travelling, now that she’s a wildlife photographer. She’s proved that there’s life beyond your own inner circle. Would I call her an ‘ideal Indian woman’? Well, I’d like to break that. As an ‘ideal Indian woman’, she would be caught in the persona and not be able to break the boundaries she did. Rather, she’s amongst the pioneers, who liberated women across the world. We live in a gender bias world, where credit is given more to men… even in cinema. But Waheeda Rehman stands apart.”