Dinesh Raheja salutes Sandhya, the acclaimed actress who passed into the ages on October 4.
At the very zenith of the Golden Age of Hindi cinema, Sandhya helped power an unparalleled hat-trick of critically acclaimed superhit films.
What's more, her three big classic movies -- Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Do Ankhen Barah Haath (1957) and Navrang (1959) -- were released within just a five year span.
But because Sandhya acted only in films directed by her husband (she was the renowned filmmaker V Shantaram's third wife), the actress' filmography extends to only 12 films in a career straddling a full quarter of a century.
Yet upon her death on October 4, 2025 at the age of 94, Sandhya leaves behind a rich legacy.
She landed roles that would be any actress' envy.
She had several classic songs filmed on her such as Aye Maalik Tere Bande Hum.
Her memorable dance as both a man and a woman in the perennial Holi song Arrey Jaa Re Hath Natkhat is part of cinema history.
And who can forget her energetic show-stopping numbers in which she danced while swinging from one prop bell to another or with multiple pots expertly balanced on her head.
There was often an element of the theatrical in Sandhya's onscreen persona.
Born Vijaya Deshmukh, she came from a theatre background and at age 20 was first discovered for films by Shantaram in the landmark Marathi historical, Amar Bhupali (1951).
The immortal Lata Mangeshkar bhajan Ghanshyam Sundara Sridhara was filmed on her and helped make Sandhya a known face.
Sandhya's Hindi film debut took place the next year when Shantaram decided to play the hero and cast her opposite him in Parchhain (1952). Ironically, the female lead was played by Shantaram's then wife Jayshree.
Parchhain was not successful, and Shantaram moved on to Subah Ka Tara with Jayshree but also cast Sandhya in his social message film, Teen Batti Chaar Raasta (1953).
Sandhya put on dark makeup and did well in the pivotal role of a maid servant who pulls together a culturally diverse family.
But the film that put Sandhya on the map was Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955).
Shantaram had been among the first to bring colour technology to Indian films with Sairandhri back in 1933, and he decided to make his next as a grandly scaled dance epic in technicolour.
Consider the creative courage of this collaborative pair: Sandhya had no training in dance yet she played a classical Indian dancer. And Shantaram chose to cast as the leading man not a big star but 20-year-old Kathak exponent Gopi Kishan whose job it was to also train his onscreen dance partner, Sandhya.
The result, against all odds, was a song-and-dance treat.
Replete with popular songs, the film ran in theatres for over a year. It won both the National Award and Filmfare Award for Best Film and has become a cultural landmark for its depiction of classical dance in cinema.
The next year, Shantaram and Jayshree underwent a bitter divorce.
Shantaram quickly married Sandhya though she was a good 30 years younger to him.
The actress was devoted to her husband.
Sandhya worked at keeping her husband's blended family together. When 57-year-old Shantaram suffered a freak injury to his eyes during the shooting of the bullfight sequence in Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957), it was Sandhya who diligently nursed him back to health.
Do Aankhen Barah Haath is an unqualified classic, having won both the National Award and the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Filmed in stark black and white, the film has Shantaram playing a progressive jailor who seeks to reform six hardened criminals by setting them to work on a farm.
Sandhya is ostensibly not part of the film's main theme but the film benefits tremendously from the feminine energy she brings.
Sandhya's sing-song intonations and bobbing-head mannerisms prove a perfect match to her character -- a spitfire toy-seller whose sales route takes her past the farm.
The criminals may ogle her but there is much more to this fiery woman who never loses her agency. She inspires two motherless kids in the rousing Tak Tak Dhoom Dhoom sequence and becomes the film's moral centre in the climactic prayer.
Sandhya's third hit in a row, Navrang, seemingly influenced Raj Kapoor's Satyam Shivam Sundaram two decades later.
The leading man (Mahipal) is a poet who conjures up Mohini, a more glamorous version of his wife Jamuna (both played by Sandhya) as his muse, leading to much heartburn.
Sandhya's declamatory style of delivering lines and elaborately staged dance numbers make for interesting viewing as does the film's richly layered theme of creative inspiration conflating and conflicting with real-life imperatives.
The team's luck, however, ran out with Stree (1961), which was a remake of Shantaram's 1940s blockbuster Shakuntala, and was studded with beautiful but anachronistic songs like Aaj Madhuvatas Dole and O Nirdayi Preetam.
When Sehra (1963) also couldn't turn the tide, Shantaram made Geet Gaya Pattharon Ne (1965) with his and Jayshree's daughter Rajshree and scored a success.
Touchingly, Shantaram reverted faithfully to Sandhya with Ladki Sahyadri Ki (1966) and in a big way with Jal Bin Machhli Nritya Bin Bijli (1971).
The latter film afforded Sandhya, still svelte and lissome at 40, rich opportunities to showcase her dancing prowess in several tuneful numbers, whether doing a snake dance (Kajra Laga Ke) or dancing on one leg (O Mitwa) or performing paroxysms of anguish (the title song). But audience tastes had changed and the film flopped.
Fate, however, had one more creative triumph in store for Sandhya.
Pinjara (1972), inspired by the Marlene Dietrich classic, The Blue Angel, had Sandhya playing a worldly Tamasha artiste whose higher self awakening is paralleled by the debasement of an righteous schoolteacher (Sreeram Lagoo) infatuated with her.
Sandhya's performance and her boisterous lavani dances helped make the film very popular.
Thereafter, Sandhya stayed away from the limelight save for her final film, Chandanachi Choli Ang Ang Jali (1975).
She had foregone having her own offspring but maintained warm relations with her husband's children.
Though Sandhya became famous for her frenzied dance style, her animated darting eyes, and a library of facial expressions, her offscreen persona was of a sedate woman of few words, always impeccably dressed in white and sporting a chandrama-sized red bindi.
After Shantaram's demise in 1990, Sandhya remained a part of his family unit. She was only rarely glimpsed in her characteristic simple white cotton sari.
Till her death at 94, Sandhya rested on her hard-earned laurels.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
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