GULZAR NE HEMA MALINI KO ACCHI ACTRESS BANAANE KI LAAKH KOSHISHE KI, LEKIN ..... By Ali Peter John

Gulzar has been accepted and rejected as a poet, writer, director, dialogue writer, song writer and a " painter of films " , but he will always be remembered as writer who created some of the best female characters and filled them with life with some of the best actresses who were always at their best even when they worked in minor roles in some of his films - Ali Peter John

As a regular watcher of Gulzar's films, some of which have been landmarks and masterpieces, I have seen him at his best when he has worked with actresses like Meena Kumari, Rekha, Waheeda Rehman, Shabana Azmi, Sharmila Tagore, Suchitra Sen, Mousumi Chatterjee, Deepti Naval, Kiran Vairale, and Tabu besides many other major and minor actresses like Farida Jalal, Anuradha Patel and countless others

But, whenever history takes a serious look at his films, it will see how he has had all his trust in Hema Malini to play some of the most difficult characters and how she has gone out of her way to break her image as a dancing woman and a glamorous woman and how she has got the characters written by Gulzar alive.

Gulzar and Hema first came together in "Khushboo" in which Hema was teamed with Jeetendra and the entire rustic tale was told against the beautiful locales of Goa shot by the brilliant cinematographer K Vaikunth who was also the cinematographer of "Sholay" in the initial stages.

The film was not a great success, but both Hema and Jeetendra received recognition for their talent as actors and the film was the first time that Hema was recognised by even the most hard critics for her performance.

Hema made a guest appearance in Gulzar's "Kinaara " again with Jeetendra, but the film could not make the same kind of impact that "Khushboo" could .

Gulzar who had the knack of hypnotising actresses with his narration then talked Hema into playing all the thirteen major characters in a T V serial called " 13 Panne " in which Hema played 13 historical characters and excelled in all of them and the serial is remembered as a classic like the classic characters Hema played in it.

But, the magic of Gulzar and Hema faced the toughest test when they decided to join their talent again in "Meeraa" in which Hema put all that she had at stake and gave up some of her major assignments to do justice to her role. .

"Meeraa " was the most ambitious, expensive and risky film of the time and all time. No film based on the life of Meeraa had succeeded at the box office, but Gulzar was adamant and made his producer Pemjee ( the most powerful and popular secretary of Dilip Kumar) go with him and the two men made the film with all their conviction ....

But, "Meeraa" proved the age old saying true again. It flopped miserably and did not have any audience on the first day itself.

Gulzar and Hema Malini are good friends, but have not worked together again after Meeraa.

Premjee fell seriously sick and died after the flopping of "Meeraa ". And Pandit Ravi Shankar, the world renowned sitarist vowed not to score music for a Hindi film again.

Some teams are destined to both create history and destroy some pages of history.

I am sure Gulzar and Hema will remember the days when they worked together and when they worked to wreck together