In the sixties and seventies ace director Shakti Samanta created many blockbusters and a few stars.However his biggest hit and most famous protege surfaced in the year 1969.Rajesh Khanna had debuted in Chetan Anand’s ’Aakhri Khat’ and done a few other films.But he was not yet a star.Samanta dreamt up a movie that would use picturesque Darjeeling as setting.A song was created with the hero in a dhaka topi ’serenading’ the heroine while she was reading Alistair Maclean on the world famous toy train en route to Darjeeling.Sachin Bhowmick wrote what was essentially an unbelivable story for the film.But enough of that.Lets try to analyse why both Rajesh Khanna and ’Aradhana’ became such massive successes.Well, the theme, the bare theme tugged at the heartstrings of many-the mother giving up her life for the sake of a promise made to her husband/lover whatever.Going to jail and allowing him to become a ’pilot officer’ just like daddy dear.The actress who played the part of the mother looked pretty as the heroine and with make-up acted well as the mother of all sacrifices(!).Rajesh Khanna as both father and son had this easy charm with an infectious sense of humour.His paunch showed though from time to time.The songs were good."Mere Sapnon Ki Rani..." has already been mentioned.This song made Kishore Kumar the top singer in Bollywood for the first time."Kora Kagaz Tha Yeh Mann..." was good.The rest of the numbers you could sleep through."Roop Tera Mastana" is over-hyped actually.All the same it was an okay film.Thats why it became a colossal success I suspect!