Waheeda Rehman’s  5 roles that saw her move out of her comfort zone

Without  a jot of a doubt, the name Waheeda Rehman signifies beauty, dignity and inner strength. And yet I’ve not seen this iconic actress stepping out of her comfort zone to display the staggering range of Madhubala, Geeta Bali, Nutan  or Sridevi. Whenever Waheedaji has slipped away from her restrained  histrionics she has  given us characters who will live forever and a Friday.

1. Madhavi in Darpan (1970): Only God and the Moral Police know why our  greatest heroines are never accepted as prostitutes, unless they are the pristine poetic version  of  the sex worker known as  the tawaif in Pakeezah, Umrao Jaan and Amar Prem. Otherwise, from Rehana Sultan in Chetna to Shabana Azmi  in Bhavna, Mandi and Doosri Dulhan, they’ve all been rejected. In the flop  Darpan Waheedaji played  a prostitute being rehabilitated by  Sunil Dutt, a role he played earlier to  Vyjanthiamala in Sadhana.  But here the  sex worker was  not  a simpering  poetess hence rejected on both levels, by the  moral  police in the screenplay and  the audience watching the film. But Watch this flop film for Waheedajis’s anguished protest in the great Lata Mangeshkar song  Mujhe pyar karne a haq nahin. Watch the film for its  courage to  cast a top female star as  a sex worker , directed  by  A  Subba Rao who also directed  the great  Milan with Nutan and Sunil Dutt.

2. Radha In Khamoshi (1969): Producer Hemant and director Asit Sen were advised  to  take Nutan  in the role of  a  nurse at a mental asylum who is asked to feign love for a man suffering  a nervous  breakdown after  being jilted in  love. It’s a role of tremendous complexities, performed by  the actress beyond her normal  serene  range. Waheedaji’s  mental breakdown at the  end will give you goosebumps  each time.Woh sham kuch ajeeb tthi, indeed.

3. Shanta in Phagun (1973): Psychological complexities abound in this dense  and  profoundly  tragic  film about a a woman whose marriage to  a man beneath her status  breaks up leaving her  emotionally fractured and sexually deprived for the rest of her life. There are scenes were Waheedaji’s Shanta had to enact a character who gets attracted to her own son-in-law. Not a very easy emotional outlet for an actress as dignified as Waheedaji. She  told me Phagun  was a  mistake  because it  relegated her  to  the mothers’  roles  prematurely. Sandhya jo aaye…why so early?!

4. Gulabi in Abhijaan (1973): In  her only film with the great Satyajit Ray, Waheedaji played the free-spirited  rural woman, a widow named  Gulabi who does what her heart wants. Tricked into the flesh trade by one man, she happily  sleeps with another  man (Soumitra Chatterjee) with no strings attached because she loves  him. Gulabi  was  a true feminist long before feminism became fashionable in films.

5. Rosy in Guide (1965): Nutan and Nargis may have a wider range  , but they couldn’t dance to save their lives. Waheedajis’s snake dance in Guide is the single-most stunning piece of film dancing in Indian cinema, rivaled only by Vyjanthimala’s Hothon pe aisi baat  in Jewel Thief . What was it about Dev Anand  that provoked these dancing  queens to out-excel themselves?  What  to say  about this unforgettable woman who thumbs her  nose at  a bad marriage to pursue her dreams, her dancing and her heart in that order. Like  it or not, Rosy will live her life on her own terms: Kaaton se kheench key yeh aanchal tod di bandhan, bandhi payal! Go for it, girl!