Mera Saaya

Mera Saaya
Mera Saaya
	Poster
Directed by	Raj Khosla
Screenplay by	G.R. Kamath
Based on	Pathlaag by; Raja Paranjape
Produced by	Premji
Starring	Sadhana; Sunil Dutt ; K.N. Singh ; Prem Chopra
Cinematography	V. Babasaheb
Edited by	Das Dhaimad
Music by	Madan Mohan; Raja Mehdi Ali Khan (lyrics)
Release date	10 June 1966;
Running time	140 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Box office	₹ 35 million

Mera Saaya (transl. My Shadow) is a 1966 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed by Raj Khosla. The music is by Madan Mohan, and lyrics are by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. The film stars Sunil Dutt and Sadhana. The film is the second of the suspense-thriller trilogy of Khosla-Sadhana partnership, the other two being Woh Kaun Thi? (1964) and Anita (1967).^[2] The film became a box office success.^[3] It is a remake of the 1964 Marathi film Pathlaag (The Chase).^[4]

Manohar Amberkar won the Filmfare Best Sound Award.

Plot

Thakur Rakesh Singh, an affluent descendant of the royalty, is a lawyer and happily married to Geeta for three years. He goes to London for higher studies and after one year receives the news of his wife's illness. He immediately comes back only to witness his wife's death in his hands. He builds a small memorial in her memory in his mansion. He deeply mourns her by always sitting at that memorial and listening to recorded songs sung by Geeta.

While things are like this, one day a police inspector, Daljit, comes to meet him. He explains to him about the bandit they caught on the other day, Raina, who claims to be the wife of Rakesh. Rakesh meets her and gets shocked as she looks exactly like Geeta. But he rejects that she was his wife as he saw his wife dying and cremated her with his own hands. But that woman claims that she was indeed Geeta and tells him about intimate moments they shared. Rakesh gets surprised but suspects some mischief.

The case proceeds in the court and Rakesh starts to cross-examine that woman. She answers every question correctly and claims that she was kidnapped by someone two to three days before her arrest. When Rakesh asks why she has no mangala sutra on her, which was a compulsory ornament for married Hindu women, she tells him that she removed it before going out on that day. He wouldn't believe that, as Geeta would consider mangala sutra very sacred and wouldn't have removed it.

After some drama, he asks her about her diary, which Geeta always keeps near to her and she fails to answer. He decides that she was just an impostor and asks the court to convict her. She becomes emotionally unstable after all this drama and ends up in a mental institute. One night, she escapes from there and comes to Rakesh's house. There, she explains to Rakesh all that has happened.

Geeta had a twin sister named Nisha, who was a bandit just like their mother. Geeta hides the fact about her criminal family and marries Rakesh. But one day her sister comes to her in a pitiable condition and asks her to give her shelter for one night. Geeta, seeing her sick get out of her house to buy medicine. But she doesn't want other family members to know about Nisha and makes Nisha dress like her and even gives her own mangalsutra to Nisha. But when she comes out, Ranjit singh, Nisha's husband mistakes her for Nisha and takes her away without giving her a chance to talk. When Ranjit Singh discovers that she wasn't Nisha, he wants to take her back, but police arrest them on their way back. While she was explaining all this to Rakesh, Ranjit Singh comes there and confirms her story. Police shoot him and he dies at Nisha's memorial. Rakesh and Geeta reconcile and start their regular life.

Cast

Sunil Dutt as Thakur Rakesh Singh
Sadhana Shivdasani as Geeta / Raina (aka Nisha)
Shivraj as Family Doctor
K.N. Singh as Prosecuting Lawyer
Anwar Hussain as Inspector Daljit
Prem Chopra as Daku Suryavar Singh / Ranjit Singh
Manmohan as Doctor (in mental hospital)
Dhumal as Bankeji
Mukri as Munshiji
Jagdish Sethi as Judge

Music

The music for the film is composed by Madan Mohan. All the lyrics for the soundtrack were written by Raja Mehdi Ali Khan. The song "Jhumka Gira Re" was remade as "What Jhumka?" in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani.

#	Title	Singer(s)	Duration
1	"Jhumka Gira Re"	Asha Bhosle	03:29
2	"Aap Ke Pahloo Mein"	Mohammed Rafi	03:32
3	"Mera Saaya Saath"	Lata Mangeshkar	06:02
4	"Nainon Me Badra Chhaye"	Lata Mangeshkar	03:34
5	"Nainon Wali Ne"	Lata Mangeshkar	02:56
6	"Mera Saaya Saath – 2"	Lata Mangeshkar	04:21

References

^ "Box Office 1966". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
^ "rediff.com, Movies: Classics Revisited: Mera Saaya". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
^ "Worth Their Weight in Gold!". boxofficeindia.co.in. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
^ Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema. British Film Institute and Oxford University Press. pp. 381–382. ISBN 0-19-563579-5.

External links

Mera Saaya at IMDb

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[Boxoffice-1] "Box Office 1966". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.

[2] "rediff.com, Movies: Classics Revisited: Mera Saaya". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 31 October 2022. Retrieved 31 October 2022.

[3] "Worth Their Weight in Gold!". boxofficeindia.co.in. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2015.

[4] Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (1998) [1994]. Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema. British Film Institute and Oxford University Press. pp. 381–382. ISBN 0-19-563579-5.

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