Trailer
Plot summary
Arun, an Indian Air Force officer, spots Vandana from his jeep while she watches from a train window in the hills of Darjeeling, and their meetings turn into love and an engagement. They wed secretly in a temple, exchanging garlands with no rituals, and plan a formal ceremony later. Arun dies in a plane crash within days. Vandana learns she is pregnant, but Arun's family will not accept her as his widow, and her father's death leaves her with nothing. She gives birth to a son, Suraj, and places him in adoption, hoping to claim him legally the next day. A childless couple takes him instead, so Vandana becomes his nanny to stay near him.
Cast
- Anita Duttas Mrs. Prasad Saxena
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Aradhana (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A day before shooting began, producer Surinder Kapoor showed director Shakti Samanta his film Ek Shrimaan Ek Shrimati, written by Sachin Bhowmick with Shashi Kapoor in the lead, and its ending matched Aradhana's. Samanta decided to scrap the film until the writers Gulshan Nanda and Madhusudan Kalelkar heard the problem and Nanda suggested a father-and-son double role.
- Asha Parekh was the first choice for the role of Vandana, but she rejected Aradhana because she did not want to play Rajesh Khanna's mother; she later played the lead in Kati Patang.
- The song "Roop Tera Mastana", which runs more than three minutes and 30 seconds, was filmed in a single take; Sharmila Tagore believed this was because of time constraints.
- Shakti Samanta suggested that Rajesh Khanna mimic Dev Anand for his second role as the son, and Samanta recalled that Khanna did and it clicked.
- Sachin Dev Burman, who composed Aradhana's tunes, was himself instrumental in putting Kishore Kumar forward for the rising star Rajesh Khanna.
- Aradhana's impact led many Indians to take up films, among them the actor Tom Alter, who said in an interview that he headed to the Film and Television Institute of India after being impressed by Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana in 1970.
