Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 7, 2019)

Since the last few days, it’s been pelting down in Mumbai which is perhaps why the song from Woh Kaun Thi?, “Naina Barse Rimjhim Rimjhim” is stuck in my mind or maybe because September 2 was its leading lady Sadhana’s 78th birth anniversary. Even after 55 years, Madan Mohan’s haunting melody, along with the vision of the mysterious lady in white, resonates in our collective memory. Its ‘hero’ Manoj Kumar recalls filming the song in Kufri with Sadhana ji lip-synching to the composer’s voice because Lata Mangeshkar had fallen ill and was unable to record it before the schedule. To ensure that the schedule was not cancelled, Madan Mohan ji recorded the song himself, telling director Raj Khosla that Lata ji could dub it on their return. “A crowd of star-gazers were watching us shoot, and after a while they wondered aloud why Sadhana was singing in a man’s voice,” he guffaws.

Manoj Kumar saab (right) himself had recommended Sadhana ji’s name, but while she was keen to partner with him in the chiller thriller, she pointed out that since neither of their films had done well commercially, it might not be a viable jodi. To this he quipped, “Two minus will make a plus.” However, the actor admits, that having taken off to Delhi earlier, he was on tenterhooks, wondering which actress was coming, till he saw Sadhana ji and heaved a sigh of relief.

“Woh Kaun Thi? also made me a full-fledged writer,” reveals Manoj Kumar saab who having ghost-written in his struggling days, was going through the script while his director shot with Parveen Choudhary who played Dr Lata. On Khosla saab’s return, he told him that he wanted to discuss some scenes and was invited to his hotel room. When Manoj Kumar saab confessed to having rewritten six-seven scenes, Khosla saab silently read them, then, without saying a word, strode to the actor’s room where his wife Shashi was sitting with producer N N Sippy, Sadhana and her parents. “Even as we watched wide-eyed, he chucked the file he was holding in one hand into the burning fireplace, saying, ‘There goes the original script, we don’t need it anymore’, then, waving the sheaf of papers in his other hand, added, ‘Pandit ji will write a new one for us,’” recounts the actor who from that day was frantically writing between shots. “Raj Khosla would stroll across to enquire how far I had progressed, and when told I’d finished half a scene, would insist we shoot that much, before I returned to complete it. I not only wrote the script and acted in the film, I even gave it its intriguing title and designed an eye-catching poster which had me with my back to the camera and Sadhana facing it,” informs Manoj Kumar saab.

Another star of the ‘60s, Biswajit (left) also shares anecdotes from his triangular love story with Sadhana and Dharmendra, Ishq Par Zor Nahin, which released six years later in 1970. He played Amar, the only son of a millionaire shipping magnate while Dharam ji was his impoverished friend, Ram, whom he gets a job in his father’s company. He then uses his friend’s talent as a shayar to woo Sadhana ji’s Sushma, only for her to decide that she will marry Ram when she discovers that he’s the real poet. This plot was tweaked for Lawrence D’Souza’s Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt and Maduri Dixit’s musical romance Saajan .

The original love story ended in flames, literally. In the climax, shot aboard a ship, Biswajit da’s father (Abhi Bhattacharya) shoots at the fuel tank, and within minutes, there’s fire around the ship as the spilled petrol burns. Playing the sacrificial hero, Amar jumps into the sea, grabs a lifeboat and sends Ram and Sushma to safety, but loses his own life.

“To everyone’s horror, despite all the precautions we had taken, the blaze suddenly went out of control. There were no fire brigades around to douse the leaping flames that encircled me, and like everyone else present, I too believed that the reel life tragedy would happen for real when the film’s action director threw a chain into the water, and instructed me to grab it, saying I should swim underwater. Being a strong swimmer, I dived below the surface and found my way out of the fiery ring, living to tell you the story,” he signs off with a relieved laugh.