Conversations with Waheeda Rehman (9 page)

WR:
Many people have asked me if I was related to Rehman Saab because of our surnames. After the release of
Pyaasa
, my mother and I were invited to a number of parties. Rehman Saab was very protective of me and would quietly come and tell us to leave because everyone was drinking and the food was bound to be served very late. He could tell that my mother and I were out of place. Sometimes Rehman Saab asked the hostess to give us dinner in another room. He would advise us to eat and leave discreetly so we did not have to say goodbye to everyone.

I remember Rehman Saab wasn’t comfortable with dialogue lines that started with a ‘k’—like the words
‘kab’
or
‘kyun’
. He would get stuck, and so Guruduttji would ask Abrar to change the line. Guruduttji always found an alternate way of expressing the same mood or feeling. He did not think there was only one way of making a scene work.

Rehman was a very good actor, and after
Pyaasa
he was in great demand for character roles. Like Raaj Kumar, he had a wonderful personality and although they both played lead roles, I think they had greater presence as secondary heroes.

NMK:
Did you know
Chaudhvin Ka Chand
was based on a story by Saghar Usmani called ‘Ek Jhalak’ [A Glimpse]?

WR:
I didn’t know that. Sometime in 1982 or ’83, Rajesh Khanna wanted to remake the film. He asked me to see the film again on video. I said I didn’t have a VCR or a television. He was shocked. We even discussed a possible cast, but he didn’t pursue the idea.

NMK:
I don’t think certain films should be remade.

WR:
I agree. No one would dare remake
Gone with the Wind
.

Ek Phool Char Kaante
was remade with Salman Khan and Karisma Kapoor, but it didn’t do well. Pritish Nandy was thinking of remaking
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
. But the idea was shelved. There was a TV serial based on
Sahib Bibi
. It wasn’t very good.

NMK:
Unfortunately you do not have any scenes with Meena Kumari in
Sahib Bibi
, the Guru Dutt film that came after
Chaudhvin Ka Chand
.

WR:
I wanted very much to do a scene with her. When I asked Guruduttji to work a scene into the story, he said the two women do not meet in the novel. I immediately told him: ‘When I question you about something, you tell me film-makers must have artistic licence, so why not create a situation?’
[laughs]

Jabba keeps asking Bhoothnath about Chhoti Bahu. She is curious about her and I suggested that Bhoothnath could take
Jabba to the haveli so she could see Chhoti Bahu, at least from afar. Guruduttji hummed and hawed and finally said he didn’t think it would work.

NMK:
Did you go on set while Meena Kumari was shooting?

WR:
I did once. They were filming the song ‘Na jao saiyyan chhuda ke baiyan’. Guruduttji was there, even though he was not required for the scene.

By the time we were making
Sahib Bibi
, I had made friends with many people in films. I was ten years younger to Meenaji but we were good friends. When she left her husband Kamaal Amrohi, I suggested she buy a flat in the building where I was living. I thought we could help each other, and so she needn’t feel alone. When I heard she was very ill, I immediately went to the nursing home where she had been admitted. It was somewhere in Chowpatty. She was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver.

Meenaji came with us to the Moscow Film Festival in 1967
when
Teesri Kasam
was nominated in the best film category. Nargisji was a jury member for the children’s film section and Sunil Dutt was there too. They asked the festival organizers to invite Meenaji, and I believe she had some medical treatment in Moscow.

NMK:
Meena Kumari was extraordinary in
Sahib Bibi
. It was such a great film. Do you have a favourite Guru Dutt film?

WR:
Sahib Bibi
is very good and I like it very much. But my favourite is
Pyaasa
. It has such a smooth flow. The story of
Kaagaz Ke Phool
did not have a smooth flow.

NMK:
Pyaasa
and
Sahib Bibi
created a world that felt authentic—as a viewer you could almost imagine living among the people you were watching.

Now this might be an awkward question, but who actually directed
Sahib Bibi
? Was it Abrar Alvi or Guru Dutt? Is it something you can talk about?

WR:
It’s unfair to discuss it since Abrar is no more.
I know Guruduttji did not always come on the sets. He would stay upstairs in his office at Natraj Studios. But he did come down to the set, if Abrar needed him.

When
Sahib Bibi
was being cast, I wanted to do Chhoti Bahu’s role, but Meena Kumari had been cast. So I didn’t think I would be part of the film. Then Abrar came over and told me he was going to direct it. It was news to me. He asked me to do Jabba’s role. I was reminded of Guruduttji’s advice not to play the secondary heroine. I was quite popular by then and so I refused. But Abrar insisted.

Guruduttji called me later and asked if I had agreed to do the film. He said: ‘Rehman has the role of the Sahib, Meenaji is the Bibi and I play the Ghulam. Your role isn’t the lead role.’ I told him I agreed to play Jabba since I didn’t want people to think I had refused because Abrar Alvi was directing the film.

I do recall telling Abrar Saab once that I didn’t understand what he wanted me to do in some scene, and said he wasn’t explaining it to me clearly. I did not complain to Guruduttji, but I think Murthy went and told him that I was finding it difficult.

On location in Panhala for
Bees Saal Baad
, cast opposite Biswajit. The ghost story, a major hit, was released in the same year as
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
. Circa 1962.

NMK:
What about the songs in the film? Who directed them?

WR:
We shot the song ‘Bhanwaraa badaa nadaan haye’ and then the whole unit saw the rushes. Abrar Saab wasn’t there that day.
I felt the shot taking was dull. So we told Guruduttji it was all right if he didn’t want to direct the scenes, but he had to do the songs. He then spoke to Abrar and reshot the song brilliantly. He directed all the songs in
Sahib Bibi
.

