Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore.
Rajesh Khanna had been extremely popular in the 70s and most of his films stormed bollywood with their strong storyline and powerful music. His films with Sharmila Tagore had been very very successful.
His film Aradhana, in 1969 had been a big hit. It was directed by Shakti Samanta and he was given a double role. Sharmila Tagore was sublime in her performance in the film which involved tragic performance. The music composed by SD Burman in the film became successful. Kishore Kumar’s song “mere sapno ki rani”, “roop tera mastana” became superhit. Also Rafi’s song “gunguna rahi hai bhawar” became hit.
The film Amar Prem, directed by Shakti Samanta was also successful. It was the hindi version of Uttam Kumar’s Bengali film Nishi Padda, where Sabitri Chatterji played the role which was played by Sharmila Tagore in Amar Prem. The film was related to tawafis and their life and it was shown that many of them led such a form life because of circumstances. The songs in the film were composed by RD Burman and they were extremely successful.
Some of the songs lint her film like “kuch to log kahenge”, “chingari koi bharke” have not lost their flavour and popularity even today.
The other successful films include Daag and Safar. Safar was the hindi version of the Bengali film Chalachal where Arundhuti Debi played the role that Sharmila Tagore in the hindi version. Rajesh Khanna was a painter in the film and was loved by Sharmila Tagore. The music in the film composed by Kalyanji Anadji became extremely successful. Songs like “zindagi ka safar” sung by KK became super hit. It was ably directed by Asit Sen.
They also acted in the film Avishkar which was off-beat film.
The films and the songs should be restored for the next generation.
