Happy Birthday Wishes to Most beautiful and Most talented Rekha Ji

Bhanurekha Ganesan (born 10 October 1954), better known by her stage name Rekha, is noted for her versatility and acknowledged as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema.
Rekha appeared as a child (credited as Baby Bhanurekha) in the Telugu film Rangula Ratnam (1966). Rekha made her debut as heroine in the successful Kannada film Operation Jackpot Nalli C.I.D 999 with Rajkumar in 1969. In that same year, she starred in her first Hindi film, Anjana Safar. She had two films released in 1970: the Telugu film Amma Kosam and the Hindi film Sawan Bhadon, which was considered her acting debut in Bollywood. Sawan Bhadon became a hit, and Rekha – a star overnight.  She appeared in several commercially successful films at the time, including Raampur Ka Lakshman (1972), Kahani Kismat Ki (1973), and Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye (1974) Now she began choosing her film roles with more care; her first performance-oriented role came in 1976 when she played Amitabh Bachchan's ambitious and greedy wife in Do Anjaane.
Her most significant turning point, however, came in 1978, with her portrayal of a rape victim in the movie Ghar. In that same year, she attained fame with Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, in which she co-starred once again with Amitabh Bachchan.

In 1980, Rekha appeared in the comedy Khubsoorat, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, with whom she had developed a strong father-daughter bond during their previous collaborations. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Film and Rekha won her first Best Actress award.
In 1981, she starred in Umrao Jaan, a film adaptation of the Urdu novel Umrao Jaan Ada (1905), written by Mirza Hadi Ruswa. Rekha played the title role of a courtesan and poetfrom 19th century Lucknow. Her portrayal is considered to be one of her career-best performances, and she was awarded the National Film Award for Best Actress for it.

In that same year, Rekha starred in Ramesh Talwar's family drama Baseraa, which saw her playing a woman who marries her sister's husband, after the latter loses her mental balance. She appeared as Sadhna in the commercially successful Ek Hi Bhool (1981), opposite Jeetendra, playing the role of a betrayed wife who leaves her husband. In 1982, she received another Filmfare nomination for Jeevan Dhaara, in which she played a young unmarried woman who is the sole breadwinner of her extended family. In 1983, she took the supporting role of a lawyer in Mujhe Insaaf Chahiye, garnering another Filmfare nomination in the Supporting Actress category.
During this period, Rekha was willing to expand her range beyond what she was given in mainstream films. She started working in arthouse pictures with independent directors, mostly under Shashi Kapoor's production, in what was used to be referred to as parallel cinema, an Indian New Wave movement known for its serious content and neo-realism. Her venture into this particular genre started off with Umrao Jaan, and was followed by other such films as Shyam Benegal's award-winning drama, Kalyug (1981), Govind Nihalani's Vijeta (1982), Girish Karnad's Utsav (1984) and Gulzar's Ijaazat (1987), among others.
Apart from parallel cinema, Rekha took on other increasingly serious, even adventurous roles; she was among the early actresses to play lead roles in heroine-oriented films, one such film being Khoon Bhari Maang in 1988. She won her second Filmfare Award for her performance in the film.
The 1990s saw a drop in Rekha's success. Halfway through the decade, Rekha managed to halt her decline when she accepted several highly-controversial films, including Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love and Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996). Another controversial film at that time was Aastha: In the Prison of Spring (1997), where Basu Bhattacharya, making the last film of his career, cast her as a housewife who moonlights as a prostitute.
In the 2000s, Rekha appeared in relatively few movies. She started the decade with Bulandi, directed by Rama Rao Tatineni. The other was Khalid Muhammad's Zubaidaa, co starring Karisma Kapoor and Manoj Vajapayee playing the first wife Maharani Mandira Devi of the King.
In Rakesh Roshan's science-fiction film Koi... Mil Gaya, Rekha played Sonia Mehra, a single mother to a developmentally disabled young man, played by Hrithik Roshan. In 2006, she reprised the role of Sonia Mehra in Krrish, Rakesh Roshan's sequel to Koi... Mil Gaya.
In 2010, Rekha was awarded the Padma Shri, the 4th highest civilian award given by the Government of India. Rekha has also been nominated as a Rajya Sabha member. She currently is the member of the Rajya Sabha (May 2012).