RAJESH KHANNA'S WOMEN http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php...

I found a very interesting article (rather interviw) about Rajesh Khanna's women..It's a must read for Kaka admirers. Pl. locate the second part of this story..

http://www.screenindia.com/fullstory.php...


RAJESH KHANNA - 1987

Bhawana Somaaya
Posted online: Friday, January 30, 2004 at 0000 hours IST
ajesh and I are good friends.’- Anju Mahendru (July ’87).
‘He is the father of my children and a very integral part of my life. He can never be unimportant.’- Dimple (July ’87).
‘After every quarrel, he would inundate me with gifts as if he was courting me all over again.’- Tina Munim (August ’87).
Three beautiful women. Three controversial relationships.
Three complex chapters in Khanna’s life. What is it about Rajesh Khanna, that women who loved and lost him cannot be indifferent to the memory? Why is it that they drag their pasts into the present and discuss him when he’s no more a part of their life? We decided to question the women. Persuading them to talk wasn’t easy. If Anju Mahendru was unsure, Dimple was hesitant and Tina tight-lipped.‘I’m not sure if it’s right to discuss him,’ said Anju, sitting in her plush bungalow in Juhu and swallowing an aspirin to recover from a throbbing headache.‘It’s a controversial subject...’ remarked Dimple in-between shots during a late night shooting of a Rajkumar Kohli film.‘What can I say? Anyway, how will it help...?’ asked a reticent Tina when I contacted her over the phone one Sunday.
I spend long hours with the three women before they were willing to journey into their past and tell a strange story of half-forgotten truths. We flip back the pages of this still-open book to understand the mystique of a man called Rajesh Khanna...
Anju Mahendru: Just one month after Rajesh Khanna left her to marry Dimple Kapadia, Anju called up the ‘Naaz’ theatre to check his box-office popularity. This, for a man who led his baraat past her bungalow, only to spite her. Still, erasing his memory is not as easy for Anju. His perverseness was the other side of his generosity. His cruel moods alternated with his gentle nature. Anju was bohemian and sharptongued,-, a contrast to the diplomatic Khanna. Then what made R.K., the conservative raised in a traditional household, fall in love with the bold, independent model-cum-aspiring actress? The differences resulted in conflicts. Taking it as a challenge, R.K. sought to change his girlfriend. Today says Anju:
‘Basically he is a very orthodox man, yet somehow he always gets attracted to ultra modern girls. I know it’s a contradiction, but then Rajesh Khanna is like that. Confusion was a part of our relationship. If I wore a skirt, he’d snap, why don’t you wear a saree? If I wore a saree, he’d wrinkle his nose and say, why are you trying to project a Bhartiya nari look? Things became worse when stardom found Rajesh Khanna. The champagne-and-roses affair was threatened by the very popularity and success the two had dreamt of. Rajesh Khanna, the heartthrob of millions, never got encouragement from the person he most needed - Anju. Unsure of himself, he’d watch the rushes of his films with her, waiting for praise and appreciation. It never came. Instead, criticism was all he got. Anju refused to become another Khanna sycophant. She refused to see him in any other light than how she had always known him.
Says Khanna now,‘I didn’t expect praise. All I wanted was a nod of approval... A gesture that reassured. But she was always ruthlessly critical.‘I was critical because that’s how I am,’ explains Anju.‘If he was bad, I always said so. Why should I have praised him just to keep him happy? There were plenty around to boost his ego. He has always been sensitive to criticism and I’ve always been very frank.’