Sandhya Santharam

Sandhya Santharam Biography

Sandhya – heroine of yesterdays is well known as wife of talented director Shantharam. She has done some excellent movies in the golden era of Bollywood – 1950’s and most of those hits belong to her director husband Shanta ram. Her best three movies include Navrang, Do Ankhen Barah haath and Jhanak jhanak payal baaje and these three were critically well-acclaimed too, winning many awards including National awards and Filmfare.

She entered Bollywood at a time when movies were filled with social reforms and most of such movies used to give some fruitful message as well. Shantaram belongs to that group of directors who have brought great reforms to Indian cinema through the movies like Do Ankhen Barah haath.   

Sandhya entered acting field through a Marathi movie Amar Bhupali in 1952. It was Shantaram who rediscovered her and gave a string of meaty roles that she did with brilliance. In most movies, she was placed either as a classical dancing or as dancing to tunes to hero. We have seen a nice Holi song pictured on her where she wore the mask of a man and danced in two ways. The song ‘Are jare’ is still remembered for its unique way of picturisation. In Jhanak jhanak payal baaje, she did the role of a kathak dancer along with Gopikrishna. In almost all her movies she was paired opposite this actor of which Jhanak jhanak payal baaje and Navrang were most famous.

Do Ankhen Barah haath can be counted among those trend setter movies with good social message. In this movie, Shantharam did the leading role of a jailor who tried to reform his 12 prisoners. Sandhya did the role of a toy seller who falls in love with the hero. The famous bhajan, ‘Hey Malik tere bande’ was pictured on her in its climax. In Navrang, she played the role of wife of Gopikrishna, a fantasy poet immersed in poetic thoughts and imaginations who always imagine his wife in different avatars. But Sandhya played a simple lady in this movie, though appeared as a fantasy in those dream and imagination sequences.

In 2009, after a long time she appeared in the public during the 50^th year celebration of Navrang, at the award ceremony for the V. Shantaram Awards.

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Updated: April 25, 2013