Advertisement
15th August 1947 saw the birth of our great country, India. On the same day, one of our greatest ever actors, Rakhee Gulzar. She was born in Nadia, West Bengal. Rakhee wanted to be a scientist but her destiny was to be a superstar actor.
On her 72nd birthday today, let us go on a trivia journey of her filmi journey and reminiscence some of her memorable movies.
Rakhee acted in her 1st Bengali movie, Badhu Baran when she was 20, and she entered the Hindi film industry with Jeevan Mrityu opposite Dharmendra. This movie which had the all-time great song “Jhilmil sitaron ka” straightaway established her in the industry as a top heroine. Her second movie was Sharmilee opposite Shashi Kapoor in which she had a double role. Each and every song of this movie, namely “O meri sharmilee”, “Khilte hain gul yahan”, “Tera mujhse hai pehle ka naata koi”, “Megha chaaye aadhi raat”, “Aaj madhosh hua jaaye re”, and “Kaise kahe hum” were memorable and all-time hits. Rakhee was there to stay.
Advertisement
In interviews, she has said that her favourite heroes were Shashi Kapoor and Rajesh Khanna. She had four movies opposite Rajesh Khanna and as many as ten opposite Shashi Kapoor. She also had many landmark movies opposite Dev Anand and Amitabh Bachchan.
Rakhee was heroine for just 15 years and in those years she had many memorable movies. To name just a few, Kasme vaade, Muqaddar ka Sikandar, Baseraa, Daag and Bemisaal. The list actually is endless. Her last movie as the female lead was Pighalta Aasmaan with Shashi Kapoor. Kasme Vaade is dear to her and she has said in an interview to Times of India “Kabhie kabhie was conceived keeping me in mind”.