Raakhee Gulzar ( Majumdar; born 15 August 1947), professionally known as Raakhee, is an Indian actress who has appeared in Hindi and Bengali films. In her four decades of acting, she has worked in more than 100 films. Raakhee has won several awards including two National Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards. In 2003, she received Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award.
Raakhee made her film debut with the Bengali film Badhu Bharan (1967). She had her first Hindi film with Jeevan Mrityu (1970). Raakhee's career marked a turning point with Aankhon Aankhon Mein (1972), Daag: A Poem of Love (1973), for which she won her first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress, and 27 Down (1974). She won her first and only Filmfare Award for Best Actress for Tapasya (1976). She went on to establish herself as one of the leading actresses of Hindi cinema with films like - Kabhi Kabhie (1976), Doosra Aadmi (1977), Trishna (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Jurmana (1979), Shakti (1982), Ram Lakhan (1989), for which she won her second Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress, Baazigar (1993), Karan Arjun (1995), Border (1997), Ek Rishtaa: The Bond of Love (2001) and Shubho Mahurat (2003). For the last of these, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Raakhee married poet, lyricist and author Gulzar in 1973 with whom she has a daughter, writer and director Meghna Gulzar. In 2022, she was placed in Outlook Indias 75 Best Bollywood Actresses list.
Early life
Raakhee was born in a Bengali family at Ranaghat in the Nadia district of West Bengal in the early hours of 15 August 1947, just hours after the independence of India. She received her early education in a local girls' school. Her father had a flourishing shoe business in his native village of Kushtia located in Meherpur, East Bengal which was then a part of Nadia district of undivided India (modern-day Bangladesh), before the partition of India, and thereafter he settled in West Bengal. Whilst still a teenager, Raakhee had an arranged marriage to Bengali journalist/film director Ajay Biswas, which ended shortly afterwards.
At the start of her film career, she dropped her surname and was mentioned in film credits only as "Raakhee", by which name she attained stardom, but upon marrying lyricist-director, Sampooran Singh Kalra professionally known as Gulzar, she took his pen name as her surname and is credited thereafter as Raakhee Gulzar.
Career
In 1967, the 20-year-old Raakhee acted in her first Bengali film Bodhu Boron and Baghini, after which she was offered the lead role in Rajshri Productions' crime thriller Jeevan Mrityu (1970) opposite Dharmendra.
In 1971, Raakhee played a double role opposite Shashi Kapoor in the musical romance Sharmeelee, and also starred in the dramas Lal Patthar and Paras; all three films emerged as commercial successes and she quickly established herself as a leading actress of Hindi Cinema. Shehzada (1972) opposite Rajesh Khanna and Aankhon Aankhon Mein (1972) opposite a relative newcomer Rakesh Roshan showcased her comic abilities, though their box office returns was unsatisfactory. In 1973, she continued to display versatility even in relatively small roles in the romances Heera Panna and Daag: A Poem of Love, with her strong performances, earning her first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter. In 1974, Raakhee won a Special Souvenir prize at the National Film Awards for 27 Down. The Telegraph commended her "nuanced take on an independent working woman who has more steel in her than the film’s flawed protagonist – truly a break from the synthetic women in films of the era".
In 1976, Raakhee had a career peak after starring in two movies that garnered her widespread acclaim. The first was Yash Chopra's Kabhie Kabhie, for which she earned her second Filmfare Award nomination for Best Actress. The film had been written with Raakhee in mind, and she had agreed to do it during the making of Daag. Citing her as having "one of the most gorgeous faces to have been seen on the Hindi screen", Filmfare magazine retrospectively called it "a perfect ode to her exquisiteness: Her wine eyes, a prism of myriad emotions. Her poignant voice holding back the surging sadness. She played the beautiful muse, whose parting leaves poet Amitabh Bachchan devastated. [The film] threw open a second innings for the actress who then went on to star in blockbusters that left critics overwhelmed and art house actors envious. From initially being compared to actress Nimmi, given her hazel eyes, and later to Meena Kumari, given her proclivity towards the tragic, Raakhee cut through it all to stand apart".