Aradhana (1969)

Dashing pilot Arun romances Vandana Tripathi, and both in love with each other, become very intimate, and as a result Vandana gets pregnant. Arun and Vandana have a quiet temple wedding ... See full summary »

Director:

Shakti Samanta

Writers:

Sachin Bhowmick (screenplay), Sachin Bhowmick (story),

Stars:

Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Sujit Kumar

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rajesh Khanna	...	Arun / Suraj Prasad Saxena
Sharmila Tagore	...	Vandhana Tripathi
Sujit Kumar	...	Madan Verma
Farida Jalal	...	Renu
Anita Dutt	...	Mrs. Prasad Saxena (Woman in the silhouette)
Madan Puri	...	Prison Warden
Ashok Kumar	...	Air Commodore Ganguly
Abhi Bhattacharya	...	Ram Prasad Saxena (Man in the silhouette)
Asit Sen	...	Sitaram
Manmohan	...	Shyam
Pahadi Sanyal	...	Gopal Tripathi (as Pahari Sanyal)
Master Puran
Master Shahid
Dulari	...	Lady Doctor
Sadhana Patel

Storyline

Dashing pilot Arun romances Vandana Tripathi, and both in love with each other, become very intimate, and as a result Vandana gets pregnant. Arun and Vandana have a quiet temple wedding ceremony, and Arun leaves to re-join his duties. Unfortunately, Arun is killed, and Vandana is unable to convince anyone of her marriage with him, and as such must re-locate to hide her shame. She gives birth to a baby boy, who she must place in an orphanage, and then adopt. Unfortunately for her, the boy, Suraj, is adopted by someone else. She manages to find out their whereabouts, and gets a job as a servant. When she is about to be molested by Shyam, a relative, Suraj witnesses this, and kills him. Vandana takes the blame for this killing and is sentenced to imprisonment, leaving her son and her life behind, for a crime she did not commit. When she returns everything has changed, and she is unable to locate the family where her son was.

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Plot Keywords:

pilot | love | imprisonment | wedding | pregnancy | 

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Genres:

Drama | Musical | Romance

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

27 September 1969 (India)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shakti Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

169 min

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Shakti Samanta was shooting the song Mere Sapno Ki Rani, he couldn't get combined dates from Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore. Sharmila Tagore couldn't make it to Darjeeling and so only Rajesh Khanna's portions were shot, showing him driving the jeep across the hills. Sharmila Tagore's footage was separately shot in Mumbai where a train set was erected in a studio. The two footages were later edited together to appear as if in the same frame.

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Goofs

In the opening song sequence , Sharmila Tagore is seen reading a book while seated in the train. The book's name is When Eight Bells toll, a thriller novel written by Alistair Maclean published in the year 1966. The film was released in 1969, so it is clear that the flashback was shown in a time which was actually a "flash-forward", which is impossible.She should have been shown reading The Heart of the Matter (1948), a novel by the English author Graham Greene.

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Connections

Remade as Kannavaari Kalalu (1974)

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Soundtracks

"Kora Kaagaz Thha Yeh Man Mera"
Sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar
Music composed by Sachin Dev Burman
Lyrics by Anand Bakshi

User Reviews

to each his own

Let me start by saying that this is a masterpiece and arguably Rajesh Kahnna's best film ever along with Anand. The music is legendary and this was also Kishore Kumars comeback movie after actor Om Prakash had cursed him because Kishore would not act in his m ovie. The story about a girl (Sharmila) who falls in love with an army afficer (Rajesh Khanna) who dies while leaving her pregnant was unique in Bollywood. Especially the entry of her son after approx 20 years (also Rajesh Khanna) and the moving climax. I love classic movies and watch black and white movies regularly. Big was my surprise when i saw the movie TO EACH HIS OWN - a black and white gem of a movie in which a girl gets pregnant by an army officer who dies, she has to give up the child and meets him approx 20 years later. But believe it or not the climax of this movie is even better than Aradhana and they don't even use a song like Chanda Hai Tu. You must watch this gem of a movie.