Page 10 - Seniorstoday October 2023 Issue

personifies the travails of the innocent Khamoshi (1970):
victims of circumstances not in their Waheeda Rehman
control. played the difficult role
of a nurse in a mental
Guide (1965): care facility. Directed
A role and a by Asit Sen, the film
performance any starred Rajesh Khanna
actress could be as the patient she falls
proud of. In Vijay in love with. After being
Anand’s masterpiece, left heartbroken by her
she plays a dancer, love for a previous inmate of the asylum
Rosie, who leaves (Dhamendra in a guest appearance), the
her nasty husband to strain snaps her fragile mind. She played
be with Raju Guide the role with sensitivity, bringing out the
(Dev Anand) who encourages her dreams compassion and loneliness of the woman,
and her career. Their relationship ends whose sincerity to her duty is taken for
due his alcoholism and neediness, and a granted by the doctors at the hospital.
misunderstanding over money. At a time
when women on screen were supposed Reshma Aur Shera (1971):
to be chaste and submissive, Rosie was a Directed by Sunil Dutt,
firebrand. who played Shera to
Waheeda Rehman’s
Teesri Kasam (1966): Reshma, in this doomed
In Basu Bhattacharya’s love story set in the
debut as director, desert. The two belong
Waheeda Rehman to rival Rajasthani
played a nautanki clans, and their
perfomer, Hirabai, romance can only end
who is touched by the in bloodshed. The stark locations, colourful
innocence of Hiraman, costumes were stunning, and an air of
the bullockcart driver foreboding suffused the film. Waheeda,
(Raj Kapoor), who playing a woman who tries to defy a
traditional, deeply patriarchal society, won
is taking her to the fair where she is to a National Award for her performace.
perform. When men she encounters treat
her as a plaything, Hiraman, unaware of Namkeen (1982):
the ways of the world, offers her affection Gulzar made
and respect. She basks in this, knowing this film about a
that the relationship can go nowhere, and feisty old woman,
that she can never be accepted into normal Jugni, played by
society. The actress gave Hirabai an Waheeda Rehman,
appealing mix of playfulness, strength and who used to be
melancholy. a folk dancer, now lives in poverty in a

10