Inspired by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s 1914 classic Parineeta , the film, directed by Anil Ganguly, who had a penchant of making films based on good literature, including Kora Kagaz and Tapasya , has Jeetendra (as Shekhar) and Sulakshna Pandit (as Lalita) in the lead roles besides AK Hangal (as Gurucharan), IS Johar (as Manorama’s husband), Om Shiv Puri (Navin Babu), Vikram (as Girish Babu) and Aruna Irani (as Manorama), amongst others.
The story is of two long time neighbours — Navin Babu and Gurucharan. Although the families share a cordial relation, it is often marred as Gurucharan has taken a loan of ₹15,000 from Navin Babu, who is pestering for an early settlement. But Gurucharan’s niece, Lalita, whom he has reared from a young age, when she became an orphan, is a childhood friend of Navin Babu’s younger son, Shekhar. In an accidental ceremony, not witnessed by anybody, the two become man and wife after exchanging garlands.
Lalita is also close to another neighbour, Charu, and is a regular card player at their home, where she is joined by Manorama (Charu’s mother) and Manorama’s cousin, Girish, who works in Goa. Secretly, Girish harbours a crush for Lalita. He is able to express that when he helps Gurucharan to emerge from an extreme financial distress. Shekhar, understandably, is not pleased with these developments.
Gurucharan decides to move with his family to Goa for recuperation. There, he succumbs after getting news that Navin Babu has passed away. But before that he extracts a promise from Girish that he will marry Lalita. Meanwhile, preparations are underway for Shekhar’s wedding. What will be the denouement?
Poignant saga
On the other hand, one of the most poignant sagas in the Hindi film industry is that of Sulakshana Pandit. Hailing from an illustrious family of musicians, she made a decent acting debut in the 1975 flick Uljhan , and won the Filmfare Best Playback Singer Award for Tu Hi Saagar Hai Tu Hi Kinara in Sankalp (1975). However, her sudden eclipse from the radar, into premature oblivion, was a major setback to the film industry.
While rest of the support cast is reliable and gave calibrated performances, Aruna Irani is jarring as the loud mouthed wife of the failed singer, Sangeet Samrat (IS Johar — good in his trademark and witty style of dialogue delivery). Another unnecessary deviation to the narrative is Janakidas and his daughter Preeti Ganguly .
However, the music by Kalyanji-Anandji, set to lyrics by MG Hashmat, is good, with the Kishore Kumar solo Chanchal Man Teri Chaturai lingering in the memory of listeners.
