Asha Parekh: Not an ice maiden but a nice maiden

The Dadasaheb Phalke Award couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the ever-‘grin’ screen queen. Every birthday of Asha Parekh , who turns 80 on Gandhi Jayanti, is a dry day. So her friends never get to toast her health and wellbeing with a glass of wine. But Asha Parekh never complains about what life has in store for her. “I am happy to be alive well healthy and still not pushed into oblivion, as many of my colleagues are,” says the ever-smiling Parekh, who had the singular privilege of being dubbed the ‘Jubilee Girl’ in her heydays. Almost every film she touched turned into gold. The 1960s are cluttered with her hits: Dil Deke Dekho (her first film as a leading lady, she earlier played juvenile roles), Jab Pyar Kissise Hota Hai, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, Mere Sanam, Teesri Manzil, Love In Tokyo, Aaye Dil Bahaar Ke, Pyar Ka Mausam, Aaya Sawan Jhoom Ke, Aan Milo Sajna , Kati Patang. The opportunity to prove her worth as an actor came late in her career with Kati Patang (a role that director Shakti Samanta’s favourite actress Sharmila Tagore turned down as she did not want to play a widow), Chirag, Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, Udhar Ka Sindoor. When in her heydays, she played a deglamorized role in her favourite director (and also the only man she ever loved) Nasir Hussain ’s Baharon Ke Sapne, the film was rejected. Asha was never threatened by competition. In 1971, she had two blockbusters- Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Caravan, in which the vamp played by Laxmi Chhaya and Aruna Irani , respectively, had all the songs and the meaty scenes. Asha shared a very healthy rapport with all her co-stars. They were all her favourites. She did the maximum number of films with Dharmendra , Joy Mukherjee, Jeetendra , Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna, Shammi Kapoor, whom she called Shammi Chacha….they were all her buddies. She played pranks on them all. Once she hid Sunil Dutt’s slippers below a chair during a shooting at a studio. He had to go home barefoot. Years later, they found the footwear hidden below the chair. Once for a scene, Joy Mukherjee had to pick her up and carry her to the bed. But he apparently couldn’t take her weight and simply flung her on the hard bed. Asha was confined to bed with a back problem for weeks. Asha worked with all the major male stars except Dilip Kumar . Some irresponsible producer went and told Dilip Kumar that she didn’t want to work with him. Asha shared an equally healthy friendship with all her female contemporaries. Whether it was Sadhana, Vyjathimala ji, Sharmila Tagore, Nanda, Waheeda Rehman or Mala Sinha…these actresses were not the least threatened by one another’s stardom. They all had their own place. Contrary to the typical heroines in the 1970s and 80s, characters played by Asha and her colleagues were not inter-changeable. Asha’s friendship with her contemporaries continues to this day. Waheeda Rehman, Helen , continue to meet regularly. Sadly Asha’s other friends Nanda and Sadhana passed away.So did her best friend, actress Shammi. But she never allows herself to feel lonely. Looking back on her record-breaking run in the1960s and 70s Ashaji says, “I do feel proud when I remember films were sold to distributors because of me. I don’t think any other heroine of my times was considered lucky in the same way as I was.” Such was Asha Parekh’s commercial clout that she could dictate the leading man of her films. When she was doing Deven Varma’s Nadaan, she wanted Dharmendra to be cast opposite her. Director Deven Varma had to request Dharmendra not to entertain her request because they had already committed to another hero ( Navin Nischol ). Did all this power go to the actress’ head? Asha who featured in as many as 20 silver and golden jubilee hits in the period between 1960s and 70s, says, “I never thought of it as power. Films came to me, they were made and released. We never realized when the films got made). Many of them like Dil Deke Dekho, Teesri Manzil, Phir Wohi Dil Laaya Hoon, Mere Sanam, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Caravan and Kati Patang were memorable for me not because they were hits, but because we had so much fun shooting them. It was all a picnic.” Asha was one of the highest-paid actresses of her time and yet, she was paid less than what her co-stars, some of them far less successful than her, got. Asha is happy to see actresses coming into their own. Her favourites are Deepika Padukone, Vidya Balan , and Alia Bhatt. The forever-smiling actress confesses she misses a soul-mate in her life. “I do miss that someone special in my life. When the time to marry was right I had no time. Yes, there was someone special in my life. But it is not in good taste to talk about it when there are families involved.” Asha Parekh, whose girlish laughter added to the charm of her films through the 1960s and 1970s, refuses to cling on to the past. “I don’t believe in sitting at home clinging to the past wiping photo frames with my tears…Please, there’s so much more to do in life.” With Amitabh Bachchan, there was a misunderstanding. Apparently, he was told that she refused to work with him when she claims, no such thing happened. She says, “Malicious people would say all kinds of things. But I never lost my innocence, I think that’s why the audience warmed up to me. I was always the friendly girl next-door. The tag of a successful star was actually a stamp of approval from the audience who loved me for being a normal girl just like the girls in every middleclass family.” Brightening up Asha is thankful for what life has given her. “I am still around and healthy. I had a great innings. I was called the ‘hit girl’ because of the success ratio of my films. I don’t know how so many hits happened in my career. It was God’s blessings, I guess and my parents’ good wishes. It’s sad to loose friends at my age. Watching them go one by one is a very scary experience. I just wish I go without pain. And people will remember me as a nice maiden not an ice maiden.” Her throaty laughter follows. Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.