1969 belonged to Kaka

“Aradhana” and “Do Raaste” released in Nov 1969 were running superhits and were declared blockbusters for the year. In 1969, whatever Rajesh Khanna touched turned into gold. 

The prime example has movies like Doli, Iffefaq, and Bandhan which were released during the same month with Bandhan been an exception. Just imagine a scene, when theaters were running only Kaka’s movies right from morning to late night show. It was crazy. Bandhan had the famous pair of Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz in the lead roles. Bandhan didn’t have great songs as compared to his previous films, but then it hardly mattered to Kaka who was running his dream run.In Doli, he was paired with Babita and music was composed by Ravi.

Doli was a movie in which we get to see the branding of the superstar. When the titles roll, Rajesh Khanna’s name appears in the end, which says “And above all – Rajesh Khanna”. This was how Pran Saab’s name used to appear in titles as quoted by Bunny Reuben in his book ….And Pran. The song “Sajna Sath Nibhana” was decent with Kaka showering his emotions, which made his female fans go berserk. I felt “Doli” & “Bandhan” were ordinary movies; however, destiny had a something different on its plate for Kaka.

“Iffefaq” was a thriller & a good film, which had no songs. I vividly remember my father in law telling me that “Ifteefaq” will always remain one of the favourite movies till date. He told me plainly that it is impossible to guess the murderer. The script was tightly written. “Iffefaq” brought the much -needed change for people who were tired with a romantic genre. It was an interesting movie; however, people were left with no choice than to watch Rajesh Khanna. Unknowingly, Kaka bulldozed his competitors in 1969 with back to back hits.