Late Sh. Gautam Rajadhyaksha

I met Rekha pretty late, many years after she came into films.She was off the press because she had a huge problem with another magazine. I sent her a note and she spoke to me. She's a very private person. At that time, her mind and body temple fitness regime was in the news and those were the pictures that I shot. The whole article was on her concentration on becoming the body beautiful.

The relationship we share through the last 20 years is very beautiful. She is a very nice, sensitive and warm person. Over the years, she has become more beautiful as a human being. And that reflects as a refinement of her presentation. One can talk of her graph as a crude, loud and fat South Indian girl -- very 'namkeen' as Meena Kumari called her. Meena Kumari had said 'meetha kitna khaoge namkeen bahut khaya jata hai.' Rekha called her Meena appa. She was friendly with the older lot of actresses. So I think that namkeen quality is very well in its place. But I think somewhere the knocks that life gave her sobered her down. They are a revelation that life is much more than glamour, money and being adored by men.

She has led a lavish life with cars, bungalows, making acchar, going to [director] S S Vasan's place for Dassera and getting a little gift there, her mother taking her and her siblings for a samosa treat in the Chennai airport and the endearing family traditions. She enjoyed it all, but with that was a feeling of being neglected when her father Gemini Ganesan moved on to other pastures. Her mother did not have time for her children because she wanted to dedicate her time to her slipping career.

One story goes that whenever anybody gave them any gifts, the kids would buy stuff and whatever was left, they'd put them in these acchar jars. They would stuff money there to prevent bad times.
Rekha was recalled from boarding school and told that she would have to work. Even then, for about a year, there was no work. They'd dip into these acchar jars, which could hardly be called savings. They were just leftovers from other expenses.

Then a time came when she lived her dreams, became a star and was loved by people. The film Ghar changed her. With her signing amount, she bought a house. She said that suddenly she had to do something for the house. She stopped wearing garish clothes and she withdrew into herself. That must've been the time when the external metamorphosis must've taken place. That was the turning point in her life.

Rekha is a great observer and has an elephantine memory. She doesn't miss a nuance, a word or an action. She remembers and absorbs everything. She can recall what you wore at a certain meeting. From this fat little girl, she metamorphosed into a woman. She had style and class. And in that process, she did some of her best films like Umrao Jaan.

When you are talking to her, she is absorbing everything. Sometimes, she has no idea what you are talking about. But she is a good listener. She'll absorb it, go home, go to a bookstore and buy herself a book that'll tell her more about the subject. When you meet her next, she'll be more knowledgeable about the subject. Work is worship for her. I don't think she has any kind of life or any interest beyond it. She says that beyond work she doesn't know what to do. And she is eager to create a new image to keep her audiences happy. She is the ultimate cover girl.

She has reached a plateau now. She has settled down. She understands she is not the golden girl that she was. But she wants to retain her dignity. You will not find her doing ads. She has got so many television offers. She's intelligent in so many areas whether it is designing jewellery, or clothes or makeup. Her psyche is maturing to the extent that she has so much to show. It's pity that we don't have films that Ingrid Bergman or Bette Davis did right through their careers.

50 is just another figure in her life. She is far maturer than that. Yet, there are times when she appears childlike. I am privileged to know the real Rekha. She is a very shy person despite what people may think. She takes a long time to open up. She has been hurt too often. It's a facade that she puts up in public and audiences buy it.
When she travels she visits museums and tries to learn things. The interviews she gives are interviews that people love to get from her.
Over the years, she should be given a chance to express herself in another field -- maybe writing. She may not be a great writer but she is great raconteur. But she needs to get things said because she has several lifetimes rolled into one.