These beautiful B&W shots of Waheeda Rehman are from the suhagraat scene of the film 'Chaudhvin Ka Chand' … Guru Dutt her newly wedded husband asks her to take her time to open her ghunghat for him (he has never seen her face before); he however cautions her that she may as well get a look at him as he is this grotesque guy with ugly teeth etc… she panics and lifts her ghunghat to reveal the face shown in the picture above … and her husband gasps and says 'Subhaan-allah' and when she sees his handsome face she breaks into a smile :)
This morning I watched Guru Dutt' 1956 production and Raj Khosla' directed hindi film, C.I.D. the unforgettable musical treat, with hummable songs that are often sung in antaksharis across generations even today ...
- Boojh mera kya naam rey nadi kinarey gaon rey, peepal jhoomein mere angana thandi thandi chaon rey
- Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahaan zara hat key zara bachch key yeh hai Bombay meri jaan
- Aankhon hi aankhon mein ishara ho gaya baithey baithey jeeney ka sahara ho gaya
- Ley ke pehla pehla pyar bhar key aankhon mein khumaar jaadoo nagri sey aaya hai koi jaadugar
… and just as the suspense of the murder of Editor Srivastav is being followed by Inspector Shekhar (played by Dev Anand), he is taken to a palatial home of a beautiful mysterious lady called Kamini (the vamp of the film) played by the young and nubile Waheeda Rehman -- she looked stunning and gave a flawless supporting actress performance and was also picturised in the unforgettable song 'Kahin pe nigahein kahin pe nishaana' … The film made an interesting watch and towards the end Waheeda dominated the screen space with Dev instead of Shakila (the heroine of the film). After I completed the viewing I did a rerun of the songs … and in particular Waheeda' kahin pey nigahen … not only was she graceful and beautiful but the expressions too were perfect … her first hindi movie appearance clearly showed the glimmer of a star about to be born!
My curiosity about her grew and I surfed to view some of her unforgettable song performances on YouTube from films like -- Guide, Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Khamoshi, Kaagaz ke Phool, Chaudhvin ka Chand, Reshma Aur Shera … and then I chanced upon a catchy Telugu ITEM song 'Eruvaka Sagaro Rannooo Chinnanah' from the 1955 film Rojulu Maraayi, beautifully danced by none other than Waheeda accompanied by two men playing dhols … I was pleasantly surprised to watch the young damsel move gracefully to the tune and couldn't help tap my feet as I watched it again and again … as Waheeda has said in past interview it truly is a lovely song and indeed very hummable. I havent stopped humming it even as I type this blog … Waheeda appeared only in this song in the film but it is this song that became a super hit of its time … and it was after watching her in this film and learning the fact that she also spoke Urdu that Guru Dutt decided to offer her a role in his next film … shortly after he casted her in C.I.D. as the vamp Kamini and the rest is history … Go ahead and paste the following link in your address bar to watch this first visual treat of Waheeda http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAtR9RWIYno
Born into a muslim family one would have thought that her parents would object to any form of creative art .. however her parents were of different mettle. Waheeda born on 14 May 1936 in Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India, started learning Bharatnatyam, an Indian dance form, at a very young age along with her sister from Guru T. K. Mahalingam Pillai, doyen among nattuvanars. They performed on stage on several occasions too. However her father, who was a District Commissioner, died while she still in her teens and hence never saw the success his daughter achieved … even though it was he that set the foundation for her career -- it was after all her dance performance in Eruvaka that gave her career the start.
Her first ever film as a heroine was a 1955 Telugu film release called Jayasimha with the great South Indian mega star NTR (N. T. Rama Rao with over 350+ Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films in his acting career), which was a modified Hamlet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz0wA8Jb59E
Her most popular releases were in the decades of 1950-70s. With her film 'Guide' in 1965 her career peaked and she won the Filmfare Best Actress Award for her emotionally complex rendition of Rosie -- in this film in particular her two song sequences of the famous cobra dance and the song 'Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai' are my favorite watches of Waheeda. Her performance in Neel Kamal (1968) and Reshma Aur Shera (1971) also accorded her Filmfare and National awards respectively. And although she has given some memorable performances in her films Pyaasa, Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Khamoshi, Kaagaz ke Phool, Teesri Kasam and Chaudhvin ka Chand she did not receive any awards for them. A few of her films failed at the box office too. In an open discussion with fans and media in Seattle and Washington October 2004, she stated that her most memorable films have been Pyaasa, Teesri Kasam and Guide. Her most successful film was with Rajesh Khanna Khamoshi while her most romantic scene ever was the song sequence 'Waqt ne kiya' from the film Kaagaz ke phool.
There is much talk of the romance of Guru Dutt and her and I can imagine why they must have had a relationship if at all. His work shows that he was an emotionally sensitive man but undoubtedly depressive (even Dev Anand had remarked that he being young and so creative he should not make depressing films) … but the fact was that he was married to Geeta Dutt (again my favorite singer of all times) and maybe that was the reason that things did not go further with them. Guru Dutt died in 1964 and a few years later so did Geeta Dutt.
The 1964 release of Shagun where she starred with Kamaljit did not do too well at the box office however it provided the base of her marital life -- it was during this time that Kamaljit (the hero of the film) proposed to her … they however married a decade later on 27 April 1974 and had two children Sohail and Kashvi.
Her recent releases showcase her as a supporting actor in Lamhe (1991), Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Water (2005), Rang De Basanti (2006) and Delhi 6 (2009) -- each of these films have been critically acclaimed. With time Waheeda has aged gracefully and it is good to see that she continues her romance with films even today… and as always it is a pleasure to watch my favorite DIVA of yesteryear on the big screen.
No comments:
Post a Comment