Rekha - Film Career - 1980s

1980s

In 1980, Rekha appeared in the comedy Khubsoorat, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom she had developed a strong father-daughter bond during their previous collaborations. In a role written specially for her, she played Manju Dayal, a young vivacious woman who visits her recently-married sister at her in-law's house and tries to bring joy to the wide family, much to the displeasure of the matriarch of the household. Rekha said she easily identified with the bubbly nature of her character, calling it "quite a bit me". Khubsoorat was a success and Rekha was appreciated for her comic timing. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Movie and Rekha won her first Best Actress award. The Tribune described the film as "a lively comedy," noting that "Rekha’s spunky performance gives the film its natural zing." Film World magazine reported in that same year, "Rekha's done it. Smoothly, successfully. From a plump, pelvis-jerking, cleavage-flashing temptress, she has metamorphosed into a sleek, accomplished actress. Gone are most of the inane mannerisms, pouts, wiggles and giggles." It further noted that her career prospects had begun to improve significantly, as leading filmmakers had started taking more notice of her and become more keen to cast her in their films.

Rekha went on to star opposite Bachchan in a number of films, most of which were hits. She also had an alleged off-screen relationship with him, which was widely reported on in the media, as well as sharply criticised, as he was a married man. This relationship ended in 1981, when they starred in Yash Chopra's drama Silsila. The film was the most scandalous of their films together; Rekha played Bachchan's love interest, while Bachchan's real-life wife, Jaya Bhaduri, played his wife. This was their last film together.

Critics noted Rekha for having worked hard to perfect her Hindi and acting, and media reporters often discussed how she had transformed herself from a "plump" duckling to a "swan" in the early 1970s. Rekha's credits to this transformation were yoga, a nutritious diet, and a regular, disciplined life. In 1983, her diet and yoga practice were published in a book called "Rekha's Mind and Body Temple".

In 1981, she starred in Umrao Jaan, a film adaptation of the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. Rekha played the title role of a courtesan and poetess from 19th century Lucknow. The film follows Umrao's life story right from her days as a young girl named Amiran when she is kidnapped and sold in a brothel. Rekha once confessed, "After reading the script, I had a strange feeling that I had Umrao in me." In preparation for the role, Rekha, who at the beginning of her career did not speak Hindi, took the task of learning the finer nuances of the Urdu language. Director Muzaffar Ali later noted that "Rekha has given more than my conception of the role." The response to her work was universally positive. Her portrayal is considered to be one of her career-best performances, and she was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress for it. She played a courtesan with a heart of gold in several of her films; Muqaddar Ka Sikandar and Umrao Jaan were followed by a number of films which had her playing similar roles.

In that same year, Rekha starred in Ramesh Talwar's family drama Baseraa, which saw her playing a woman who marries her sister's husband, after the latter loses her mental balance. She appeared as Sadhna in the commercially successful Ek Hi Bhool (1981), opposite Jeetendra, playing the role of a betrayed wife who leaves her husband. In 1982, she received another Filmfare nomination for Jeevan Dhaara, in which she played a young unmarried woman who is the sole breadwinner of her extended family. In 1983, she took the supporting role of a lawyer in Mujhe Insaaf Chahiye, garnering another Filmfare nomination in the Supporting Actress category.

During this period, Rekha was willing to expand her range beyond what she was given in mainsteam films. She started working in arthouse pictures with independent directors, mostly under Shashi Kapoor's production, in what was used to be referred to as parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism. Her venture into this particular genre started off with Umrao Jaan, and was followed by other such films as Shyam Benegal's award-winning drama, Kalyug (1981), Govind Nihalani's Vijeta (1982), Girish Karnad's Utsav (1984) and Gulzar's Ijaazat (1987), among others. Benegal's Kalyug is a modern-day adaptation of the Indian mythological epic Mahabharat, depicted as an archetypal-conflict between rival business houses. Rekha's role was that of Supriya, a character based on Draupadi. Benegal said he decided to cast her in the role after seeing her work in Khubsoorat, besides noticing that she was "very keen, very serious about her profession". Critic and author Vijay Nair described her performance as "a masterful interpretation of the modern Draupadi". In Vijeta she played a woman who struggles through her marital problems and tries to support her adolescent son, who, undecided about his future plans, eventually decides to join the Indian Air Force. She described her performance in the film as one of her favourite from her own repertoire. For her portrayal of Vasantsena in Utsav, an erotic comedy based on the fourth-century Sanskrit play Mrichhakatika (The Little Clay Cart), she was acknowledged as the Best Actress (Hindi) of the year by the Bengal Film Journalists' Association. Maithili Rao wrote for "Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema", "Rekha — forever the first choice for the courtesan's role, be it ancient Hindu India or 19th-century Muslim Lucknow — is all statuesque sensuality..." In Gulzar's drama Ijaazat, Rekha and Naseeruddin Shah star as a divorced couple who meet unexpectedly for the first time after years of separation at a railway station, and recall together their life as a married couple and the conflicts which brought to their ultimate split.

Apart from parallel cinema, Rekha took on other increasingly serious, even adventurous roles; she was among the early actresses to play lead roles in heroine-oriented films, one such film being Khoon Bhari Maang in 1988. She won her second Filmfare Award for her performance in the film. Rekha went on to describe Khoon Bhari Maang as "the first and only film I concentrated and understood all throughout." One critic wrote about her performance in the film, "Rekha as Aarti is just flawless and this is one of her best performances ever! In the first half as the shy and not so sexy Aarti she is excellent and after the plastic surgery as the model and femme fatale she is excellent too. Some scenes show that we are watching an actress of a very high calibre here." M.L. Dhawan from The Tribune, while documenting the famous Hindi films of 1988, remarked that Khoon Bhari Maang was "a crowning glory for Rekha, who rose like a phoenix ... and bedazzled the audience with her daredevilry." Encyclopædia Britannica's Encyclopædia of Hindi Cinema listed her role in the film as one of Hindi cinema's memorable female characters, noting it for changing "the perception of the ever-forgiving wife, turning her into an avenging angel." In a similar list by Screen magazine, the role was included as one of "ten memorable roles that made the Hindi film heroine proud."

In later interviews, Rekha often described the moment she received the Filmfare Award for this role as a turning point, explaining that only then did she start genuinely enjoying her work and seeing it as more than "just a job": "...when I went up on the stage, and received my award for Khoon Bhari Maang... Boom, it hit me! That's the first time I realised the value of being an actor and how much this profession meant to me." In 2011 she further stated, "I felt even more charged to give my best and knew right then, that this was my calling, what I was born to do, to make a difference in people's lives, through my performances."