General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Anurodh (अनुरोध)

Anurodh (अनुरोध) is a 1977 Hindi-language musical drama film directed by Shakti Samanta and produced by Girija Samanta for Samanta Enterprises, starring Rajesh Khanna, Ashok Kumar, Vinod Mehra, and Simple Kapadia. The story follows Arun Choudhary, a businessman's son who dreams of becoming a singer, adopts the secret identity Sanjay Kumar, and rises to radio fame while hiding his career from a father who despises music.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Release	1977; IMDb lists February 11, 1977 (India), while The Times of India lists August 1, 1977¹^•³
Director / producer	Shakti Samanta / Girija Samanta, Samanta Enterprises, Bombay⁴
Music	Laxmikant-Pyarelal; lyrics by Anand Bakshi; playback singers Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, and Lata Mangeshkar⁴^•⁵
Source	Based on the 1963 Bengali film Deya Neya⁶
Runtime	2 hours 27 minutes (147 minutes) on streaming platforms; the censor record lists 157 minutes 58 seconds across 16 reels¹^•⁴
Censor rating	U certificate, number 83544, dated 31 January 1977⁴
IMDb rating	6.8/10 from about 240 user ratings¹

Spoilers

Story

Mr. Choudhary (Utpal Dutt) does not approve of his son Arun (Rajesh Khanna) indulging in singing and music; he wants him to be a businessman like himself. Out of fear of his father finding out, Arun changes his name to Sanjay Kumar, becomes a popular singer, and is hired by the local radio station to sing songs. As his popularity grows, so does the risk that his father will discover the truth, and Arun must keep his family life and singing career separate.²

Cinemaazi's promotional material frames the film as "the story of friendship between Music and Poetry, between friends one who writes and the other who sings," alongside parallel storylines of a grandfather who lost his son in the independence struggle and a young woman in love with a singer's voice without recognizing her lover.⁷ The Cinema Paradiso synopsis adds that Sanjay leaves home for Calcutta, works as a driver in the house of Ramesh Chandra, and meets Sunita (Simple Kapadia), the granddaughter of Ramesh Chandra.⁸

Cast and crew

Rajesh Khanna plays Arun Choudhury under the aliases Sanjay Kumar and Pritam Nath Ghayal. Ashok Kumar plays Ramesh Chandra Mathur, Vinod Mehra plays Shrikant Mathur, Simple Kapadia plays Sumita Mathur, Nirupa Roy plays Radha Mathur, Utpal Dutt plays R.K. Choudhary, and Dina Pathak plays Sushma Choudhary. Supporting roles include Govardhan Asrani as Bishan Singh, Rita Bhaduri as Anju, Abhi Bhattacharya as Dr. Sen, Asit Kumar Sen as Saxena the radio station manager, and Preeti Ganguli as Manjeet Kaur.⁵

The film marked Simple Kapadia's screen debut; the Hindi Film Database notes her as a "new discovery," and she is billed simply as "Simple" in the credits.⁴^•⁶^•⁵

Behind the camera, Gauri Prasanna Mazumder wrote the story, Din Dayal Sharma wrote the screenplay and dialogues, Aloke Dasgupta was the cinematographer, Bijoy Chowdhary the editor, and Shanti Dass the art director.⁵

Music

Laxmikant-Pyarelal composed the score with lyrics by Anand Bakshi. The six songs listed in the Hindi Film Database include the title song "Aap Ke Anurodh Pe Main Ye Geet Sunata Hoon," sung by Kishore Kumar; "Aate Jate Khoobsurat Awara," also by Kishore Kumar; and "Tum Besahara Ho To Kisee Ka Sahara Bano," sung by Manna Dey with chorus in happy and sad versions. Lata Mangeshkar is also credited as a playback singer.⁴^•⁵ An EP record (7EPE 7366) on the HMV label contained songs and dialogues from the film.⁴

Production context

Anurodh belongs to Shakti Samanta's run of films with Rajesh Khanna, which included Aradhana (1969), Kati Patang (1971), and Amar Prem (1972). Samanta directed 43 feature films, 37 in Hindi and 6 in Bengali, and later served as chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification.⁹

An IMDb trivia entry states that Rajesh Khanna saw the rushes and, feeling Samanta had given Vinod Mehra more footage, demanded more scenes be written for him, and that this altered the script and the film failed.¹ Moviebuff records that the film was criticized for Rajesh Khanna performing romantic scenes with Simple Kapadia, who was his sister-in-law in real life.⁶

Release and availability

The censor certificate was issued in Bombay on 31 January 1977 for a 4,333.32-meter, 16-reel print running 157 minutes 58 seconds.⁴ Release dates differ across databases: IMDb and FMDb list February 11, 1977, Digit binge lists February 10, 1977, Moviebuff lists February 1, 1977, and The Times of India lists August 1, 1977.¹^•¹⁰^•⁶^•³ The film currently streams on Amazon Prime Video in India, with English subtitles, at a listed runtime of 147 minutes.¹¹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 1970s › Released 1976 to 1979

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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