Grace & class unlimited

Bollywood Legend

There is a comparable charm in her persona, for Waheeda Rehman reflects sobriety and class. The beautiful face that became Guru Dutt’s muse and also Vijay Anand’s and Dev Anand’s favourite heroine and graduated to playing mother and now grandmother (Delhi-6) is also a stunning dancer and a superb actress besides being a very articulate individual. She touched 73 on May 14, but looks a decade younger, so we begin on that ‘Touch Wood’ note on how she has maintained her fitness and looks.

Smiles Waheeda, “I had my own small tricks for remaining fit and looking good, as the camera magnifies flaws ten-fold. I practice yoga but I do not really put restrictions on my diet.” Among today’s heroines, she admires Kajol, Tabu, Vidya Balan and Sonam Kapoor as heroines with substance. Among the actors, she has a word of praise for Saif Ali Khan.

Waheeda Rehman was born in Hyderabad and her District Magistrate father settled in Vijayawada where she schooled. The early ambition to become a doctor was scuttled because of some medical reasons at the time, but her traditional parents supported her when she trained in Bharatanatyam. Two Telugu films, Jaisimha and Rojulu Maraayi (both 1955) marked her debut and she was spotted by Guru Dutt in one of these.

Dutt cast her as the negative second heroine in C.I.D. (1956) and the rest was history as she stole the show from heroine Shakila. But wasn’t she a shade apprehensive about being typecast in those more traditional times? “I did not look at it that way. I was getting a good role. I wanted to be known as a versatile actress who could do any kind of role well,” says Waheeda.

Waheeda also confessed that she looked for scope to dance in her films. “I had some scope in my film Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, but the real opportunity came only with those lovely dances in Guide in 1965,” she says.

Waheeda had a special and easygoing rapport with her first hero and common co-star of these and many other films, Dev Anand.

“On the sets of C.I.D, when I first addressed him as Anand-saab or Dev-saab, he told me to call him ‘only Dev’. It took me some time to do that, however!”

While the world is aware of her equation with mentor Guru Dutt, how was their professional association that blossomed into cinematic classics like Pyaasa, Kagaz Ke Phool, Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam later? “He was also my teacher. The feeling was of a student towards her guru,” replies the actress succinctly.

Waheeda’s equation with her co-stars was always congenial. “Raj Kapoor-saab was very cooperative, but despite being a brilliant filmmaker, he would never interfere with the director. ‘My job here is to act,’ he would tell me if I asked him why he did not voice out his ideas on the sets. With Dilip (Kumar) saab, there was an overall comfort level.”
Going down memory lane, Waheeda recollects her closeness to Sunil Dutt and Nargis. She remembers with affection the atmosphere amidst the Rajasthan dunes during the long schedule for Reshma Aur Shera. Wasn’t that the time when Amitabh Bachchan, then a struggler, was a crazy Waheeda fan and tried to spend as much time as possible in her company? Smiles the actress, “Is that so? Well, our equation has always been very nice and we were even paired romantically in Kabhi Kabhie, Adalat and Mahaan and he played my son in the last two as well, besides in films like Trishul, Namak Halaal and Coolie.”

Waheeda also had a record five films with Shashi Kapoor, with none having them paired romantically. “I know!” says Waheeda. “Guru Dutt wanted Shashi Kapoor to do Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam but he could not allot bulk dates. I was also unlucky with Shammi Kapoor-saab. Ramesh Sippy had offered me Andaz, but I could not do the film. But I was touched by the fact that when we had to make cameos in the song ‘John Jani Janardhan’ in Naseeb, Shammi requested Manmohan Desai that we make our entry together because we had never done a film together.”

Waheeda has fond memories of Manoj Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra and Rajendra Kumar as well. “Manoj was so good as a writer that directors would frequently ask him to write scenes,” she recalls. “Sanjeev was very sweet. But since none of my films with these last three heroes did well, we did not become famous as pairs.”

Waheeda is also known for her deep friendship with Nanda (with whom she worked in Kala Bazaar) and co-starring with multiple heroines from Meena Kumar to Mumtaz and younger artistes. Coming from a generation that saw stars do solo acts rather than multi-star projects, why did she break the pattern? “I was confident of my roles and my directors, so why should I not work with other actresses?” asks Waheeda. “I got along well with all of them, especially with Raakhee and Sadhana. My focus was on doing my best.”

As for her meaty roles, she took risks in particular with off-beat films like Basu Bhattacharya’s Teesri Kasam and Asit Sen’s Khamoshi. “Yes, but Asit Sen is one of my favourite directors — Guru Dutt and Vijay Anand were two others.”

Waheeda’s husband passed away nine years ago. “We were manufacturing breakfast cereals in Bangalore but moved to Mumbai a year before his death,” explains Waheeda, who has two children, Suhail and Kashvi. How does she spend her time today? “Oh, there is so much to do!” she says. “I also watch a lot of movies, and I like the films of Madhur Bhandarkar, Anurag Basu, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Nagesh Kukunoor. And I loved A Wednesday.”