REKHA --- A Tragic And Untold Saga…………

Part-II [Failure in love life]

"I am in love with someone I haven’t met. It is a perfect image in my mind. I have had much more than love, such intense feelings overflowing and coming out of each hair and cuticle in my body. If it hasn’t happened in real, it has been so strong in my imagination."-- Rekha

Rekha and her late husband in happier times

1991:  Just a year after their marriage, Delhi-based businessman Mukesh Aggarwal  hanged himself from fan by tying a dupatta (supposedly of Rekha). He dealt in Niki Tasha kitchenette cooking ranges.

Rekha’s love life has been of national interest for three decades. Her marriages, affairs and rumours of affairs have consumed enough pages to fill a library. And Rekha has continued to stoke stories by seemingly carelessly dropped hints and dramatic looks in public places. But despite endless speculations and an unauthorised biography, the truth remains elusive. What is known is Rekha has had two failed marriages...

 In 1990, Rekha married Delhi-based industrialist Mukesh Aggarwal. A year later—while she was in the US—he committed suicide, after several previous attempts, leaving a note, "Don't blame anyone". She was pilloried by the press at that time, a period which one journalist termed as "the deepest trough in her life." She was on the verge of divorce when her second husband Mukesh Agarwal committed suicide.

The months that followed were harrowing—she was labelled a murderer and posters of her film Sheshnaag were defaced. But Rekha says she emerged stronger from the crisis: “I grew up then to become the eternal child that I am today. I have never questioned life again. I am absolutely, unconditionally open to anything.”

She was rumoured to have been married to actor Vinod Mehra in 1973, but in a 2004 television interview with Simi Garewal she denied being married to Mehra referring to him as a "well-wisher”.

Amidst the post-mortem of rekha’s love life and not mentioning about her much publicized love affair with Amitabh Bachchan, would be like coming to Gujarat and not having the gujarati thali!(relax,relax,I havn’t taken Mr.Bachchan’s post as the ambassador of Gujarat tourism :P)

Amitabh and Rekha, in a still from the movie Silsila

The two acted together and the reel-life chemistry they shared was stunning. And most people believe that bond was strong in real life, too. But did they ever share a love that could have shaken his marriage? We are still wondering about that one. It is not that there were no signs of ‘pyaar-vyaar’ between Rekha and Amitabh. It is said to have begun on the sets of Do Anjaane, the film that debuted Rekha’s transformation from raw and fat South Indian starlet to polished and gorgeous B-town star and showed that Bachchan could indeed bring in the audiences. And success was a given after that, with Khoon Pasina, Ganga Ki Saugandh, Suhaag, Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Ram Balram and Mr. Natwarlal, to name just a few. Many had already suspected that the couple was spending more time alone, away from the sets, with regular trysts off the sets, though no one who really knew all the facts has ever talked about it. The relationship, and the reactions to it from AB’s wife Jaya, were evocatively caught on celluloid in Silsila (1981), their last film together. It is said that Rekha realized that there was no future in it, since Jaya would not let Amitabh go, and she would always be the ‘other woman’, a story that her own mother’s life had already lived.

 "Never expect; always give the benefit of doubt; give better than your best; be open to everything; don’t expect the worst but if it happens, embrace it; do your karma by giving but never let the person know; never crush your creativity; don’t live life with blinkers on; and learn at least one new thing every day."

This is what life had done to Rekha ….and all she can do is sing like never before,"Yeh kahan aa gaye hum, you hin saath saath chalte….”.

In the next post:

Hey, all you ardent Aamir Khan fans out there, dont miss out the post "Aamir Khan: Satyamev Jayate?" as you'll be exposed to some really startling revealations about Mr. Perfectionist, till then..HAPPY READING :):)