NMK:
I wonder why Guru Dutt decided not to sign any film as director after
Kaagaz Ke Phool
. Do you think it was because the film had flopped?

WR:
It is very strange. He never told me he didn’t want to direct any more. You mean he never directed again? What was his last film?

NMK:
Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi
. Shahid Lateef directed it. The last film Guru Dutt signed was
Kaagaz Ke Phool
.

WR:
Is it right for someone to get so disheartened by one flop? Everyone makes films that don’t work.

His sister Lalli [the artist Lalitha Lajmi] told me once that Guruduttji suffered from depression. In the last years of his life he was very confused. We could all see that. He was unhappy. But no one realized just how depressed he was.

He started a film called
Raaz
in which I starred opposite Sunil Dutt. His chief assistant Niranjan was directing it. The story was something on the lines of
Woh Kaun Thi?
. Rehman Saab and I shot many good scenes, but Guruduttji shelved the film. When we asked why, he said:
‘Nahin jam raha hai.’
[It isn’t
working.] Then he started
Gauri
with Geeta who wanted to act. He shelved that too.

NMK:
Sadly none of the footage of the unfinished films exist.

Maybe the failure of
Kaagaz Ke Phool
shook Guru Dutt’s confidence and perhaps unnerved him.

WR:
My husband suffered from depression as well and we didn’t realize it. He started losing interest in everything. He didn’t want to meet people and basically didn’t feel like doing anything.

In the same way, no one knew how Guruduttji was really feeling. His brother Atmaram was not in India at the time. He was very fond of his sister Lalli, and very close to his mother, but I don’t know whether he talked to them about his feelings.

NMK:
There continues to be much speculation about your relationship with him. Everyone assumed that you were in love with each other. Did that cause a scandal when you were making films with him?

WR:
Because his death was a mystery—no one knew for sure whether it was a suicide or an accident—there was much curiosity. His death was such a shock to us all. He was only thirty-nine. He was young. The question everyone asked was:
‘Why did he have to die like that?’

None of my film colleagues have ever asked me personal questions about our relationship. It was always other people and
the press who were curious, and still are, almost sixty years later.

I know we’re public figures, but I strongly believe my private life should remain private. What ultimately matters and concerns the world is the work we leave behind.

NMK:
Maybe it was because he filmed you in such a romantic and loving light that stirred this curiosity—which just doesn’t seem to go away.

WR:
It was true of the way he filmed others too. Don’t you agree with me that Meena Kumari has never looked as beautiful as she did in
Sahib Bibi
?

You must know all directors want their leading lady to look special. I think a director has to be a little in love with his leading actress so he will project her as the most beautiful woman in the world. Considering the kind of romantic stories we make, this is a must.

Guruduttji was good to me and to many people, including Sadiq Saab and Johnny Walker, whom he introduced to films. In fact he was sensitive to everyone’s needs. He helped me in many ways and guided my career. He was caring and protective. But in truth, he looked out for everyone.

NMK:
Do you remember when you worked with Guru Dutt for the last time?

WR:
It must have been in 1961 or 1962. I don’t remember the
exact date—but it was during the filming of the final scene in
Sahib Bibi
. Jabba is waiting for Bhoothnath in a carriage in the haveli ruins. That was the last time we worked together. He never offered me another role after
Sahib Bibi
.

I was in Madras when Guruduttji passed away. I had gone there for a charity cricket match with a group of stars. Dilip Saab was there too. The actress Shammi Rabadi, who is a close friend of mine, came and told me she had some very bad news. She said: ‘Guru Dutt is no more.’ Oh my God, I was completely stunned. I knew he had tried to commit suicide before, but it was still a terrible shock. I immediately flew back to Bombay. This was on 10 October 1964. There were many people at the funeral, including Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. It was a very sad day.

NMK:
Do you recall when you last saw him? Or spoke to him?

WR:
Abrar, my sister Sayeeda and I had gone to the Berlin Film Festival in June 1963 where
Sahib Bibi
was screened. Guruduttji joined us there. No one liked the film in Berlin. They found it slow, despite the fact that a shorter version was screened there on the evening of 27 June. The festival director asked me: ‘If Chhoti Bahu is so unhappy with her husband, why doesn’t she go away with Bhoothnath?’
[laughs]
I said: ‘It doesn’t happen like that in our culture.’

Their culture is totally different. I tried explaining why the aristocrats of that time could do no such thing. In fact, when
Chhoti Bahu steps out of the house for the first time, she is murdered for having broken with tradition. Besides, Chhoti Bahu is not in love with Bhoothnath and neither does he love her—it is her sadness and beauty that fascinate him.

Guruduttji was present at the screening, but he left Berlin the following day.

NMK:
The Berlin Film Festival was held between 21 June and 2 July 1963. So that means you did not meet him for a whole year, and then you heard he had passed away in October 1964. Is that right?

WR:
Yes. The last time I saw him must have been in Berlin. We did not work together after
Sahib Bibi
.

Losing someone is always upsetting. Even though Yash Chopra was eighty his death was a shock to me. I met Yashji at Amitabh Bachchan’s seventieth birthday party about ten days before Yashji passed away. He hugged me and said he was feeling tired and wanted to go home. His wife, Pamela, thought they should stay at the party a little longer. I think Yashji was admitted to the hospital a few days later. The next thing I heard was that he had passed away. I was very sad.