Rajnigandha - The Magical Scent
I spent this weekend watching few old Bollywood movies, one excellent movie I really enjoyed watching was Ragnigandha. Last year my dear friend Mr Jitendra Mathur presented the DVD of Hindi movie Rajnigandha & he recommended this movie to watch. I can understand his adoration towards simple classic movies.
During the 70s & 80s Hindi cinema produced some of the best comedy, simple & clean family entertainer movies. Directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Baus Chatterjee etc have directed several beautiful & everlasting movies. After more than two decades I still love to watch the movies made by these legendary directors. Movies like Chupke Chupke, Chitchor, Choti Se Baat, Golmaal, Khatta Meetha, Shaukeen etc are my favourite movies. Another interesting movie I would like to add to this beautiful list is Ragnigandha.
The film is based on a story Yehi Sach hai by Mannu Bhandari. The movie is mainly focused on three characters, Vidya Sinha, Amol Palaker & Dinesh Thakur. This is a love triangle story of a young woman Deepa Kapoor ( Vidya Sinha ) wants to get married to Sanjay (Amol Palaker ) but faces some new changes & personnel challenges when she meets her ex-boyfriend Navin (Dinesh Thakur). When the old memories get revived she is caught between two men.
This movie was released in 1974 & won the Best Picture at the Filmfare Awards in the year 1974 including the Critics Award. This movie very well captures the emotions of lead characters.
Amol Palaker is a master in naturalistic details & does an excellent job with his role & represents perfectly the ordinariness of his character. The other acting honors in the film belong to Vidya Sinha. This is definitely one of her best performance. She gave in all that character demands. She excels particularly in emotional sequences. Dinesh Thakur has given a mature & elegant performance. It’s a tailor made character for him. The other supporting characters in the film are all equally well etched and well acted.
Director Basu Chatterjee is a master in making movies based on common people. There are no super heroes, deadly villains, item songs etc. The simple story with common characters makes his movies evergreen & enjoys watching them anytime.
Another interesting feature of this film that deserves mention is Salil Chowdhury’s music. There are only two songs in the film ‘Kai Baar Yunhi Dekha Hai, ’ by legendary singer Mukesh (won the National Award) & the title songs are meaningful & melodious.
Overall a simple movie where the emotions & its complications are very well placed, Try to see it if you haven’t seen it.