Remembering Laxmikant Pyarelal's chartbuster from Sargam

Dafliwale daflibaja, mere ghunghrubulaatehain, aa main naachuntunach aa... Thirty-six years later, Laxmikant Pyarelal's chartbuster from Sargam brings back memories of a threeday shoot in Srinagar's picturesque Mughal Gardens for its leading lady, Jaya Prada, who made her Bollywood debut with this remake of her 1976 Telugu hit, Srri Siri Muvva.
"There was so much of naach gaana, from Parbat keusspaar in Ooty and Koyal bole on the banks of the Godavari river in Rajamundhry to Dafliwale in Kashmir and Mujhe mat roko, mujhegaanedo in Kalashetra, I was jumping around in almost every shot.The last song was filmed in 10 days," she reminisces, now able to laugh over her feet swollen from long hours of strenuous dancing, the sweltering heat and a hugely popular co-star whose reputation as a dancer preceded him. "There must have been times when Rishiji (Kapoor) was exasperated with this new South Indian girl, but he never threw any tantrums, instead he smoothened the way for me not just during the songs and dances, but also the intense emotional scenes," she says gratefully.
READ: Jaya Prada is horror-struck!
It was a stroke of genius by writer-direrctor K Vishwananth to launch his protégé, who could barely speak Hindi, as a deaf-mute girl who expresses herself through her speaking eyes and twinkling ghungroos rather than pages of unintelligible monologues.Having spent a lot of time with the specially-abled at schools in Hyderabad, Jaya Prada knew the sign language well and her performance was so natural that after Sargam's release, many from the fraternity started calling me gungigudiya till she proved that she had a voice too. Meanwhile, a doctor couple insisted she meet their deaf-mute daughter who had become her die-hard fan after Sargam. She finally agreed to meet the trio one Sunday and was mesmerized by the young girl's sparkling eyes. For five months, she'd turn up every other Sunday and after sometime, to her parents delight, started expressing herself through sounds. Then, they lost contact.
Ten years later, Jaya Prada was waiting to collect her baggage at the airport when a young man walked up to her and asked her if she remembered a deaf-mute girl she used to meet every Sunday.When the bemused star nodded, he pointed to a gorgeous, pregnant girl standing some distance away. "That's her, my wife and the mother of our soon-to-be born child," he smiled, watching the two women embrace. Jaya Prada was waiting to collect her baggage at the airport when a young man walked up to her and asked her if she remembered a deaf-mute girl she used to meet every Sunday.When the bemused star nodded, he pointed to a gorgeous, pregnant girl standing some distance away. "That's her, my wife and the mother of our soon-to-be born child," he smiled, watching the two women embrace.
Another memorable encounter was with a snake in a Shiv temple in Andhra Pradesh, which stood on a hill and could be reached only by foot. It's here that Sargam's heroine, Hema is imprisoned, and makes herself 'heard' by banging the temple bells with her head. “Around the chain of one of the bells, a live snake was coiled and when it suddenly fell on my forehead. Terrified, I fainted. It took a lot of coaxing by the makers, for me to agree to a retake with my reptilian co-star. It didn't get a pat on the back from our director, I did,“ she jokes.
Sargam made Jaya Prada an overnight star. She was flooded with compliments, one from Satyajit Ray, who described her as the most beautiful face on the Indian screen. She met the master director at the International Film Festival of India in Delhi and helped him light the ceremonial lamp. A few months later, he invited her to his home in Kolkata and told her he wanted to direct a film with her. "I was ecstatic. We were to meet again once he had finalised the script. But soon after he fell ill, and the film didn't happen. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life," she sighs.
Listen to Sargam songs on Gaana.com
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WATCH: Jaya Prada is horror-struck! - TOI