Indian Air Force officer Arun Varma sings "Mere Sapno Ki Rani" in an open jeep winding along Darjeeling, West Bengal's hills with his co-pilot Madan. At the same time, Vandana, the daughter of Dr Gopal Tripathi casts glances from a train window, which Arun notices. Upon multiple meetings over a few days, they fall in love and get engaged. Excitedly, they secretly wed in a temple without rituals, only exchanging garlands, with God as the only witness, however they plan to get married in a formal ceremony in front of their relatives and friends. As it rains heavily, they take refuge in a shelter with a flickering fire, leading to them becoming intimate. Arun tells her not to be ashamed of their intimacy as they have accepted each other in every way in front of god. He promises to be back in some time to get married.
Within days, Arun dies in a plane crash. Vandana discovers that she is pregnant. Arun's family is unable to accept her as a daughter-in-law. Her father also dies, leaving her destitute. Vandana's son is born and named Suraj. She puts him up for adoption hoping to adopt him the next day legally but she is forced to let a childless couple adopt him. Determined to be a part of his life, she accepts the role of being his nanny. One day, her employer's brother-in-law, finding her alone in the house, attempts to molest her but Suraj rescues her by stabbing him to death and runs away. When the police arrive, Vandana takes the blame for the murder and is arrested.
Years later when Vandana is released, the jailor takes her to his home and introduces her to his daughter Renu. Vandana soon meets Renu's love, Suraj. He is the image of his father and a pilot too. He has the sensation of having seen Vandana before but his memories are fleeting. Anxious that the true story of his parents may cause him pain, Vandana tries to hide away.
Suraj is injured in an air crash like his father but survives. While he is recuperating in the hospital, Vandana meets Madan. He knows the truth of Arun and Vandana's romance and is anxious to tell Suraj all but Vandana fears the consequences. One day idly looking through papers in the room while waiting for Vandana, Suraj finds Arun's photo. A sudden realisation that Arun and Vandana are his true parents becomes clear. He recognizes his mother's sacrifices and celebrates her strength and courage.
Cast
Sharmila Tagore as Vandana Verma / Vandana Tripathi (Arun's Widow)
Subhash Ghai as Flight Lieutenant Prakash (Suraj's colleague and friend)
Krishna Kant as Mr. Verma (Arun's Father)
Production
The film was scripted by Sachin Bhowmick. The theme of the movie was based on the 1946 film To Each His Own.[8] A day prior to the shooting of Aradhana, producer Surinder Kapoor showed Samanta his latest film, Ek Shrimaan Ek Shrimati with Shashi Kapoor as the lead, which was also written by Sachin Bhowmick. Much to his surprise, this film had a similar ending to his own film. The following day, Samanta decided to scrap his film, when writers Gulshan Nanda and Madhusudan Kalelkar visited his office. Upon hearing the issue, it was Gulshan Nanda who suggested to have a double role of father and son in the film. Originally, the first hero was to die by the interval and a new hero was to step in.[9] The same evening, while Aradhana was being cancelled, Nanda recited a story of Kati Patang to Samanta, which he instantly liked, so for the next couple of hours they first rewrote the second half of Aradhana, and subsequently went on to discuss Kati Patang.[10] The "Roop Tera Mastana" song sequence, which lasted more than three minutes and 30 seconds, was filmed in a single take.[11] Sharmila Tagore believes this was done due to time constraints.[12] Shakti Samanta reminisces in an interview that he suggested to Rajesh Khanna that he mimic Dev Anand in his second role as a son. He did and it clicked.[13]
The soundtrack of the film was composed by S. D. Burman, with lyrics by Anand Bakshi. Sachin Dev Burman had written the music for the songs of Aradhana. Sachin Dev Burman composed each and every song. Rahul Dev Burman was the Assistant Music Director in this film. His main work was on arrangement, background score and improvising some tunes to singer and helping his father in the processings. All the tunes were composed by Sachin Dev Burman. Sachin Dev Burman himself was instrumental in putting up Kishore Kumar for the rising star Rajesh Khanna
Aradhana estimated worldwide gross: ₹178.5 million ($23.62 million). Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to ₹11.37 billion in 2017, or ₹15.95 billion (US$190 million) in 2023.
India: ₹70 million ($9.33 million) in 1969.[19] Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to ₹5.9 billion in 2017.[n 1]
Soviet Union: 11.85 million Rbls[a] ($14.29 million,[b]₹108.5 million)[c] in 1972.[21] Adjusted for inflation, this is equivalent to $84 million (₹5.47 billion) in 2017.
Aradhana had a large impact on Indians in general. It inspired many to take up films as a vocation, one of them being the popular Indian actor Tom Alter, who confessed in an interview that he headed to Film and Television Institute of India after being impressed watching Rajesh Khanna in Aradhana in 1970.[25][26][27]
Notes
^47.4 million tickets sold,[21] average ticket price of 25 kopecks[22]
