Asli-Naqli - Cast

Cast

Sadhna and Dev Anand with Leela Chitnis, Anwar Hussain, Sandhya Roy, Mukri, Kesto Mukerji & Motilal.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee as a director comes to maturity in this film and develops a signature style of healthy family entertainment. This film follows one of his earlier successes, Anari.

Innovative Song Picturisation: In the expression of love, while filming the song, "Ek but banaunga," Hrishikesh Mukherjee took care so that Dev Anand and Sadhna maintained a distance of at least 20 feet between them. At one time when they come nearer, there is a blackboard on stand between them. When Dev Anand turns around the blackboard to Sadhna's side, the latter puts a slate between them. In the backdrop of rains outside, with Muhammad Rafi's magic all around, some one takes away a goat from the rain-sheltered veranda and one is transported to the dream world of love. At times Dev Anand is outside in the veranda with the bamboo mesh of a window between them. Dev is worshipping Sadhana with folded hands and in the end Sadhna comes near with her hands raised in blessing. This is one of the best song ever picturised in Hindi Cinema expressing love without any vulgarity.

Similarly while picturising the song, "Tera mera pyaar amar," Hrishikesh Mukherjee demosntrates the love between Dev Anand and Sadhna by putting them in different places as the song unfolds. In the early part of his career, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was a cinematographer and all through the film, there is brilliant camera work.

The Story: Dev Anand plays the role of a rich heir spoilt by his grand father (played by Nasir Hussain) and leaves his house to seek employment under the guise of an unemployed, uneducated youth. Sadhna takes pity on him and helps in his employment. Sadhna works herself to support her mother and her family, and she hides the fact that her father has died in Africa.

The film gives the message that wealth is not everything and being rich does not give one happiness. On the other hand poor people with their limited means find ways and means to live a life of happiness with compassion. Dev Anand through his adventure discovers life and in the end is reconciled with his grand father.

Renu lives a poor lifestyle with her mom, dad and a brother. Her dad decides to travel to Africa so that he can earn enough money to send his son to study engineering, so that he can find employment abroad. But fate has other plans when one day Renu's brother returns home sick from college, and shortly thereafter passes away. His shocked father books a seat on a plane to attend his son's funeral, but the plane crashes killing everyone on board. Shattered and devastated, Renu decides to hide her dad's death from her ill and fragile mom, and goes along pretending that her father is still alive. She obtains employment and through her earnings convinces her mom that her dad is regularly sending money. Then things brighten up when a homeless young man, Anand, enters her life, both fall in love with each other and want to get married. But once again fate plays a cruel joke on Renu as she subsequently finds out that Anand is not who he claims to be... Highlights: There is a scene in which Nasir Hussain praises the workmanship of an artifact to Dev Anand when the latter is disturbed. The same scene would be repeated by Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the film Namak Haram (1973) between Om Shivpuri and Amitabh Bachchan.

In this film, in a lone scene, Motilal, the character actor gives a brilliant performance by advising Dev Anand to let things go, rather than to control them. He asks Dev Anand in the club to hold sands in his palm and tells him, "If you would try to hold on to the sands, these would escape through your fingers. But if you keep your palm open, they would stay undisturbed."

The film is refreshing with brilliant acting by all the cast and is very competently directed