By Jagmohan Singh Barhok
‘पन्ना की तमन्ना है कि हीरा मुझे मिल जाये
चाहे मेरी जान जाये चाहे मेरा दिल जाये’
Zeenat Aman, the noted sex symbol of early 1970s, also Femina Miss India and Miss Asia Pacific international, took no time to see her dreams come true when she was signed to play a key role in Dev Anand starrer “Hare Rama Hare Krishna”, a film which highlighted the hippie- cult. The film was shot at different locales including some at Kathmandu in Nepal, where hippies lived in thousands as drugs were easily available thereat. The film stormed the filmdom & was declared a super hit, thereby making the newcomer Zeenat Aman a star overnight. The things suddenly turned rosy for the starlet ,whose earlier two films “Hungama” & “Hulchul” had failed to yield desired results.
‘Yaadon Ki Baaraat’ released in 1973 was another of her earlier successes followed by star-studded “Roti Kapda Aur Makaan”. The actress was later cast in B. R. Chopra’s much publicized movie “Insaaf Ka Taraz”. The film, highlighting brutal rape of two sister- Zeenat Aman & budding actress Padmini Kolhapure, proved a commercial success at the box office. Raj Babbar enacts a lecherous rapist. Some of the court scenes were replete with explicit sexual innuendos. The year 1980 turned out to be the luckiest for the actress as three of her films-“Qurbani”, “Lawaaris” & “Dostana” were released to packed houses. Qurbani , Insaaf Ka Tarazu, Dostana were the highest grossing films of 1980 with “Qurbani” topping the list with “Aap Jaisa Koi”, rendered by Nazia Hassan doing wonders. In 1981 she featured in “Laawaris” alongside Amitabh Bachchan. It was another superhit films.
In between, she was reportedly married to Sanjay Khan. Their affair blossomed during the shooting of film “Abdulla”, later parting ways. Zeenat married Mazhar Khan in 1985. It would be injustice if we did not mention Raj Kapoor’s Shashi Kapoor- Zeenat starrer “Satyam Shivam Sundaram”. The film highlighted sex & nudity but it failed at the box office. Zeenat Aman’s other films include- “Ajnabi”, “Shalimaar”, “Chilla Babu”, “Heera Panna”, “Waarant” , “Pukar”, “Manoranjan” & ” Prem Shastra” .
