Raakhee Gulzar: One of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children

As Independent India turns 75, so does the ethereal Raakhee Gulzar, the reclusive enigmatic diva, whom I know better than most. Contrary to the melancholic aura she wears, Raakhee is actually a very entertaining raconteur. Her stories about the quirks of filmdom have me in splits. My favourite story of hers is about this mediocre film which won in all the major categories at a popular awards function in 1972. Of course, the awards were rigged. They gave Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and even Best Music to the film.

They called up Raakhee to tell her she would be receiving the award for Best Actress.

Raakhee refused. “I told them, thanks, but no thanks. Why should I accept an award for a film where I had barely five scenes and two songs? And that too in a very mediocre film. I know my worth. I know when I was good. For example, I worked really hard on my double role in Sharmilee. I got not even a dhela (pebble) for it. Most of my best work went unrecognized. But that didn’t bother me.”

Unquestionably, the piece de resistance of Raakhee Gulzar’s career was Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie. Chopra wrote the role for Raakhee. Sahir Ludhianvi wrote an entire song in praise of her beauty. Yash Chopra insisted he wouldn’t make Kabhi Kabhie with any other actress. There was just one problem: Raakhee was recently married and she had promised her husband the great Gulzar that she won’t return to acting.

When Raakhee married Gulzar, Yash Chopra became her neighbour. Gulzar and Raakhee used to regularly visit Yash Chopra’s home. During one of these social visits, in the presence Amitabh Bachchan Yash Chopra played the song Kabhi kabhie mere dil mein khayaal aata hai and Mrs Yash Chpra declared, ‘This song is for Raakhee’. That’s how Kabhi Kabhie was offered to Raakhee.

Kabhi Kabhie destroyed Raakhee Gulzar’s marriage.

Yash Chopra was eternally fascinated by Raakhee. The first time she worked with Yash Chopra was in Joshila in 1972 where she played the female lead with Dev Anand. Even before Joshila, Yash came to Raakhee with Ittefaq. She couldn’t play that unconventional role of a woman who murders her husband because she was committed to do Jeevan Mrityu with director Satyen Bose as her first film.

Joshila started Raakhee’s long association with two of her most favourite film personalities, Dev Anand and Yash Chopra. When Yash directed Daag, his first independent film after breaking away from his brother B R Chopra, Yash gave Raakhee the author-backed role. Her character was taken from novelist Gulshan Nanda’s novel Maili Chandni. People liked her character in Chandni and their connection continued.

Raakhee didn’t have a single song in Daag. But she didn’t care. The unconventional route always fascinated her. In Aparna Sen’s Paroma, Raakhee played a wife from a traditional Bengali family who has an affair with a fashion photographer. Her kiss with Mukul Sharma (Aparna’s husband) shook the traditionalists.

Shooting for Kabhi Kabhie wasn’t easy. At the start itself, Raakhee had to do intensely romantic scenes with Amitabh Bachchan. That was a problem, since Amitabh and Jaya called her ‘Bahurani’. On the first day of shooting, Amitabh Bachchan had to sing Sahir’s romantic lines to her. Raakhee felt awkward. Yash helped her to get over her awkwardness.

Incidentally, all the jewellery that Raakhee wore for her suhaag raat sequence in Kabhi Kabhie were her own jewellery from her own wedding!

After Kabhi Kabhie, Raakhee did Trishul with Yash Chopra and while shooting for Trishul, Raakhee shot for Doosra Aadmi which Yash Chopra produced and Ramesh Talwar directed. Raakhee had a very bold role in Doosra Aadmi. She had to smoke and drink and romance Rishi Kapoor.

The switchover to mother’s roles happened effortlessly. Subhash Ghai and Rakesh Roshan offered Raakhee the author-backed mother’s role Ram Lakhan and Karan Arjun. Soon, she got bored with the monotonous matriarchal roles and quit entirely. Raakhee Gulzar now lives a reclusive life away from the limelight refusing every Lifetime Achievement award offered to her.

She knows from experience that these awards are likely to be affiliated to a rigged veda.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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