Rakhee Gulzar Birthday Special: Ego, desire and pride separated Gulzar and Rakhee

Whenever I see a couple getting married, I pray to see their marriage last and for their happiness. But at this time when everything seems hopeless, I can also see an increasing number of marriages failing and so I am thinking about the sacred institution of marriage that I remember the wedding of Gulzar and Rakhee.

Gulzar had established himself as a leading poet, writer, and filmmaker. He was almost like a star while Rakhee started her career in Bengali films and married its director Ajay Bose. But the marriage did not last long and Rakhee moved to Mumbai and she managed to make a very good career working with some of the leading Hindi film directors.

Rakhee and Gulzar were two very different people, but what could they do about love? They fell in love and got married on May 15, 1973, in a private ceremony and a reception that could be compared to any of the most star-lit receptions, with many big names from the industry in attendance. A documentary was made on the wedding and reception.

Gulzar was a Punjabi whose original name was Sampurna Anand Singh and Rakhi was from a middle-class Brahmin family of Calcutta. But when you are madly in love, nothing matters, sometimes even God does not matter and this was the truth of Gulzar and Rakhi's love. But...

Gulzar had only one condition before marrying Rakhee. He wanted her to quit acting in films and she willingly agreed. She did not sign any film until the birth of her first daughter Meghna (Bosky). Bosky's birth brought unlimited happiness to Gulzar's life and he told me how he felt that he did not even need any heaven after getting his family.

But, what can one do when ambition and desire do not leave you alone and throw temptations your way? This is exactly what happened with the beautiful actress Rakhee, born to act. Gulzar was out of Mumbai when Yash Chopra offered Rakhee the role of Amitabh Bachchan's girlfriend in 'Kabhie Kabhie'. Rakhee asked Yash for some time and finally surrendered to temptation. She started shooting for the film while Gulzar was still out of Mumbai.

Gulzar heard about Rakhee breaking the promise she made. He came back and didn't make a fuss and within a month the most talked about couple who were madly in love separated. Rakhee left Boskiana (Gulzar had built the bungalow and named it after Boski) and she moved into her own bungalow, Muktangan. Boski was just a few months old and Gulzar and Rakhee decided not to get a divorce considering the little baby, Boski, whom they both loved equally.

After the success of Kabhie Kabhie, Rakhee signed many more films and Gulzar continued his work. However they kept meeting and they visited each other's homes. They shared the same driver whose name was Sunder and Gulzar also went to the airport to drop her and pick her up. They also had dinner meetings together, Rakhee went to Gulzar's office and I was there once when she came to the office and said while looking at Gulzar's ceiling, "What a big poet you are, what films you make, how do you make them? Whenever I look at you, you either blow your nose or look at the ceiling." That one observation made me feel that they might get back together. On another occasion I read a collection of poems written by Gulzar called 'Kuchh Aur Nazmein' and he wrote poems about love so intensely that I wrote him a line and said, "If I were Rakhee, I would have come running to you."

But, my wish was never fulfilled. Gulzar and Rakhee lived separately and are still living in two different places. Gulzar, 85, now lives alone in Boskyana. Rakhee who looks like a pale shadow of her golden days lives alone at her farmhouse in Panvel and has not visited Mumbai for more than two years. And look at the twists of fate, today Bosky lives in 'Cozyhome' with her husband Govind and only son Samay. The cozy home is the same place where Gulzar and Rakhee made their home after marriage.

This bond of marriage is so delicate. Why does man not understand this truth? If the marriage is right, then every relationship in life is right, the relationship of husband and wife, children, and every relationship in the future life. Do not let this bond break, do not let it die, otherwise, life will have no meaning.

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