REKHA
THE UNTOLD STORY
Author: Yasser Usman
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 230
Price: Rs 499
On March 30, 1981, John Warnock Hinckley, Jr shot at and wounded President Ronald Reagan in Washington DC. During his interrogation and the subsequent investigation, it was revealed that he had carried out the assassination attempt to impress actor Jodie Foster for whom he had developed an obsession after watching Taxi Driver (1976), in which she had played a child prostitute. The obsession of fans - rarely leading to murder attempts - is part and parcel of our celebrity culture. It is often nourished by the mystique, real or manufactured, around the celebrities. In India, no one had stage-managed this better than Rekha.
The last blockbuster that she starred in was Khoon Bhari Maang (1988). Since then, she has tasted some success in art house films such as Aastha(1997) and Zubeidaa (2001) - but commercial success has been elusive. Yet, no other actor, past or present, seems to generate even half as much curiosity as Rekha. Quite a bit of the mystique is her creation, some through excellent public relations - not to forget her long-running relationship with the industry's biggest icon - and the rest through brilliant performances, that has made her accessible yet distant from her audience and fans. Now, award-winning journalist Yasser Usman's biography, with the subtitle claiming to reveal all, makes another attempt to cash in on the cult.
In the introductory author's note, Usman asks a number of questions, beginning: "Who is the real Rekha?" This is possibly the central question of this book. Usman has done his journalistic due diligence by going through all her work, her interviews and has interviewed her co-actors, directors, producers and friends. The one interview that he has not managed is that of the subject herself. He writes: "When I started writing this book, I naturally tried to reach out to Rekha." He claims to have explained his project to the actor's secretary, only to be told he would be contacted later. "That call never came." This doesn't really take anything away from the book or Usman's research, but Rekha fans would surely have liked to hear from the diva herself.
The author takes a sympathetic stance towards his subject. Rekha's entry into films was under trying circumstances. The "illegitimate" daughter of Tamil superstars, Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli, was compelled to take up acting offers when she was only 14 due to the precarious conditions of her family's finances. Ganesan did not acknowledge the family till much later and Pushpavalli had run out of work and accumulated huge debts. From the very beginning, she was exploited in the chauvinistic Hindi film industry. During the shooting of her first film, Anjana Safar, an underage Rekha was kissed, apparently without her permission, by co-actor Biswajeet. This, and her willingness to do all kinds of roles, got her branded as the "sex kitten" of the industry - an image that would be the cause of considerable heartburn and very difficult to shed.
As novelist and film critic Jerry Pinto tells Usman: "…many of the actors were abused as children. Neetu Singh, Rekha, all these triumphant divas. …These are things that scar you. And I think Rekha was definitely scarred." Indeed, exploitation, prejudices and sexism seem to be a part and parcel of her story. If it was not for her supposed promiscuity, then she was criticised for being "overweight" or dark-skinned, with someone even as erudite as Shashi Kapoor commenting: "How is this dark, plump and gauche actor ever going to make it?" Finally, of course, for her string of affairs with co-actors, the most famous of which was with a married Amitabh Bachchan, that got her isolated and branded a "home-breaker" by even her women co-actors.
The sympathetic stance notwithstanding, this book is not without its problems. Its first few chapters are devoted to Rekha's failed marriage to Delhi-based businessman Mukesh Agarwal, his suicide and the subsequent scandal. A smashing start - but to what purpose? Is this not a way to cash in on the permanent aura of scandal surrounding the actor's life?
Also, while discussing her performance as a courtesan in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978) or Umrao Jaan (1981), Usman writes about Rekha's "predilection for such roles". The paragraph ends: "It was as if Zohrabai [her character in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar] and Rekha were the same person." About Rekha's portrayal of Umrao, Usman writes: "Umrao and Rekha fed into each other." This might seem like a compliment, but is actually a denial of the actor's professional competence. It is like saying Keshto Mukherjee was perpetually drunk because he performed the character so well, or Amjad Khan was a murderous maniac like Gabbar Singh.
Usman's book is an interesting addition to the growing body of writing around Rekha, but it just barely manages to tread the fine path between biographical criticism and critical biography.
