Colour, Kashmir, Bouffants - No heroine defined the 60s glamour better than Sadhana. Her fringe-cut, tight churidar kurtas set fashion trends of their time. But to be fair to Sadhana she was more than just a glamour doll and was a talented actress as well with a fine gift of understatement.
Named after the legendary dancer Sadhana Bose, she made her debut playing Sheila Ramani's sister in the first ever Sindhi film Abana (1958). S.Mukherjee cast her opposite son Joy in Love in Simla (1960) and with its success, Sadhana became a star, a youth icon.
Bimal Roy's Parakh (1960) was her next film where she was cast as a simple girl without her trademark fringe. Sadhana responded with perhaps the best performance of her career. She followed this with Hum Dono (1961) and Asli Naqli (1962) both opposite Dev Anand, Ek Musafir Ek Hasina (1962) again opposite Joy Mukherjee, Man Mauji (1962) with Kishore Kumar and then perhaps her most remembered film Mere Mehboob (1963) opposite Rajendra Kumar. It was her first film in colour and she never looked better!
Sadhana was then seen in a series of films that set the box office on fire - Rajkumar (1964), Woh Kaun Thi (1964), Arzoo (1965), Waqt (1965) and Mera Saaya (1966), making her the most saleable heroine of the 60s. She married her Love in Simla Director R.K. Nayyar the same year (1966).
But during the making of Arzoo, her thyroid problems worsened and her eyes, perhaps the most beautiful feature of her face, got affected and began bulging. She was unceremoniously removed from major films like Around the World (1967) and Sangharsh (1968) starring Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar respectively.
Undergoing treatment in Boston, she came back to films and some of them even were big successes - Inteqam (1969) and Ek Phool Do Maali (1969) both with Sanjay Khan but the earlier magic was missing.
Ishq par Zor Nahin (1970), Aap Aaye Bahar Aayi (1971), Dil Daulat Duniya (1972) all sank without a trace and though Geeta Mera Naam (1974) somewhat succeeded, she realized it was time to gracefully withdraw.
Today a widow, she willfully avoids any publicity so that people remember her as she was in her heyday.
