A scene from Rajnigandha / Image- Screengrab from movie

1974 is remembered for several blockbusters, from Rajesh Khanna’s Roti, Prem Nagar, Ajnabee and Aap Ki Kasam to Dharmendra’s Dost, Pocket Maar and Patthar Aur Payol. Manoj Kumar’s Roti Kapda Aur Makaan was the year’s top grosser while Shashi Kapoor’s Chor Machaye Shor, Jeetendra’s Bidaai and Dev Anand’s Amir Garib also made the cash counters jingle. 

But it was Basu Chatterjee’s Rajnigandha which bagged the Filmfare Award for Best Film, nudging out Dilip Kumar’s Sagina, Sunil Dutt’s Pran Jaye Par Vachan Na Jaye and Amitabh Bachchan’s Majboor for a double whammy with the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film as well.

The film Introduced Amol Palekar to Hindi cinema. He had studied fine arts at Mumbai’s College of Arts and became an actor by accident, starting with Marathi experimental theater and setting up his own theater group, Aniket, in 172. The year before, he debuted on screen with Satyadev Dubey’s Marathi film Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe, having performed it earlier on stage.

Amol would bump into Basu Chatterjee at the Film Forum when he went to watch films. The director, having seen his plays, surprised him one day by offering him the lead role in his next film, Piya Ka Ghar Amol who had seen the Marathi original Mumbaicho Jawal, was instantly hooked, but lost the role to Anil Dhawan because he refused to meet Tarachand Barjatya alone, insisting Chatterjee should introduce him to the producer and tell him he wanted to sign him. The filmmaker was taken aback by this unexpected demand from an actor who had not even started his career.

To Amol’s surprise, Chatterjee returned to him with another film. “It revolves around a boy like you and a new girl, Vidya Sinha. Then both of you…” at this point the filmmaker who was not a good narrator broke off, giving him Mannu Bhandari’s short story on which it was based, telling him shortly, “Read it.” Amol loved Yehi Sach Hoi, but wondered how a one-and-a-half-page story could be developed into a two-and-a-half hour-film. Smiling, Chatterjee handed him the screenplay, complete with the dialogues, and he gave his nod to his first Hindi film.

In Bhandari’s story, penned in 1966, Deepa is a research student living alone since her relationship with her family is strained. Her boyfriend, Sanjay, visits her often and the couple is physically intimate. She goes to Calcutta (now Kolkata) for a job interview and runs into a former lover. Nishith. As her feelings for him are rekindled, she’s in a dilemma over which man to spend her life with.

The film came eight years later, and keeping his urban, middle-class audience in mind, Chatterjee made some changes so as not to offend their conservative sensibilities. Deepa now lives in Delhi with her brother and sister-in- law who know and approve of Sanjay. There’s the barest hint of intimacy in the relationship, evident in the way she holds the rajnigandhas he brings her. They are waiting to see if Deepa lands a coveted teaching position in Bombay (now Mumbai), Sanjay ready to uproot himself for his fiancé, before tying the knot. She meets Nishith, now Naveen, who makes promotional films. As he escorts her around the city, intense, brooding, puffing on a cigarette, his hand tantalizingly close, he brings back memories, now shadowed with Sanjay’s presence, to the tunes of Salil Chowdhury’s “Kayi baar yuhi hi dekha hai”. The song incidentally bagged Mukesh the National Award for Best Playback Singeг.

They are drawn to each other again, but Naveen’s reluctance to articulate his feelings leads to Deepa turning down the job and returning to Sanjay. At the beginning of the film, we are privy to her fear of being lost and lonely, and after a second meeting with the commitment shy man Naveen, she understands that while her fiance may be ordinary, forgetful, self-obsessively chatty and perpetually late as compared to her magnetically attractive, silent, suave and never late ex, he is dependable, his rundane world offering her the security and stability missing in Naveen’s.

Chatterjee’s Deepa, setting a seventies style statement with her printed synthetic sarees, may well have been a tamo version of Bhandari’s protagonist, but she has a mind of her own and the agency to decide her own future unlike the dream girls of mainstream Hindi cinema who were no more than glamorous props for their macho men. In fact, it was her ‘safe’ decision that struck a chord with many young women of the time who, faced with a similar choice. Would have also opted for caring companionship over smoldering passion.

Vidya’s grandfather, Mohan Sinha, had been a filmmaker too, and she was a popular model, but before Rajnigandha, she had never contemplated a career in the arc lights despite being crowned ‘Miss Bumbay’ at 18. She was 28 when Chatterjee saw a photograph of hers in a sari with her hair loosely braided, in a film weekly, and came knocking on her door. After the film’s release, BR Chopra signed her for Karm opposite superstar Rajesh Khanna and she rocketed into the big leagues.

Rajnigandha also made Amol Palekar, a clerk with Bank of India, an unlikely superstar and turned theater veteran Dinesh Thakur into a surprise heartthrob even though he does not get the girl at the end. A post-graduate in Hindi literature, Dinesh started working for Delhi’s Hindustani Theatre way back in 1964, 12 years later, founding his own theater group, Ank. Chatterjee saw him in a play and approached him for Naveen, requesting he help Vidya with her dialogues.

Interestingly, Chatterjee had conceived the film with Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore and Amitabh Bachchan in mind. Shashi told him it would work better with not so familiar faces and he took the story to Bengali actors Samit Bhanja and Aparna Sen. The former who had replaced Amitabh Bachchan as Jaya Bhaduri’s ordinary suitor in Guddi was game, but Aparna wanted a more established Bollywood star opposite her. Miffed, he approached Mallika Sarabhat, but the dates clashed with her MBA exams. And Vidya Sinha, Amol Palekar and Dinesh Thakur entered the picture.

With newcomers, it was difficult finding distributors till Rajshri bought the Bombay rights and released the film with one print at All India Radio’s Akashvani theater. It went on to celebrate a silver jubilee run making the white tuberoses the favorite of every desi Juliet. The sweet- smelling flowers are still redolent with the fragrance of Lata Mangeshkar’s evergreen “Rajnigandha phool tumhare, mahake yun hi jeewan mein…” and the uncomplicated solution to the romantic dilemma, jo samne hal, wohi sach hai.”