Remembering Sadhana: The actress who gave India two classic fashion trends

“What does one say about an actor who’d say much with one gesture or look?” asked the saddened Bharat Ratna nightingale Lata Mangeshkar. “I only learnt late in the day about Sadhana’s passing away. She was one of my favourite actresses. I’m happy to have given playback for songs filmed on her. That many of my songs filmed on her are still favourites with youngsters shows how her acting reached out to people across ages. I pray for her soul to rest in peace.”

The songstress was reacting to the passing away of the septuagenarian Sadhana Shivdasani around 8 am on Friday. Ailing with repeated bouts of fever for over fortnight she’d been in and out of hospital twice.

Her close family friend (and counsel in the three cases related to the Sangita bungalow where she lived) Ameet Mehta told dna, “Her fever shot up on Wednesday and we rushed her back to S L Raheja hospital where she was responding well to treatment. We were thinking of getting her home for Christmas.”

However that was not to be. “She woke up cheerfully and even had tea around 7 am. Later she complained of uneasiness and breathlessness. The medical team did their best for over an hour but she breathed her last.”

Songs filmed on her like O Sajana Barkha Bahar Aayee (Parakh, 1960) or the ones like the title track of Mera Saaya(1966) composed by the Afghan Ustad Mohammed Hussain Sarhang and others like Lag Ja Gale and Nainon Mein Badra Chhaye by Madan Mohan are still seen as the most iconic songs ever.

Another song sung by Mangeshkar’s younger sister Asha Bhosle – Jhumka gira re – too remains one of the most requested on radio because of the way Sadhana danced her way into audiences’ hearts. Repeated attempts to reach Bhosle for comment drew a blank.

Sadhana, it will be recalled, had been bitter and often complained about being made to run around legally fighting to save her home on the ground floor of the Sangita bungalow, which was originally owned by Ganpat V Bhosle, Asha Bhosle’s late husband.

Her friends and acting legends Waheeda Rehman and Asha Parekh visited the family to express their condolences on Friday. Most of the film fraternity will pay respects at the Santa Cruz crematorium where the late rites are to be performed at noon on Saturday.

Veteran actress and vamp Shashikala who has acted in three films with Sadhana including Waqt broke down when dna spoke to her. “She had one of the most beautiful faces of the Indian screen with the most astonishingly good figure. How she did that despite being such a foodie always remained a mystery to me.”

She recounted how the large-hearted actress would get her personal cook to come over to the sets with all his paraphernalia and cook for the entire unit. “Pakodas, dal pakwan and bee ki chaat. Just the memory of her generosity saddens me to think that she is no more.”

Born a year before the WWII ended, Sadhana was named after her father's favourite actress, Sadhana Bose. He was so protective of her that she home-schooled till she was 8. By then Partition cast an ominous shadow over the region and rioting got ugly. The family fled from Karachi to Mumbai on a steamer with their barest minimum.

Hardship saw them looking for work. Her paternal uncle Hari Shivdasani (father of Babita, whose daughters Karishma and Kareena have ruled the silver screen) knew some film folk and found the 15-year-old Sadhana a place among background dancers behind yesteryear’s late glam vamp Nadira in Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh (Shree 420).

That led to being cast in India's first Sindhi film Abana in 1960, where she played the lead Sheila Ramani's younger sister. Sadhana often recounted asking for Ramani’s autograph. “Sheilaji told me, ‘There’ll be a day when I’ll come looking for your autograph.’ Her words were prophetic!”

Seeing her photograph in the promotional material for the Sindhi film, producer Subodh Mukherjee offered her the lead in Love in Simla (1959) opposite his debutante son Joy Mukherjee. This film was directed by another debutante RK Nayyar.

Well-known Marathi film director and brother of the late actor Nanda (a close friend of Sadhana) Jayprakash Karnataki remembered how the triple-debutantes’ film took the country by storm. “RK Nayyar felt she her forehead was too broad. He asked her to get a fringe with bangs like Audrey Hepburn who was his favourite,” he remembers, “This not only became her signature look, but every girl wanted it though beauty and hair salons were hard to come by then.” He recounts watching the movie thrice. “I was head over heels with her expressive eyes, smile and that hairstyle.”

Love blossomed on the sets of her first film but Sadhana’s parents were opposed to her closeness to director Nayyar even threatening to take legal action against him. They eventually came around seven years later.

Her 1963 Muslim social (yes, Bollywood had that genre) Mere Mehboob opposite Rajendra Kumar was such a big blockbuster that she went on to become the highest paid actress alongside reigning silver screen queen Vyjanthimala.

Dancing sensation, Jayshree T (Karnataki’s wife) remembers how post 1970, for over two years, her sister-in-law Nanda and Sadhana were the go-to actresses for every filmmaker. “Except for formal greetings the duo hardly interacted. Much later in the mid 80s that Sadhanaji became part of the group which had Helenji, Waheedaji, Ashaji (Parekh) and my sis-in-law. They became very close and she often came over. Last year when my sis-in-law passed away, she came and spent a long time consoling us.”

Sadhana became the poster girl for the mystery-thriller genre with Raj Khosla's Woh Kaun Thi? (1964), which left the box office in a tizzy with record collections. Such was effect that, Khosla directed her in two more suspense thrillers, Mera Saaya (1965) and Anita (1968).

But all these would pale in front of the blockbuster Waqt (1965) opposite Sunil Dutt. The tight fitting chudidaar set (another trend set by Sadhana in a Bhanu Athaiyya design) is still going strong 50 years later.

Though she took a year-long (1967-68) break for thyroid treatment at Boston, she came back with hits like Inteqaam(1969) and Ek Phool Do Mali (1969).  Stung by an ace filmmaker’s (a name she wouldn’t divulge) offer for a character role, she went on to direct herself in a double role in the hit Geeta Mera Naam (1974), opposite Sunil Dutt.

She did do the odd film like Vandana (1975) later but decided to step into the shadows since. Apart from one outing as a director for a Dimple Kapadia-starrer 14 years later, she chose to lead a life out of the glare of arc lights and cameras which loved her. “I want audiences to remember me as a young, beautiful leading lady,” she’d say.

Yet the legal battle forced her to face the media and cameras against her wish. Actor Raza Murad who visited the Sadhana’s residence to meet the family told dna, “In real life or reel, anyone who saw her was smitten by her grace, simplicity and charm. As a fan, I can only use a song from her own film with Dev saab Hum Dono to still plead: Abhi Na Jao Chhod Ke, Ki Dil Abhi Bhara Nahin...”