met Rekha pretty late, many years after she came into films. She was off the press because she had a huge problem with another magazine. I sent her a note and she spoke to me.
She's a very private person. At that time, her mind and body temple fitness regime was in the news and those were the pictures that I shot. The whole article was on her concentration on becoming the body beautiful.The relationship we share through the last 20 years is very beautiful. She is a very nice, sensitive and warm person. Over the years, she has become more beautiful as a human being. And that reflects as a refinement of her presentation.
One can talk of her graph as a crude, loud and fat South Indian girl -- very 'namkeen' as Meena Kumari called her. Meena Kumari had said 'meetha kitna khaoge namkeen bahut khaya jata hai.'
Rekha called her Meena appa. She was friendly with the older lot of actresses. So I think that namkeen quality is very well in its place. But I think somewhere the knocks that life gave her sobered her down. They are a revelation that life is much more than glamour, money and being adored by men.She has led a lavish life with cars, bungalows, making acchar, going to [director] S S Vasan's place for Dassera and getting a little gift there, her mother taking her and her siblings for a samosa treat in the Chennai airport and the endearing family traditions. She enjoyed it all, but with that was a feeling of being neglected when her father Gemini Ganesan moved on to other pastures.Her mother did not have time for her children because she wanted to dedicate her time to her slipping career.One story goes that whenever anybody gave them any gifts, the kids would buy stuff and whatever was left, they'd put them in these acchar jars. They would stuff money there to prevent bad times.Rekha was recalled from boarding school and told that she would have to work. Even then, for about a year, there was no work. They'd dip into these acchar jars, which could hardly be called savings. They were just leftovers from other expenses.Then a time came when she lived her dreams, became a star and was loved by people. The film Ghar changed her. With her signing amount, she bought a house. She said that suddenly she had to do something for the house. She stopped wearing garish clothes and she withdrew into herself. That must've been the time when the external metamorphosis must've taken place.That was the turning point in her life.
Rekha
Rekha
Rekha
Rekha
Rekha
