On Hema Malini's birthday, a look at her 5 exceptional characters

From being the "Dream Girl" of Bollywood for her exceptional looks to the varied characters that proved her acting mettle on the silver screen, evergreen actor Hema Malini has wowed and entertained the audience in more than 100 projects. As the actor turns a year older on October 16, let's have a look at some of the exceptional characters of her golden career.

The list would be incomplete without Sholay (1975) as the multi-starrer film is arguably one of the greatest bollywood hits of all times. In a movie that featured Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bachchan, Hema Malini effortlessly got into the character of a talkative and pretty Basanti. Also, her character managed to win thousands of hearts, and the dialogue from Sholay, "Yoon ki, yeh kaun bola" was on everybody's lips during those days.

Taking about a legacy of challenging roles, Hema's role in Seeta Aur Geeta (1972) added to the already known fact about her being a brilliant actor and portraying the double role with utmost diligence. Helmed by Ramesh Sippy, the movie showcased Geeta as fierce and an all-rounder, while Seeta was simply the opposite.

In the 1977 film Dream Girl, Hema delivered a performance that was exceptional and adding to it was the fact that she essayed five different characters in the film - Sapna, Padma, Champabai, Dreamgirl, and Rajkumar. She portrayed the role of a girl who steals money in order to maintain a home for orphans.

Satte Pe Satta (1982) is another movie that showcases Hema Malini's acting mettle. Featuring an ensemble star cast, including Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Amjad Khan, Shakti Kapoor and others, the film has Hema essay the character of Indu who has a mix of emotions -- love, anger, and support. Even though the film was about seven brothers, the actor's performance stood out and did not let her co-stars over-shadow her.

Though Hema paired maximum with husband Dharmendra during their heydays, her much-loved pairing with Amitabh was back in the last decade as elderly parents in Baghban (2003). Hema, through her role Pooja Malhotra, proved that she can look gorgeous even as an elderly mother and that her acting skills can never get old.

(ANI)

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