Killer gaze that felled women

Rajesh Khanna was India's first superstar — and original female heartthrob. When the cameras captured his twinkling smile, gentle nods and rosebud lips, women went wild. Good girls screamed in ecstasy, whistled, moaned, even fainted. What was it about Khanna — not too tall, certainly not slim, occasionally sporting problem skin — that drove women mad?
"He peered deeper inside women that anyone before had," says Santosh Desai, social commentator."He made the notion of romance much more real. He honoured the woman as a person, not an idea, different to heroes before who were basically romancing themselves."
Portraying the intimate sexiness of a man looking into a woman's eyes, mouths about to kiss — before the obligatory cut to a bee on a bud — Khanna conveyed more. Writer Pritish Nandy comments, "With him came the very centrality of cinema to our lives. Actors before — Ashok Kumar, Balraj Sahni — were film heroes.
Rajesh Khanna was a hero of public life."Exactly why is a mystery, says Desai. Analysing Khanna's 'Guru' shirt, Desai says "It's an unspectacular garment with little ornamental value. But it became a rage! It was so typically Rajesh Khanna! Perhaps his most interesting quality was how he made something ordinary become magical. An alchemic transformation happened to everything in his presence... Kati Patang, Aradhana — they're mawkish, weepy films, hardly Deewar, a movie with a resonant theme. Yet, they sparked a hysterical following. When he said, "Pushpa, I hate tears", what was important was 'Pushpa', not 'I hate tears'. He recognized the woman before him. That was magical."
Nandy adds, "He had a quality we lost thereafter — the androgynous hero, someone who could cry and make you cry. After Khanna, the heroes were all-male. Bachchan, for instance, angrily took on the system. But Khanna was fun-loving with a feminine side. Women liked that."
Writer Ira Pande differs. "He may've been the ultimate behenji hero. They saw the boy-next-door in him, in that cheeky persona, he symbolized a lot of the frustration of the 1960s — just Roop Tera Mastana shook students who dreamt of having the courage to do what he was doing." Filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor says, "Many men said they joined the Air Force because of Aradhana."
BEST OF KHANNA
1. Aradhana (1969): Created Hindi cinema's first superstar
2. Sachcha Jhootha (1970): Won him a Filmfare for twin roles in Manmohan Desai's superhit
3. Anand (1971): Won a Filmfare. As a dying cancer patient, he milked every tear
4. Bawarchi (1972): Khanna revelled in the role of a cook
5. Amar Prem (1972): He played a drunk Bengali bhadrolok
6. Aavishkar (1973): Played insecure husband, won third Filmfare award
7. Avtaar (1983): In the role of an aging businessman, he delivered one of the biggest blockbusters
Listen to Rajesh Khanna's evergreen hits