With Guide (1965), she reached the peak of her career. Though the novelist R.K. Narayan on whose book it was based, disowned the film, he had no complaints with Waheeda's performance as Rosie. It was a daring role to play, of a woman who leaves her stifling impotent husband and lives with her lover, a guide who helps her in her ambitions to become a famous dancer. It is to Waheeda's credit that she was able to humanize Rosie to get the viewer's sympathy with her. Whether breaking the metamorphic pot of social constraints or dancing precariously over a ledge in keeping with her dangerous new desires, Waheeda was outstanding in the film.

After Guide, Waheeda's career graph was strange to say the least. Her commercial successes Ram Aur Shyam (1967) and Pathar ke Sanam (1967) hardly challenged her histrionic ability and the films that did so - Teesri Kasam (1966), Khamoshi (1969) and Reshma Aur Shera (1971) bombed at the box-office in spite of some of her best work as an actress.

In 1974 Waheeda married Kamaljeet, a businessman, who had tried his luck in films in the 1960s and failed, and moved to Bangalore. She turned to character roles, often playing Amitabh Bachchan's mother (Bachchan has always cited her to be his favourite actress) but in the 1980s and 90s, she gradually cut down on film work, busying herself with marketing her brand of breakfast cereal while leading a contented life on her farmhouse in Bangalore.

Her last film was Lamhe (1991). (Although a long delayed old film Ulfat ki Nayi Manzilein made it to the theatres in 1994) In Lamhe, director Yash Chopra paid her the ultimate tribute by getting her to dance to her Guide hit Aaj Phir Jeene ki Tamanna Hai!

Today after eleven years she is back playing mother to Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan and Abhishek Bachchan in Anupam Kher's Om Jai Jadgish