Happy Birthday Rekha: The non-conformist actor's three rebels which stood against conventional norms

In the final moments of Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard: an ode to the forgotten stars of silent Hollywood, Norma Desmond’s descent down the staircase represents her spiral into the pit of madness. In the fever of stardom, Norma reveals that being on the screen will forever be her true love. Thus, we are made to understand that this descent was also the yearning of an ageing superstar, pushed into obscurity, to be recognized once more.

The movie represents a harsh yet universal truth about cinema in particular, and life in general: time waits for none. The best performances of an actor from the past deposit merely a nostalgic value into the collective memory even as the stars of today take the limelight. Yet, these contributions having been captured on the silver screen, shall always remain alive and sit like a rebellion in today’s conscience.

Bollywood’s own Rekha , a versatile actress who defied norms by reinventing herself time and again, excelled in conventional as well as unconventional roles throughout her career. She has only made sporadic cinematic appearances in recent years, but is well-remembered in the current cinematic milieu for her assertive female characters. On the occasion of her birthday, we’d look at three such strong-willed characters who managed to disturb the stream of normalcy in their respective worlds.

Her Manju Dayal is a quintessential Hrishikesh Mukherjee disruptor in Khubsoorat. The young girl arrives into the restrictive Gupta household like a storm, challenging the disciplinarian customs enforced by the matriarch Nirmala Gupta (Dina Pathak). The movie represents a conflict of ideas – the generation gap between Manju and Nirmala puts them at odds on how a house should be run.

The bubbly girl, who has grown up in a light-hearted environment, believes in individual freedom and a cheerful approach to life. She wants the members of the Gupta household to openly express their joys and share their pains. She liberates them by allowing them to pursue their interests, something which wasn’t allowed under the authoritarian stamp of Nirmala. After a few face-offs, Manju is able to win over Nirmala by proving her worth in an emergency. The latter is finally accepted as the new member of the Gupta family in a peaceful ending to the family entertainer.

While, Bollywood had produced strong female leads before, Manju was special in her own way. There was an added romantic track with Indar (Rakesh Roshan) but it took the backseat as the movie centred around our heroine’s comic attempts at helping the Guptas. Rekha proved to be a strong lead who ensured success for Khubsoorat.

From here we move to the more complex Mansi. On the face of it, the middle-class housewife in Basu Bhattacharya’s Aastha: In the Prison of Spring has it all. A loving husband, a beautiful child, and a household which is just able to fulfil their basic needs. Yet sitting in the nineties, a period when India experienced the arrival of unencumbered capitalism, she finds herself seduced by the relentless consumer culture.

She gives in to the charm of this materialist world, and disturbs her moral core by engaging in prostitution. Throughout the film, she struggles to reconcile her actions with her desires. She feels guilty for what she’s done, but is also helpless in the face of blackmails and need for more material comfort.

At the same time, Mansi manages to revolt against the old state of affairs. This rebellion is subtle, whilst even in personal turmoil, she experiences sexual liberation and achieves an unheralded dominance in her household. There is a new honesty in Mansi’s relationship with Amar (Om Puri), she is comfortable in her physicality and uses the financial independence to please her family by fulfilling their desires. There is no perfect ending to this tale, but through her powerful performance Rekha ensures that we at least understand the complications in Mansi’s life, and what makes her challenge the societal norms.

In Lajja, Vaidehi (Manisha Koirala) comes across various contours of injustice faced by women in the society. She finally runs into Ramdullari (Rekha), a village midwife, who not only understands the reasons behind prevalence of these misogynistic attitudes but also fights against them. She actively opposes the patriarchal and casteist attitudes in her village.

Ramdullari goes about strengthening women’s movements at grassroots levels, done by providing financial self-sufficiency to the village women. She contributes through relevant conversations against female foeticide, in favour of education and discussing the important role that women play in the rural society.

Despite her relatively short screen time, she leaves the strongest impact on the storyline by taking head-on against the landed property owners, who are directly responsible for exploiting the village women. Her presence inspires Vaidehi to believe that despite the bleak present, one can dream of a bright future and work towards the same.

These three characters though varying in age, social circumstances and outlooks end up becoming faces of female rebellion due to their circumstances and realities. It is Rekha’s excellence which manages to connect us to a young girl looking to upend her restrictive environs, a housewife who breaks the bounds of conventional morality around her and a midwife who strives for gender equality.

Rekha’s best might be behind her, but these works ensure her immortality on the screen. At the same time, they also become a benchmark for the accomplished actors of the present generation to emulate.

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