Conversations with Waheeda Rehman (5 page)

With Dev Anand in her first Hindi film,
C.I.D.
The film was shot at Kardar Studios, Bombay. Circa 1956. Photograph courtesy: Arun Dutt.

‘How can I call you Dev? You are a big star and my senior.’

But he insisted: ‘No Mr Anand, no Devji, no Anandji, just Dev.’ From that day Dev Saab became Dev.

NMK:
You talked about adding a clause in your contract with Guru Dutt Films about the costumes. Did you face any problems
regarding what you wore in
C.I.D.
?

WR:
There were problems. I had to wear a long skirt with a long-sleeved lace blouse for the song ‘Kahin pe nigahein kahin pe nishaana’. In the scene, I sing to distract the villain from finding the hero, Dev Anand, who is hiding in another room. Shamshad Begum sang the song and Bir Sakhuja played the villain.

The problem was the blouse I was given to wear had no lining and I refused to wear it. Raj Khosla was most irritated. The choreographer Zohra Sehgal tried convincing me: ‘There’s nothing wrong with the blouse. You’re just a kid. In the scene, you’re trying to seduce the villain.’ I said I didn’t know anything about seduction, but what I did know was that I had no intention of wearing a see-through blouse. All the assistants and Guruswamy tried persuading me, so did Bhanu Athaiya who designed the costumes, but my mind would not be changed.

Then they called Guruduttji who was writing
Pyaasa
with Abrar Alvi somewhere in Khandala. The phone lines were terrible in those days. Somehow Raj Khosla got through to him and said: ‘Your girl is too demanding. She is not coming on the set and Dev Anand is waiting. He has to leave for Switzerland and has no time to waste—you know his wife, Mona, is about to give birth.’ Dev’s son Suneil was in fact born in Switzerland in June 1956.

So Guruduttji had to return to Bombay and he came to see me in my make-up room and said: ‘Raj says you have a problem with the blouse. I don’t see anything wrong with it.’ I repeated that it had no lining. He called Bhanu Athaiya who told him it would take half a day to have the blouse altered. Guruduttji was worried because Dev had to leave urgently for Switzerland, so I suggested that I wear a dupatta. And that’s what was decided. If you see the song ‘Kahin pe nigahein’, you’ll notice I’m wearing a dupatta over the blouse.

Raj Khosla told Guruduttji: ‘None of her movies have been
released yet and she is already difficult. If she becomes successful, you’ll be in big trouble. Anyway that’s your problem.’
[we laugh]

NMK:
Both
C.I.D.
and
Pyaasa
were in production at the same time. You must have been aware of the fact that Dilip Kumar was approached to play the role of Vijay in
Pyaasa
, the role that Guru Dutt finally played. Before you were cast as Gulaabo, Nargis was approached to play the part, and the role of Meena was offered to Madhubala.

WR:
It seems Guruduttji did talk to Dilip Saab and warned him that the script could not be changed. Dilip Saab used to sometimes ask for changes. I don’t know how far this is true but that’s what I heard.

People did tell me how lucky I was to get the role of Gulaabo because both Nargis and Madhubala wanted to play her and neither wanted Meena’s role—the role that Mala Sinha played. Maybe they felt Meena was too negative a character while Gulaabo was far more sympathetic.

Because I had a three-year contract with Guru Dutt Films, it was taken for granted that I would act in the films they were producing and that’s how I ended up in
Pyaasa
. I wasn’t given a narration or anything like that. Maybe I was destined to do Gulaabo’s role.

NMK:
No one can imagine any other actor but Guru Dutt as Vijay or you as Gulaabo.

C.I.D
. was released in 1956 and
Pyaasa
in February 1957. Considering they were made at the same time
,
how did you balance the shooting schedules?

WR:
It helped that both films were being shot at Kardar Studios in Bombay. When I had a few days’ break from Raj Khosla’s film, I worked on
Pyaasa
. But I gave priority to
C.I.D
. because Guruduttji wanted it released first.

It was on the sets of
Pyaasa
that I first met Abrar Alvi. As you know Guruduttji and Abrar worked together for years.

NMK:
How was your early experience of working on Raj Khosla’s film? Did you find it difficult?

WR:
To be honest I didn’t know much about camera angles or framing. If Raj Khosla told me he was going to film a big close up and I shouldn’t move, I would stand as stiff as a board and he would say: ‘Why are you rigid? I told you not to move, I didn’t tell you to freeze.’

Sometimes Guruduttji would show me the movement and say: ‘Don’t copy me. I am only explaining the framing. Now you know where to turn and where to look. But do what you feel like doing. I am a man and you’re a woman, so don’t copy me.’

He was very good at helping newcomers. If they decided to use a 75mm lens for a close-up, Guruduttji would tell me to relax: ‘Why have you become like a wooden doll? Whether we
use a 50mm, 75mm or 100mm lens, it should not affect you. Just do what is required of you.’

There was an excellent trolley puller called Aziz. Guruduttji was very particular about his trolley shots, so whenever he wanted a trolley shot, the first person he would call out to was Aziz. He pushed the trolley on the tracks so smoothly, and when he stopped you did not feel the slightest bump or the slightest vibration.

NMK:
Guru Dutt’s trolley shots are his trademark. They’re especially fluid in his songs. I am so glad you remembered Aziz’s contribution.

Coming back to how you went from the sets of
C.I.D
. to the sets of
Pyaasa
—do you remember the first shot you gave for the film?

WR:
It appears at the very end of the song ‘Jaane kya tu ne kahi’. Gulaabo enters the courtyard of her house. I hide behind the wall to see if Vijay is following me. That was my first shot. It was filmed at Kardar Studios and later we shot the whole song on location in Calcutta. I think it took three or four days. We worked at night—from ten o’clock to five the next morning. I forget where we were filming, but I remember there were lots of pillars—it was somewhere near the ghats.

