Aarzoo began where An Affair to Remember ended
The film had left both the filmmaker and his son, Prem Sagar, in tears and their Aarzoo began with Kumar, a skiing champ, picking up the crutches after an accident which left him disabled. He is determined to keep away from Usha, whom he’d lost his heart to while holidaying in Srinagar because she’d confessed she’d rather die than be disabled. “Papaji was a born romantic who at 16 had written Pritam Pratiksha much to the disbelief of the principal of Srinagar’s Pratap College who’d added a note at the end of the story saying he was not responsible for the story’s originality,” Prem Sagar reminisces with a laugh, adding that according to him Aarzoo was Dr Sagar’s best work in a career spanning 65 films.
Gopal and Usha’s love story blossomed without words, as they walked or sailed down the Dal together, Usha unaware of his real identity. “Sadhana’s father was so surprised by this romance that one day, watching them, he fell into the lake, bringing shooting to a halt,” says Prem Sagar.
He recalls his father ordering a million artificial poppy flowers from Mumbai. Chief Minister Ghulam Mohammed Sadiq was taken aback when he saw the unseasonal flowers blossoming on the banks of the Dal.
“For the song, Bedardi balma, papaji sent lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri, to Srinagar twice, once in spring/summer when nature was in full bloom, and once in autumn/winter when it was desolate, so he could bring out the contrasts in his verse,”says Prem Sagar, adding that he also sent a unit member there to minitor the colour of the Chinar leaves.
“The day they turned a burnt amber, carpeting the ground, he flew his unit out and shoot a sequence he had in mind.” The song was scored by Shankar-Jaikishen. The composer duo had to cancel an earlier recording with Lata Mangeshkar and an orchestra of 100 musicians at Raj Kamal Studio. Jaikishen compensated by arriving unannounced on the sets one day. He took the lyrics and disappeared into Mangesh Desai’s recording studio where he composed the song on the table top in an hour. Word was sent word to Sagar who stopped the shoot and rushed across and record the song. Prem Sagar landed the job of organising100 truckloads of salt to recreate the snow his father had shot in Khufri after being snowed in with his unit for six days. Art director Sudhendu Roy set out to make snow in Mumbai’s Kardar Studio with cotton before he realised that it didn’t register the imprint of footprints and asked for the salt. “I bought the salt for Rs 10,000 and sold it back for Rs 5,000,” says Prem Sagar.
They also bought a 1948 Dodge for Rs 2,500 and after taking out its engine and the cameras, pushed it down the ravines. Six months later, the cops came knocking, having found the car and suspecting that a murder had been committed. “We convinced them that we’d only used it for the accident sequence and were told to pull it out. The crane operator wanted Rs 10,000 but a scrapdealer dismantled the spare parts and towed them away, after paying us Rs 5,000,” beams Prem Sagar.
After the film released, Ramanand Sagar travelled all over India to watch it with the audience. At a remote village, 100 miles from Kolkata, he was welcomed by the exhibitor of a touring theatre. 30 minutes passed, but the show didn’t start. Sagar was told they were waiting for a man who’d watched the film everyday since its release. The man when he finally turned up confessed that after losing his foot in an accident, he’d been on his way to commit suicide when he’d ducked into the theatre. After seeing the film he went back to the girl. “We’re happily married today,” he confided to Sagar who was delighted that Arzoo had saved a life.
