Waheeda Rehman The period from 1950 to 1970 is considered the golden period of Hindi cinema. During this time, where many experiments were done in cinema, this time also witnessed the strong performance of many best artists. Waheeda Rehman was one of those artists. For a long time, he kept the viewers of Hindi cinema captivated by his innocence, beauty and magic of good acting.
Early Life
Waheeda Rehman was born on 3 February 1938 in Chengalpattu in the state of Tamil Nadu to a well-educated Tamil-Muslim family. His father was posted in a high post like a District Magistrate. But only 9 years after the birth of Waheeda i.e. in the year 1948, his father died.
His mother also passed away seven years after his father’s death. A year after his father’s death, Waheeda made his foray into the cine world with the role of a child artist in a Telugu cinema ‘Rosulu Marai’. By this time she had become the best dancer of Bharata Natyam. Now she started trying to get into the mainstream of Indian cinema. During this time, she came in contact with the famous actor and producer-director of Hindi cinema and came on the silver screen.
Waheeda Rehman film career
This film was very much discussed about the love affair between Guru Dutt and Waheeda. However, in later years, Waheeda Rehman did two other films with Gurudutt. The fourteenth moon of 1960 and ‘Sahib, Bibi and Ghulam’ of 1962 are prominent among them. Apart from this, there are two other classic films ’12 O Clock’ (1958) and ‘Full Moon’ (1961) with Waheeda’s Gurudutt.
Waheeda Rehman’s pairing with Dev Anand was very frozen in films. Both gave five superhit films to the Hindi film Jagat. These films are CID, Sixteenth Year, Kala Bazar, Baat Ek Raat Ki and Guide. Apart from this, the duo did two more films, ‘Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja’ and ‘Prem Pujari’, but unfortunately both films flopped at the box-office despite critical acclaim.
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After separating from the team of Gurudutt in the year 1962, Waheeda Rehman worked in producer-director Satyajit Ray’s film ‘Abhijan’. Then in the year 1964, ‘Foggy’ also showed amazing at the box-office.
During this period, she was at the forefront of her contemporary actresses giving hit films. Apart from the above mentioned films, other hits of this period include ‘Ram Aur Shyam’ and ‘Patthar Ke Sanam’, which released in 1967, Ek Phool Char Kaante, Mein Jeene, Meri Bhabhi and starring with famous actor Sunil Dutt. Mirrors are prominent.
It is also not that during this period Waheeda’s films had not tasted failure. Not only this, Waheeda’s films which came with actor Dharmendra also came off the screen without creating any stir.
Then in the year 1974, Waheeda’s superstar of the time, came the film ‘Khamoshi’ with actor Rajesh Khanna, which was a huge success at the box-office. Actress Nanda Waheeda was one of her closest friends. Both of them played a co-star in the 1960 film Kaala Bazar.
During this period, ie from 1976 to 1994, he did small roles in about 24 films. His major films of this period were – Adaalat, Kabhi, Trishul, Namak Halal, Himmatwala, Quli, Mashal, Allahu Rakha, Chandni and Lamhe. Then after the death of her husband in the year 2000, she once again returned to the acting world and till now has played the role of character actress in 9 films including successful films like ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Delhi 6’.
It is worth mentioning here that Waheeda Rehman has played both mother and girlfriend in two different films with Amitabh Bachchan, a superstar of Hindi films for a long time. Among the awards he has received are the National Award and the country’s civilian honor. Read Amitabh Bachchan’s life introduction here.
Waheeda Rehman personal life
Waheeda Rehman did a film called ‘Shagun’ in the year 1964 after a failed love affair with actor and producer-director Gurudutt and leaving his team. His co-star in this film was Kamaljeet Singh. The film did not go on but both got their hearts. It is worth noting here that Kamaljeet Singh’s real name was Shashi Rekhi. In the 1960s, he too struggled to achieve success in films.
But he failed and eventually returned to the world of business. His daughter Kashvi Rekhi and son Sohail Rekhi were born while living in a farm house in Bangalore. Here, Kamaljeet died on 21 November 2000.