NMK:
Did you spend much time in Calcutta? I am wondering about the other locations in
Pyaasa
.

This still shows the first shot that she gave for
Pyaasa
. Kardar Studios, Bombay, 1956.

WR:
There were some scenes filmed in Calcutta with Guruduttji and Mala Sinha, but I was not needed for those. The scene where Vijay’s fans enter a grand hall to commemorate the anniversary of the poet’s death was actually filmed on the Asiatic Library steps in Bombay, but it was passed off in the story as Calcutta.

And the song ‘Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye’ was filmed at Famous Studio in Mahalaxmi because they needed a large studio floor. Otherwise most of
Pyaasa
was shot on set at Kardar Studios in Bombay.

NMK:
I remember the excellent scene on Park Street in Calcutta where we see the penniless Vijay carrying boxes for a rich seth. The seth looks at Vijay and, under his breath, says something on the lines of: ‘What has the world come to? Even the educated are now working as coolies.’ And then he hands Vijay a coin in payment. But it later turns out that the seth’s coin is counterfeit. The brilliant actor Tulsi Chakraborty who worked with Satyajit Ray plays the seth.

Guru Dutt’s son Arun Dutt kindly let me publish a book of his father’s letters to his mother. In a letter that Guru Dutt sent to Geeta from Calcutta during the filming of
Pyaasa
, he writes of seeing Satyajit Ray’s
Pather Panchali
. Were you at the screening by any chance?

WR:
No. As soon as my song was finished, I went back to work with Raj Khosla. But I must tell you he wasn’t very happy with
my work in his production and had even told Guruduttji: ‘
C.I.D
. will be her last film.’

After ‘Jaane kya tu ne kahi’ was shot, the whole unit watched the rushes in Bombay. For some reason I wasn’t there that day, but I heard Raj Khosla later commented: ‘How is it possible? She is bad in my film and has done such a good job here.’

Guruduttji tried explaining: ‘Raj, she is very raw; you need to handle her right. Maybe she did the song well because she is a dancer. She knows how to give silent expressions. She needs a little guidance because she isn’t familiar with camera angles. When you use a 75mm lens, she gets very stiff. You have to make her relax.’

NMK:
Guru Dutt was clearly more adept at encouraging a good performance from you. Your presence in ‘Jaane kya . . .’ is imprinted on our minds. It’s a brilliant introduction to Gulaabo.

I am thinking of the other
Pyaasa
song ‘Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo’ which is a favourite for many. There have been several interpretations of the song’s significance. Was it a difficult scene to get right?

WR
: Guruduttji must have wondered how to make me convey the right mood. Am I pining for Vijay? What am I feeling?

He knew my father had passed away when I was thirteen and asked me on the day we were going to film the song: ‘Did
you love your father very much? I am sure you were his pet.’

‘Oh yes, I was. I was the youngest in the family.’

He carried on talking about my father. It felt like a casual conversation to me. I didn’t realize what Guruduttji was trying to do.
[laughs]

Then the shot was ready. Just before we were going for a take, he said: ‘You miss your father terribly, don’t you? When you climb the stairs towards Vijay, just think about your father and how much you would like to go to him. How much you miss him.’ That’s how he managed to get the kind of facial expression he wanted me to have for the scene.

That’s how movies are made. Sometimes the emotions of an actor come from a lived experience. This did not happen often. It was more a question of my imagining how the characters would feel if they were faced with a particular situation.

NMK:
Your expression when reacting to the song is perfectly right for the mood and context of ‘Aaj sajan . . .’

WR:
I have always thought my silent expressions were better than my dialogue delivery. I was hesitant. There were no acting schools in my time and I knew very little about how to modulate the voice.

NMK:
Maybe that worked to your advantage because your dialogue delivery has always sounded natural and unrehearsed.

WR:
But dialogue delivery had become more natural in my time.

NMK:
You’re right. It had moved away from a theatrical style of delivery with the new generation of actors who came into Hindi cinema in the late 1940s.

There are many stunning moments in
Pyaasa
—do you have a favourite scene?

WR:
I liked the scene when I go to the publisher’s office after Vijay is assumed to have committed suicide. I give Mr Ghosh all my savings and ask him to print Vijay’s poems.

I also liked the restaurant scene. Vijay hasn’t eaten for days and, while he is eating, the restaurant owner asks for money. Vijay gives him the only coin he has. The owner looks at the coin and says it’s counterfeit. Vijay is shocked and dismayed—it’s the coin that the rich seth had given him on the street. The furious owner asks the waiter to take Vijay’s plate away. I am sitting in another corner of the restaurant and, when I overhear them, I stop the waiter and pay for Vijay’s meal. I sit at Vijay’s table and we talk.

It was a very moving scene.

NMK:
And it has such understated and subtle dialogue too—Abrar Alvi at his best. Gulaabo tries persuading Vijay to continue eating, but he is reluctant to accept her charity. As you say it is a very moving scene with poignant and direct dialogue:

GULAABO:
Toh phir khaana kha lo . . . Tumhen meri qasam.
[Then please eat . . . for my sake.]

VIJAY:
Aap . . . aap apni qasam kyun deti hain mujhe? Aap mujhe theek tarah se jaantein bhi toh nahin.
[For your sake? But you hardly even know me.]

GULAABO:
Khoob jaanti hoon.
[I know you very well.]

VIJAY:
Kaise?
[How?]

GULAABO:
Tumhaari nazmon aur ghazlon se. Jab tumhaare khayaalaat aur jazbaat ko jaan liya, toh ab jaanne ko kya bacha hai?
[Through your poems and songs. If I know your thoughts and feelings—what more is there to know?]