Memories of Star Actor Rajesh Khanna | Wafaa Movie Review
Rajesh Khanna’s birthday this year on December 29 (he shares it with his daughter Twinkle, albeit they were born 31 years apart). And it’s distressing to see that in the 66th year of his life, the star has been gifted with brickbats rather than bouquets for the lurid love scenes in his latest release, Wafaa.
Rajesh Khanna 1970
Khanna was the box office behemoth for five years after breaking through with two blockbusters Aradhana and Do Raaste released in the last two months of 1969. In 1970, he consolidated his position with a further string of successes The Train, Sachha Jhootha, Safar, Kati Patang and Aan Milo Sajna.
He may be down for the count currently; but I choose to remember Khanna as the Bollywood style film-star nonpareil in Shakti Samanta’s Amar Prem (intoning “Pushpa, I hate tears”) or Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand (laughing at death with a twinkle in his eyes and booming ‘Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin’).
In 1969, two non air-conditioned theatres, Roxy and Opera House, which were a stone’s throw from each other, were showing two runaway Rajesh Khanna hits Aradhana and Do Raaste. The former paired him with the stylish and sexy Sharmila, while Do Raaste co-starred the pug-nosed phuljadi, Mumtaz.
My elder brother Gopal would woo his girlfriend, whom he eventually married, by playing the romantic anthem of the day, ‘Mere sapnon ki rani kab aayegi tu’ so loudly in our eighth-floor balcony she could hear it in her second-floor balcony in the opposite building. One of the high points of my grandmom’s life was Rajesh Khanna touching her feet to seek blessings at his friend Raj Bathija’s sister’s wedding.
Years later, Khanna encapsulated this phase beautifully. “I always thought of myself as an actor … somewhere along the way I became a superstar. Super success is mind-blowing. It psyches you totally.”
For some years, the only name that ricocheted from every corner of the nation, was Rajesh Khanna. Whether he was balancing his glares on the tip of his nose and crinkling his eyes or wearing broad belts over left-untucked shirts, he was the trendsetter.
Dec 17th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
WISHING A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA WHICH IS FALLING ON 29-12-2009. MANY MANY HAPPY RETURNS ON THE OCCASION HIS COMING BIRTHDAY.
SUPER STAR RAJESH KHANNA – The Cary Grant of India.
Rajesh Khanna irrevocably impacted Indian cinema and culture like no actor before him. His acting perfection and application of talent were drawn solely from his inward vision. Khanna did not cultivate the phenomenal attributes that created his “superstardom” by reason or will, but through the connectedness to his own persona that the masses then idealized. For he is one who is impervious as to who is ahead and who is behind. Khanna’s inward vision, a special gift from the divine leads him always. Today he is the indomitable and highly respected veteran of one hindred and fifty films. For me, he is like the Cary Grant of India. Both actors are Capricorns that have played the widest variety of roles without ever bankrupting the fascination of the audience. Khanna is the platinum standard for landmark performances and sheer screen presence. Ever since the camera discovered his photogenia it has been having a love affair with it. His Byronic inspirations of romance as autographed elegantly on screen endure. Rajesh Khanna is a lovemark because he kindles our affections at the highest denominators and that is a life nobly lived means.