Mahesh Bhatt calls Gulzar ‘brave’ for showing a woman choosing ambition over love in Aandhi: ‘It was unheard of’

Aandhi, which starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen and was directed by Gulzar, turned 50 this week.

By: PTI

February 14, 2025 09:13 PM IST

3 min read

Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen in a still from Aandhi.

Gulzar’s Aandhi, which turned 50 this week, is a special film that speaks about quiet ironies of life and was bold for its time as it depicted a woman prioritising ambition over love, says filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.

The director, known for exploring various hues of the man-woman relationship in his movies such as Arth, Zakham, Naam and Aashiqui, said he has always been an admirer of the classic, starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen. Bhatt said whenever he thinks about the 1975 classic, he still remembers the faces of the two actors as they part in the final scenes.

“People like to say Aandhi is about politics, (but) it’s not about politics, it’s not about lost love. It’s about the quiet ironies of life, about how two human beings meet again only to realise that some distances can never be crossed. Yesterday is a country you can’t visit,” Bhatt told PTI in an interview.

Aandhi is considered a modern classic and is perhaps the best known film in lyricist-poet Gulzar’s filmography as a director that also includes movies such as Mausam, Parichay, Mere Apne, Khushboo and Lekin. Aandhi had a great soundtrack by RD Burman with singers in Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar. Its songs “Tere Bina”, “Tum Aa Gaye Ho” and “Iss Mod Se Jaate Hai” are popular even today.

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The Hindi film, written by famous Hindi author Kamleshwar, revolved around a couple whose relationship suffers because of different ambitions. Sen played Aarti Devi, a woman from a political family while Kumar was in the role of JK, a hotel manager.

Sharing his memories of watching the movie, Bhatt said, “It deals with the cost of choices that you make. It’s also a meditation on love and ambition. At that time for a woman to be ambitious and choose her path was almost unheard of. It was very brave of Gulzar sahab to pick a character who has made a difficult choice, and chosen ambition, and gone against the diktat that a woman must sacrifice her ambition at the altar of what is defined as enduring love. She is not caged by that, so that was something that did stay with me.”

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