“You’ll stay with me?’
Until the very end,’ said James.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
And those who have seen the twin magnum opus ‘Mere Mehboob’ an ‘Arzoo’ would have dreamed that about Sadhna Shivadasni Nayyar – the iconic actress on Hindi Cinema.
May be I’m poorly informed or may be I’ve missed the vision and imagination of a Ghazal Poet but I can’t remember any other Indian Film actress whose hair style was celebrated like Sadhna’s. She was one of the most popular heroines of yesteryear Bolywood, an actress who had reigned for many years, She passed away in Mumbai today, on December 25 after a brief illness. The actress was detected with a tumor and had been battling cancer for a very long time. In December 2014, the lady underwent an emergency surgery for a bleeding oral lesion. Sadhana breathed her last at a Mumbai hospital. She was 74.
The beautiful damsel had enthralled masses with her graceful performances in Hindi films in the 60s and 70s. Initially her father had helped her enter films. Her family had migrated from Karachi in 1947. In 1955, at the age of 15, she had played a chorus girl in the song “Mur mur ke na dekh mur mur ke” in Raj Kapoor’s ‘Shree 420’. She was cast her in India’s first Sindhi film titled Abaana (1958), where she played the role of Sheila Ramani’s ‘s younger sister and she was paid a token amount of 1 rupee. She had joined Mukherjee’s acting school along with her debutante co-star Joy Mukherjee.
Her trademark look, called Sadhana cut is said to be inspired from Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn. However, in one of her interview she revealed that she had a broad forehead and that was a bid odd in the eye of cameras. To hide that minor flaw, her hairdresser had advised her to cover it in order to appear it narrower with a tumbled cascade of trimmed tress – better known as Sadhna Cut or Style. Some say that it was R.K.Nayyar who had suggested the idea. That fringe style was originally sported by the Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn. The fringe soon became popular and a fashion fad in the 1960s. The style was copied by many girls in India. The Filmalaya Production banner had introduced Joy, Sadhana and her iconic hairstyle in their 1960 romantic film ‘Love in Simla.’ Sadhana had played the role of a simple, bespectacled girl who is transformed by her grandmother into a beautiful woman and encouraged to pursue the hero. During this period she again worked under the same banner opposite Joy in ‘Ek Musafir Ek Haseena.’ In 1961 she played against Dev Anand in ‘Hum Dono.’ It was a super hit.
A famous film journalist describe her beauty in these words: “Her eyes, expressive and captivating, do most of the work, while she balances out her submissiveness with a firm tongue.” In 1963, Sadhna acted in the technicolour film ‘Mere Mehboob’ directed by H.S.Rawail. It was a classical film and still known for the famous scene where Rajendra Kumar encounters her for the first time and sees her eyes through her Burqa at an auditorium of Aligarh Muslim University.
She got her second Filmfare nomination as Best Actress for the role of Meena in Yash Chopra’s directorial saga ‘Waqt’ (1965). She stood out in Bollywood’s first ever ensemble cast by bringing along the fashion of tight chudidar-kurtas.
Sadhana married her ‘Love in Simla’ director Ram Krishna Nayyar on 7 March 1966. Their love had blossomed on the film sets. Her parents opposed it as the difference of age was telling. They were married for nearly thirty years, until his husband’s death in 1995 from asthma. The couple had no children.
