Remembering Rekha on her birthday

1981,Umrao JaanFarooq Shaikh, Naseeruddin Shah, Raj Babbar, Rekha...
Asha Bhosle,Shahryar,Khayyam.

Rekha is a timeless, gorgeous actress.
She has been acting in films as a child artist from the age of 13. 
She was born to her unwed mother; her biological father was famous actor Gemini Ganesan, who threw both of them out of his house. 
She didn’t forget that humiliation, and when Gemini Ganesan her father died, she was in a shooting at a stone throw distance only - yet refused to attend his funeral. Some revenge! 
But her mother would not back down; she brought Rekha to Bombay and signed a contract for acting for 5 years in B class films from 1967 till 1972. 
Imagine - all these 5 years, she stayed in a  dingy room of a second-class hotel in Bombay.
How hard actors would work to reach at the top?
Rekha has seen it all. 

To satisfy the craze of audience to see their heroine ‘white and beautiful’, directors would ask their make-up artists to ‘paint’ Rekha in white from head to toe: who otherwise had a tinge of duskiness. 
Her 1973 film ‘Sawan Bhadon’ would change her fortune. 
From then, she never looked back. 
She carried herself well, learnt Hindi fluently; did amazing makeup, and from ‘Do Anjane’ film in 1976 acting as heroine with Amitabh Bachchan; she reached at the top.

She gave staggering successful movies like Mukaddar Ka Sikander, Khoobsoorat, Umrao Jaan, Mr Natwarlal, Silsila, etc. 
She made a hugely successful team with Jeetendra and acted together in 24 films.
She is still acting at the age of 69 !! What an actress! We have to learn a lot from her. 
Gutsy, relentless and tenacious. Umarao Jaan is clearly her best film.

Hats off to her !!

(Collection by Pappula Surendranath, High Court Advocate, Hyderabad)