Aradhana

<p>officer Arun Varma sings ” ” in an open jeep winding along , ‘s hills with his co-pilot Madan. At the same time, Vandana, the daughter of Dr Gopal Tripathi casts glances from a train window, which Arun notices. Upon multiple meetings over a few days, they fall in love and get engaged. Excitedly, they secretly wed in a temple without rituals, only exchanging garlands, with God as the only witness, however they plan to get married in a formal ceremony in front of their relatives and friends. As it rains heavily, they take refuge in a shelter with a flickering fire, leading to them becoming intimate. Arun tells her not to be ashamed of their intimacy as they have accepted each other in every way in front of god. He promises to be back in some time to get married. Within days, Arun dies in a plane crash. Vandana discovers that she is pregnant. Arun’s family is unable to accept her as a daughter-in-law. Her father also dies, leaving her destitute. Vandana’s son is born and named Suraj. She puts him up for adoption hoping to adopt him the next day legally but she is forced to let a childless couple adopt him. Determined to be a part of his life, she accepts the role of being his nanny. One day, her employer’s brother-in-law, finding her alone in the house, attempts to molest her but Suraj rescues her by stabbing him to death and runs away. When the police arrive, Vandana takes the blame for the murder and is arrested. Years later when Vandana is released, the jailor takes her to his home and introduces her to his daughter Renu. Vandana soon meets Renu’s love, Suraj. He is the image of his father and a pilot too. He has the sensation of having seen Vandana before but his memories are fleeting. Anxious that the true story of his parents may cause him pain, Vandana tries to hide away. Suraj is injured in an air crash like his father but survives. While he is recuperating in the hospital, Vandana meets Madan. He knows the truth of Arun and Vandana’s romance and is anxious to tell Suraj all but Vandana fears the consequences. One day idly looking through papers in the room while waiting for Vandana, Suraj finds Arun’s photo. A sudden realisation that Arun and Vandana are his true parents becomes clear. He recognizes his mother’s sacrifices and celebrates her strength and courage. The film was scripted by . The theme of the movie was based on the 1946 film . A day prior to the shooting of , producer Surinder Kapoor showed Samanta his latest film, with as the lead, which was also written by Sachin Bhowmick. Much to his surprise, this film had a similar ending to his own film. The following day, Samanta decided to scrap his film, when writers and Madhusudan Kalelkar visited his office. Upon hearing the issue, it was Gulshan Nanda who suggested to have a double role of father and son in the film. Originally, the first hero was to die by the interval and a new hero was to step in. The same evening, while was being cancelled, Nanda recited a story of to Samanta, which he instantly liked, so for the next couple of hours they first rewrote the second half of , and subsequently went on to discuss . The “Roop Tera Mastana” song sequence, which lasted more than three minutes and 30 seconds, was filmed in a single take. Sharmila Tagore believes this was done due to time constraints. Shakti Samanta reminisces in an interview that he suggested to Rajesh Khanna that he mimic in his second role as a son. He did and it clicked. The soundtrack of the film was composed by , with lyrics by . Sachin Dev Burman had written the music for the songs of . Rahul Dev Burman was the Assistant Music Director in this film. His main work was on arrangement, background score and improvising some tunes to singer and helping his father in the processings. All the tunes were composed by Sachin Dev Burman. Sachin Dev Burman himself was instrumental in putting up for the rising star . In “Roop Tera Mastana”, played the , played the , played the and Buji Lord played the . This track was also reused in Tamil Remix Version as “Jean Pants” sung by and Stylebhai. estimated worldwide gross: ( ). Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to in 2017, or (US$190 million) in 2023. In terms of estimated , it sold ticket sales in India and , for a combined tickets sold worldwide. had a large impact on Indians in general. It inspired many to take up films as a vocation, one of them being the popular Indian actor , who confessed in an interview that he headed to after being impressed watching Rajesh Khanna in in 1970.</p>