Rajesh Khanna - A star is born

Aradhana means to worship. It was time to worship Rajesh Khanna. The boom of Rajesh Khanna had started and he was unstoppable. Aradhana was about a young Indian Air force officer Arun (Rajesh Khanna) who falls in love with a girl Vandana (Sharmila Tagore) & dies in an accident leaving behind a pregnant Vandana who will have to weather the storm in order to raise her child.

The film was directed by Shakti Samanta and music composer was S.D.Burman. The film is was a musical success. It begins with a song "Mere Sapno Ki Rani " with Sujit Kumar playing the mouth organ. Sharmila is seeing traveling on a train. The actual shooting of Sharmila's part happen on a studio at Mumbai. We do see Sharmila reading a book written by Alistair Mclean named "Where Eight Bells Toll". The book which was launched in 1967 & shown immediately in 1969 in Aradhana. Aradhana was a musical tribute from Burman dada and one song after the other was a hit.

Roop Tera Mastana became a superhit. The song got a go ahead on the first take. One cannot miss the subtle hand moments of Sharmila Tagore when Rajesh Khanna is romancing her. The way she moves her fingers behind her ears & also on her face looks feminine. I think it is only Sharmila Tagore who can add those finer touches which can be easily missed by an average viewer. I felt Sharmila was one actress who used her fingers stylishly, after  Nargis. The subtle moments of those fingers add that flavor to the romanticism. 

One of other favourite song was " Kaho ko Roye, Safal hogi teri Aradhana" which showed the minimalism of SD Burman. Burman dada had asked for 11 musicians, Rd was suggesting 12. However, before Burman dada came to the recording studio it was ensured that there were only 11 musicians. SD Burman who believed in great things can be made with simplicity. "Kora Kagaz Tha Yeh Man Mera" and "Gun Funa Rahe Hai Bhanvare' were other light romantic songs.

Aradhana was a blockbuster in 1969 and saw huge success in India and Soviet Union. If regression and statistics be used, Aradhana would have easily collected 805 crore INR in 2016. Rajesh Khanna aura was unimaginable. His female fans used to kiss his car from all directions, the most affected area been the handle of his car rear door. There was an assumption that Rajesh Khanna would touch the door on which his female fans had showered kisses. He stopped using white cars for sometime and preferred dark color cars. The fans were completely crazy and they started applying the dust on kaka's car on their forehead, as if it was Sindoor. A superstar was born and was to stay though he didn't get a Filmfare award for Aradhana. Shakti Samanta, Sharmila Tagore, and Kishore kumar bagged Filmfare awards for best film, best actresses and best playback singer respectively. "Aradhana" open the floodgates for Rajesh Khanna's in his journey of 15 consecutive solo hits.

Written by : Tejas Marathe