The femme fatale of the Indian screen, Rekha turns 53 (October 10, 1954) today. Movietalkies wishes her a very happy birthday. There has never been another like her, and there probably will never be. She is the ultimate diva. Rekha's story is the proverbial case of the ugly duckling turning into a swan. Born out of wedlock to popular Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan and Telugu actress Pushpavalli, Bhanurekha, as she was christened, followed in her parent's footsteps and entered the world of films.

She made her debut on the silver screen with the Telugu film Rangula Ratnam in 1966 as a child artiste. She made her debut as a heroine three years later a Kannada film opposite Dr Rajkumar. In 1970, she followed it with the Hindi film Sawan Bhadon. It was a hit and she became a star overnight. But Sawan Bhadon was a hit and she becomes a star overnight. But it was not her acting abilities which she was known for in this period. By her own admission, she was dark, fat and had no clue about styling. The roles that she chose were mostly does that required her to dance or generally look glamorous.She appeared in quite a few hit films as Kahani Kismet Ki, Rampur Ka Laxman and Pran Jaaye Par Vachan Na Jaaye. Her best was yet to come. The transition started when she encountered Amitabh Bachchan. Her first serious attemot at acting came with Do Anjane opposite Bachchan. Then came Ghar in 1978 opposite Vinod Mehra. She was critically acclaimed for her role of a rape victim. An actress had arrived.

She scaled the popularity charts with Muqaddar Ka Sikander in 1978, again opposite Bachchan. The movie was a big hit and so was the Rekha and Amitabh jodi. They went on to do numerous films together like Suhaag, Mr Natwarlal and Silsila. The two were rumoured to be having a torrid affair. Amitabh has never publicly acknowledged it, neither has his wife Jaya, nor has Rekha. She has only gone ahead and given interviews where she has referred to the love of her life as 'he,' and 'him'. Whatever the truth of these rumours, the duo never appeared together on screen after Silsila. But their association definitely left a mark on Rekha. Physically, she had undergone a total transformation.She attributed it to yoga, a nutritious diet, and a regular, disciplined life. Gone too were the gaudy clothes. In its place was the demure saree, with a bun pinned at the nape of the neck, bindi etc. She started looked ravishingly beautiful and grew in stature as an actress by leaps and bounds. The ugly duckling had turned into a swan.

In 1981 came Muzaffar Ali's Umrao Jaan, based on the life of a courtsean. The film was a masterpiece. It is considered to be her best oerformance to date and she won the National Award for Best Actress for this film. Rekha now began to court alternative cinema and its makers. She worked with directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Gulzar and put in a sterling performance in films like Khubsoorat, Kalyug, Utsav, Vijeta, Basera, Ijaazat and Khoon Bhari Maang. She proved that she was a versatile actress and could carry off lightherated roles as well as serious ones.She won the Filmfare Award for her roles in Khoon Bhari Maang and Khoobsurat.

The 1990s saw her career slipping. Rekha insisted on doing glamorous roles and refused to play second fiddle to the younger generation. She worked with Mira Nair in Kamasutra: A Tale of Love and appeared in the commerciallyt successful Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi. She did not want to play the conventional mother roles. So she did some memorable cameos in films like Lajja, Zubeida, Parineeta, Bhoot and Yatra. But she too did succumb finally to good friend Rakesh Roshan and played mother to Hrithik in Koi Mil Gaya and a grandma to him in the sequel Krrish.

The actress has worked with all the actors of her generation, be it Vinod Mehra, Sanjeev Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Rakesh Roshan, Jeetendra, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Farooque Shaikh, Vinod Khanna and Nana Patelar, among others. She has worked in over 180 films and has received numerous awards. She has also received the Lifetime Achievemnet Award by Filmfare in 2003

These days, Rekha lives a solitary life in Bandra along with her faithful seretary of many years, Farzana. Besides her relationship with Bachchan, the actress was believed to be have had affairs with Jeetendra, Vinod Mehra and Kiran Kumar. She was briefly married to Delhi based businessman Mukesh Aggarwal, who committed suicide in 1991.

It is unfortunate that the Hindi film industry has no roles for women above 40, besides that the typical mother or bhabhi role. It is this which has killed the careers of so many great actresses like Rekha and Dimple Kapadia. Like the best of wine, these women have only matured as actresses with time.