''Saathi'' () is a 1968 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

-language

romance film Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

written and directed by

C. V. Sridhar Chitthamoor Vijayaraghavalu Sridhar (22 July 1933 – 20 October 2008) was an Indian screenwriter and film director. He has directed nearly 60 films in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu Languages. Early life Sridhar hailed from Chitthamur, a villag ...

. The film stars

Rajendra Kumar Rajendra Kumar Tuli (20 July 1927 – 12 July 1999) was an Indian actor who starred in Bollywood films. Starting his career in 1949, he appeared in more than 80 films in a career spanning over four decades. He was popularly known as the 'Jubil ...

and

Vyjayanthimala Vyjayanthimala (born 13 August 1936) is a former Indian actress, dancer and parliamentarian. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two BFJA Awards and five Filmfare Awards. She made her screen debut at the age of thirteen wi ...

, with

Simi Garewal Simi Garewal (born Simrita Garewal; 17 October 1947) is an Indian actress, director, producer and a talk show host. She is the recipient of two Filmfare awards and an ITA Award. She is known for her work in Hindi films like '' Do Badan'', '' Sa ...

Pahari Sanyal Pahari Sanyal (22 February 1906 – 10 February 1974) was an Indian actor and singer who is known for his work in Bengali cinema. Sanyal acted in many Bengali films, such as '' Harano Sur'', '' Bhanu Goenda Jahar Assistant'', and ''Shilpi''. ...

David Abraham Cheulkar David Abraham Cheulkar (21 June 1909 – 2 January 1982), popularly known as David, was an Indian Hindi film actor. In a career spanning four decades, he played mostly character roles, starting with the 1941 film ''Naya Sansar'', and went on to ...

Veena The ''veena'', also spelled ''vina'' ( sa, वीणा IAST: vīṇā), comprises various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps ...

and Ram Mohan as the

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

while prominent actors such as

Shashi Kapoor Shashi Kapoor (pronounced �əʃi kəpuːɾ (born Balbir Raj Kapoor; 18 March 1938 – 4 December 2017) was an Indian actor and film producer who is best known for his work in Hindi films. A recipient of several accolades, including four Natio ...

Nanda Nanda may refer to: Indian history and religion * Nanda Empire, ruled by the Nanda dynasty, an Indian royal dynasty ruling Magadha in the 4th century BCE ** Mahapadma Nanda, first Emperor of the Nanda Empire ** Dhana Nanda (died c. 321 BCE), la ...

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, D.K. Sapru and Pratima Devi made

guest appearance In show business, a guest appearance is the participation of an outsider performer (such as a musician or actor) in an event such as a music record or concert, show, etc., when the performer does not belong to the regular band, cast, or other ...

s. The film was produced by S. Krishnamurthy and T. Govindarajan of Venus Pictures. The film's score was composed by

Naushad Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian music director for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the ...

with lyrics provided by

Majrooh Sultanpuri Asrar ul Hassan Khan (1 October 1919 − 24 May 2000), better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist in India's Hindi language film industry. He wrote Hindustani lyrics for numerous Hindi film soundtracks. He was ...

. It was edited by N. M. Shankar and filmed by Marcus Bartley. ''Saathi'' is a triangular love story among Ravi, Shanti and Rajni. The film was a remake of the 1961 Tamil film '' Palum Pazhamum'', which was directed by A. Bhimsingh.

Plot

Dr. Ravi returns from abroad and takes up a position as chief surgeon in a hospital. He meets with Nurse Shanti, who lives an impoverished lifestyle with her ailing mother, on whom he decides to perform surgery, but she passes away. A guilt-ridden Ravi marries Shanti much to the chagrin of his mentor, Kaka, who had hoped that he would marry his daughter, Rajni. The couple travel to Kashmir for their honeymoon, and settle down to a harmonious relationship. Hoping to travel more, their plans are interrupted by the hospital's head doctor, who wants Ravi to focus on cancer research. The couple drop their travel plans and immerse themselves in research so much so that Shanti becomes ill, and not wanting to become a burden, leaves. A frantic Ravi searches high and low in vain, and is subsequently devastated to learn that she has perished in a train accident. Kaka then becomes very ill and Kaki tells Ravi that the cause of his illness is Rajni's insistence that she not marry anyone except Ravi. As a result, Ravi marries her but is unable to get Shanti out of his mind. An embittered Rajni feels neglected and decides to confront him, resulting in his losing his vision, perhaps never to see again, and unable to do any further cancer research.

Cast

as Ravi *

as Shanti / Sharda *

as Rajni *

as Rajni's Father *

as Head Doctor *

as Rajni's Mother * Ram Mohan as Ravi's Colleague Guest appearances include: *

as actor during the filming of ''Raja Saab'' *

as Ashok *

* D.K. Sapru as Mr. Philips * Radhakrishan as Sadhuram * Pratima Devi as Shanti's Mother

Soundtrack

When Sridhar approached Naushad for composing, he listened to the songs of the original film which was composed by

Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy were an Indian music composing duo composed of M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy. They worked together on over 100 films, from 1952's ''Panam'' to 1965's '' Aayirathil Oruvan''. After their split, Ramamoorthy wor ...

in Tamil. After listening to the songs, Naushad wrote a letter to

M. S. Viswanathan Manayangath Subramanian Viswanathan (24 June 1928 – 14 July 2015), also known as M.S.V., was an Indian music director, singer and actor who predominantly worked in Tamil film industry. He was popularly known as ''Mellisai Mannar''. He compose ...

saying that he cannot replace the wonderful music which he has composed and he's declining the project. Later, Naushad accepted to compose for the film only on Viswanathan's request. The lyrics were provided by

Box office

At the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed around 1,76,00,000 and netted 88,00,000, thus becoming the eleventh highest grossing film of 1968 with a verdict of average.

Awards

;Won *

Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress The Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress is given by '' Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise a female actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role. Although the Filmfa ...

–

Filmfare Award for Best Editing The Filmfare Best Editing Award is given by the '' Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films. Superlatives Most Awards * Sreekar Prasad – 4 * Hrishikesh Mukherjee – 3 * Raj Kapoor – 3 * Sanjay Verma – ...

– N. M. Shankar

References

External links

* {{C. V. Sridhar, state=expanded 1960s Hindi-language films 1968 films Hindi remakes of Tamil films 1968 romantic drama films Films about cancer Films directed by C. V. Sridhar Indian romantic drama films