Home / Indian Music Chart / Films at 50: Mystery thriller ‘Mera Saaya’ was a career best for Sadhana
“ Tu jahan jahan chalega, mera saaya saath hoga ( Wherever you go my shadow will follow ) ” : these words from the title track of the movie Mera Saaya have taken on a sadly ironic think of after the death of the contribute actress, Sadhana, on December 25, 2015. Sadhana was a run mention in the ten of the bouffant and the color film set in Kashmir, but she wasn ’ thyroxine good the epitome of hex. An understate and highly competent actress, Sadhana was unfairly underrated as a performer in hurt of her fine sour in such films as Parakh ( 1960 ), Hum Dono ( 1961 ), Asli Naqli ( 1962 ), Woh Kaun Thi ? ( 1964 ), Arzoo ( 1965 ) and, of class, Mera Saaya, which completes its fiftieth anniversary this year. Mera Saaya ( My Shadow ) was Sadhana ’ s third film with the versatile film director Raj Khosla. It is described as the second of the alleged mystery trilogy with the actor, the others being Woh Kaun Thi ?, an adaptation of Wilkie Collins ’ s novel The Woman in White, and the relatively disappointing Anita ( 1967 ). Common between the stand-alone films is the way Khosla most efficaciously uses Sadhana as an enigmatic catalyst who gets the plot moving. In all three films, Sadhana is the samara to solving the cryptic events taking topographic point around the leading men. Mera Saaya is the third base adaptation of the history first seen in the Marathi film Paathlaag ( 1964 ) and then in the Tamil film Idhaya Kamalam ( 1965 ). Thakur Rakesh Singh ( Sunil Dutt ), a lawyer who has gone abroad for higher studies, rushes back home to his ailing wife Geeta ( Sadhana ), who dies in his arms. Shattered, he cremates her, builds a memorial for her and mourns her. One day, the police contact him. They ’ ve arrested a woman from a gang of dacoits who claims to be his spouse. When he meets the woman ( Sadhana again ), he is gobsmacked : she is a abruptly toller for his wife. When efforts to prove her identity land up in woo, she seems to know all the details of their wedded past, including the most intimate ones.

Though a remake the moment time over, Khosla makes indisputable the film bears his trademark stamp. He keeps the narrative fast-paced, particularly in the court scenes. The mystery element holds its own correctly till the denouement. The final explanation is a relative disappointment after a ticket build-up. The film handles the romanticist scenes in the flashback sequences tenderly and fondly, most effectively juxtaposing them with the thriller track and the red herrings scattered across the present. The handling of the song sequences, which were Khosla ’ s big lastingness and a skill he picked up from mentor Guru Dutt, holds up well even today, making bang-up use of the gorgeous Lake Palace in Udaipur that serves as Sunil Dutt ’ second house in the movie. however, the drawn-out drollery chase could have been done away with wholly. It adds little to the movie.

While Sunil Dutt flawlessly plays the devoted conserve mourning for his beautiful wife, it is Sadhana who owns Mera Saaya. Playing her second double role after Woh Kaun Thi ?, she not only looks beautiful but besides brings seemliness, dignity and even cheeky humor to her role as the ideal wife. Some of the photograph of her wedding in the film were taken from her own nuptials .Credit: A still from ‘Mera Saaya.’ Sadhana brings just the right amount of gray and ambiguity to the function of her bad counterpart. It is well one of her better performances, and hardly surprise. Khosla was known in his time, like George Cukor in Hollywood, as a women ’ s film director. not equitable Sadhana, but besides Suchitra Sen in Bambai Ka Babu ( 1960 ), Asha Parekh in Do Badan ( 1966 ) and Chirag ( 1969 ), Simi Garewal in Do Badan, and Nutan in Main Tulsi Tere Angan Ki ( 1978 ) all did highly all right exercise under Khosla ’ randomness direction. The other big star of Mera Saaya besides Sadhana is composer Madan Mohan. In a career studded with memorable music, Mera Saaya is one of his definitive scores. The songs, written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan, are beautifully composed, be it the haunting entitle song, the soulful Aap Ke Pehloo Mein Aakar Ro Diye, the playful romanticist ditty Nainonwali Ne Haay Mera Dil Loota, the extremist romantic Nainon Mein Badra Chhaye or the fresh Jhumka Gira Re. The title song, in particular, stays with you long after the film is over. Picking it as one of her 20 best ever songs for the Hindustan Times newspaper in 2013, Lata Mangeshkar said, “ It ’ s a beautiful composing by Madan bhaiya about yearning for a love one that you have lost. exceptionally touching and cheeseparing to my heart. ”