She’s been known for her ethereal beauty but she also excelled in roles that didn’t just bank on that but showcases her superior emotive skills as well. Here’s presenting a list of her excellent outings as a performer.
Ghar (1978)
Directed by Manik Chatterjee, Ghar talked about rape and its aftermath in a mature and sensible way. Rekha played a young housewife who is brutally raped one day after coming back from a late-night film show. More than the physical trauma, she faces severe emotional stress and the relations between her and her husband, played by Vinod Mehra reach a breaking point. She can’t commit to a relationship with any man after the incident and how the couple get back to normalcy forms the crux of the story. More than the dialogue, its Rekha’s silences which were haunting. She spoke more through her eyes and kept us hooked.
Baseraa (1981)
It was a complicated role to say the least. Rekha plays the younger sister of Raakhee in this Ramesh Talwar directorial. The dilemma is that she was forced to marry her brother-in-law when her elder sister lost her mind. How she deals with the situation when the sister returns to normalcy forms the crux of this tragic drama.
Kalyug (1981)
She stood for Draupadi in this Shyam Benegal interpretation of the Mahabharata. He anguish during the income tax raid, where the raiding officers go through her lingerie is palpable and so is yearning for her younger brother-in-law played by Anant Nag. She brought out all the nuances of a housewife aware of the sexual politics in a joint household and using it to her advantage and managed to make her mark despite the presence of so many good performers like Shashi Kapoor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Victor Banerjee, Nag and Raj Babbar.
This T Rama Rao film had Rekha playing a middle-classed girl who effectively runs her household. She sacrifices her own happiness for the sake of her family and even gets her own beau gets married to her widowed younger sister. It was a five-hankey tearjerker and it was only Rekha’s forceful performance which kept the audience glued to the screen despite the incessant melodrama.
Ijaazat (1987)
It was one of the most mature films directed by Gulzar and revolved around marital discord. Rekha played a woman who misunderstands her husband’s intentions towards his former lover and starts doubting him. Things come to such a boil that she ultimately takes the decision to leave him. The decision takes a toll on his health and he becomes the husk of his former self. Her body language, as a young wife, and later as a middle-class woman changes suitably and the emotional closure she goes through at the end of the film is a lesson in superlative acting.