JAB CRORO DIL KI DHADKAN, SADHNA NE EK DHAMAKEDAAR KADAM UTHAYA. AUR..... BY ALI PETER JOHN

The strong and sweet Sadhna wave was still going strong in the seventies. Her Aubrey Hepburn fringe hair style was still making hearts beat faster and big filmmakers like Yash Chopra and Ramanand Sagar and some of her heroes were still madly in love with her and the janta was going crazy about her - Ali Peter John

Everyone was just talking about Sadhna and her ways of winning hearts. She could ask for the moon and the stars would rush to the sky to bring the moon for her on a golden tray....

She was not in the best of health. Her Thyroid problem was creating some kind of a panic in the industry.

And it was at such a time that Sadhna decided to take a bold step and direct her first film which after a great deal of discussion with her husband R. K Nayyar( he had given her the first break in “Love In Shimla) was called “Geeta Mera Naam". Sadhna was to play a double role and was also to make her debut as a director. It was a challenging task, but Sadhna decided to take it up as a challenge.

The film was to have two big heroes and Sadhna, the director of this opted for Sunil Dutt who had worked with her in the past and her other choice was Feroz Khan, who was still known as a B- grade and a stunt hero. Helen who was still known as a cabaret dancer was cast in a very important role in which she had the challenge to prove herself as an actress.

The usual team of Laxmikant- Pyarelal and Anand Bakshi were to take charge of the music and R.K Nayyar's friend Pratap Dave was to be the cinematographer.....

The film was a typical commercial entertainer and was the story of twin sisters who are lost in a fair and meet years later under different circumstances. The one sister is a meek and mild girl and the other sister is a woman of fire with a whip and a hunter and sometimes a gun in her hand. How these two sisters meet and how circumstances make them interchange their personality is what “Geeta Mera Naam" is all about.

As seems obvious, it is an all- Sadhna film, but Sunil Dutt also plays a very vital role and Feroz Khan is not wasted and he too has his share of daring acts which he does with effortless ease and with a style all his own. The film however failed to gain the admiration of both the critics and the masses.

But, if there was one man who benefited the most from “Geeta Mera Naam", it was Sunil Dutt. He was going through a very bad and low phase after a row of big flops and especially his own artistic films like “Mujhe Jeene Do", “Yaadein" and “Reshma Aur Shera". Sadhna's film gave Sunil Dutt a new lease of life and he was actually the first angry young man of Hindi films. Sunil Dutt was always grateful to Sadhna and R.K Nayyar for giving him a role that came to him at the right time and literally saved him from going bankrupt.

The film set a new trend in which actresses played double roles, like Hema Malini in “Seeta Aur Geeta", Sridevi in “Chalbaaz" and Kangana Ranaut in “Katti Batti" and in “Tanu Weds Manu Returns" and there maybe many more.

Sadhna could not direct any more films both because of her health and the death of her husband R.K Nayyar. She however kept directing TV Serials for which she got the maximum support from Yash Chopra.

Her health kept getting worse. Her property and financial problems also took a heavy toll on her, her once beautiful face had now been distorted completely because of her thyroid problems and her glorious career came to a sad end in 2015 and she didn't even have her own relative to light her pyre at the Oshiwara electric crematorium.

WOH JO KEHTE HAI KI ZINDAGI KHOOBSURAT HAI, WOH KHUSH RAHE. LEKIN JINKI ZINDAGI PEHLE KHOOBSURAT HOTI HAI AUR PHIR BAD SE BADSOORAT HO JAATI HAI, UNKA KOI KYA KAHE??