A year into our marriage, when my wife was in Kashmir
recuperating after the birth of our son, she calls me one evening. She sounded
little fitful. When I asked her the reason, she retorted that she saw a dream
where an older woman was living with me in our flat. Taken aback I told her I
have made a collage of some of my favorite pictures of Sadhana the actress, and
put it up on one of our walls in the hallway. The dream was true in some ways.
Fact is, I’m not just a fan of Sadhana, in that sense. I do
believe with good conviction that I’m in love with her. And it’s not the love
of a fan towards an actress. It’s something more. Something else. Al Pacino says his favorite actress is Julie
Christie- Lara from Doctor Zhivago fame, because she is the most poetic
actress. Same can be said about Sadhana.
She owned a face where invariably one would turn out couple of lines in ode of
her beauty, her subtlety, her femininity. On her mannerism which were her
signet. She is at her enchantress best as a belle in songs like Abhi na jao
chod kar, where in childlike affection she has a tete-a-tete with Dev Anand.
The lyrical prose of the song accentuating the entire mood. I don’t think this
song could have been picturized on any other actress. Or Lag jaa gaale from Woh
kaun thi.
In an age when movies in Hindi film industry were largely
about social issues and aftermath of industrial revolution, and very less
emphasis was on fashion; Sadhana was a
sort of an aberrant. She was nothing less than a fashion icon in her Audrey
Hepburn inspired fringe- which was known in India as Sadhana cut. What better
proof of her sense of style that the tight churidar and mojris she wore in Yash
Chopra’s Waqt are still in vogue. If you happen to have a look at family albums
of 60s and 70s, Sadhana imprint is all over on girls and ladies of the times.
There is a very famous incident that occurred on the set of
her first film, in which she had a small supporting role. She asked the film’s
star Sheila Ramani for autograph. Ramani scribbled ‘One day I will come for
your autograph.’ It was hard to ignore Sadhana’s star potential from very early
on in her career.
Regarding her famous fringe, there is an interesting
anecdote. It was her to-be husband R.K Nayyar, she fondly called as Rummy, who
advised to cover her broad forehead. Those days Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday
with Gregory Peck, had just released. She was promptly sent to a Chinese
hairdresser and thus the famous Sadhana fringe was born.
Being a trend setter that she was, the tight fusion
churidars was her idea to her costume
designer Banu Athiya. One day during the filming of Waqt when Yash Chopra saw
her wearing a sleeveless, gold embroidered kurti, churidar and mojris he
immediately gave a thumbs up to the chic look, stating that it was exactly the
look he wanted for his heroine. That costume can be seen in ‘hum jab simat ke
apki bahon mai agaye’ song, which is shot in Srinagar’s Lalit Grand Palace’s
grandeur gardens.
Sadhana brand had reached to such levels that even her
burkas, that she wore in Mere Mehboob, set off a veiled trend in India back
then.
She had a successful marriage with her first director R.K
Nayyar. A marriage that ended only when R.K Nayyar died suddenly in 1995. A
week before his death he called his wife and in some premonition asked her to
take care of herself after he is gone. Sadhana told him what if she dies first.
R.K Nayyar replied, ‘phir do arthiyan uthegi. I will not be able to survive
without you.’
Sadhana died at the age of 74, on 25th December 2015,
leaving behind a legacy which is hard to fill.
