General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Asli-Naqli (असली नकली)

Asli-Naqli (असली नकली) is a 1962 Hindi-language black-and-white film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, starring Dev Anand and Sadhana, with music by Shankar-Jaikishan. Written by Inder Raj Anand and produced by L.B. Lachman for L.B. Films, it tells of a wealthy heir who leaves his grandfather's house to prove himself, falls in love with a poor young woman in Bombay, and finds that the people he lives among give his life the meaning his millions could not.¹^•² The film was a box-office success and is remembered chiefly for its Shankar-Jaikishan score, including the songs "Tujhe Jeevan Ki Dor Se" and "Tera Mera Pyar Amar".²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Hrishikesh Mukherjee; story, screenplay and dialogue by Inder Raj Anand¹
Production	L.B. Lachman for L.B. Films, Bombay¹
Lead cast	Dev Anand (Anand), Sadhana (Renu), Nazir Hussain (Dwarkadas), Sandhya Roy (Shanti), Anwar Hussain (Mohan), Leela Chitnis (Renu's mother)²^•⁴
Music	Shankar-Jaikishan; lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra; sung by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar⁵
Format	Hindi, black and white, India; runtime reported as 2h 25m (IMDb) and 2h 40m (Rotten Tomatoes)⁴^•⁶
Release	1962; sources give 30 November 1962, 5 June 1962, and November 1962⁷^•⁸^•³
Box office	Hit²

Spoilers

Plot

Anand (Dev Anand) is the grandson of the millionaire Ray Bahadur Dwarkadas (Nazir Hussain), who wants him to marry Rekha (Indira). Anand refuses and leaves home to prove his own worth, moving temporarily to Bombay to look for work.² Nearly arrested for vagrancy, he is rescued by Mohan (Anwar Hussain), who takes him to the cramped home he shares with his sharp-tongued sister Shanti (Sandhya Roy).⁹

There Anand meets Renu (Sadhana Shivdasani), an educated young woman living poorly with her mother (Leela Chitnis) and family. IMDb's synopsis adds that Renu's father has traveled to Africa to earn money for her brother's engineering studies, and that the brother returns home sick from college and dies shortly afterward.⁴ Renu hides a secret from her family: she stages letters from her dead father to protect her fragile mother.⁹ Anand and Renu marry, and in the end Dwarkadas accepts Renu and transfers all his property to her name.²

The film's own press booklet framed the theme as a rich man's search for "REAL happiness": Anand finds it in Mohan, Shanti, and Nandu, people whose labor and simplicity give dignity to their existence, and marches with them, leaving behind his millions and their fake glamour.¹ The story is partly inspired by the 1917 novel The Definite Object by the British writer Jeffery Farnol.⁷

Cast

The principal cast, with roles as recorded by Cinemaazi and the Hindi film database:¹^•¹⁰

Dev Anand as Anand
Sadhana as Renu
Nazir Hussain as Dwarkadas
Sandhya Roy as Shanti
Anwar Hussain as Mohan
Leela Chitnis as Renu's mother
Mukri as Nandu
Indira (Indira Billi) as Rekha
Hari Shivdasani, Keshto Mukherjee, R. P. Kapoor, Asit Sen, Polson, Ajay Kumari, and Sabina in supporting roles

For the Bengali film actress Sandhya Roy, this film marked her entry into Hindi cinema; she went on to appear in hits such as Pooja Ke Phool, Raahgir, and Bandagi.³

Music

Shankar-Jaikishan composed the score, with lyrics by Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra, and playback by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.⁵ The soundtrack album released by Saregama lists eight songs:⁵

"Ek But Banaoonga" – Mohammad Rafi
"Lakh Chhupao Chhup Na Sakega" – Lata Mangeshkar
"Chheda Mera Dil Ne Tarana" – Mohammad Rafi
"Pyar Ka Saaz Bhi Hai" – Mohammad Rafi
"Gori Zara Hans De Tu Hans De" – Mohammad Rafi
"Tera Mera Pyar Amar" – Lata Mangeshkar
"Tujhe Jeevan Ki Dor Se" – Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi
"Kal Ki Daulat Aaj Ki Khushian" – Mohammad Rafi

"Tujhe Jeevan Ki Dor Se Baandh Liya Hai" became the film's most famous song, and "Tera Mera Pyar Amar" is counted among Lata Mangeshkar's evergreen recordings.³ The Hindi film database credits "Kal Ki Daulat Aaj Ki Khushian" to Shailendra and the remaining songs to Hasrat Jaipuri.²

Production

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who had learned film craft from Bimal Roy and had already directed Dilip Kumar (Musafir, 1957) and Raj Kapoor (Anari, 1959), worked with the third of the era's big three stars, Dev Anand, on this film.¹¹^•¹² According to the veteran journalist Raju Bharatan, a severe arthritis attack in 1961 left Mukherjee directing Asli Naqli from a wheelchair.¹² When Bharatan asked how far along the film was, Mukherjee replied that "the Asli part of it is over, only the Naqli portion remains", meaning the dramatic shooting was complete and only the songs remained to be picturized.¹²

Two pieces of production trivia recur across sources. While filming the song "Ek But Banaunga", Mukherjee kept Dev Anand and Sadhana at a distance of at least 20 feet from each other.⁷ And a scene in which Nazir Hussain praises the workmanship of an artifact to a distracted Dev Anand was repeated by Mukherjee in Namak Haram (1973) between Om Shivpuri and Amitabh Bachchan.⁴

Reception and place in Mukherjee's career

The film was a box-office hit.² The Indian Express later described it as having "the ingredients of a pot-boiler, but it was not a brainless film".¹³ Retrospective reviewers have been warm but measured. A Dustedoff review praised the Shankar-Jaikishan music, Sadhana's performance, and Sandhya Roy's Shanti, while finding Anand's casual attitude to holding a job puzzling, and judged the film pleasant and watchable though lacking the subtle insight of Mukherjee's Anupama or Anuradha.¹⁴ A Letterboxd review credited Mukherjee with keeping sentiment on a leash and letting the fable breathe, noting that the film's moral center is not that the poor are angelic but that they share even when sharing hurts.⁹

Within Mukherjee's filmography, Asli Naqli sits among the early films that established him, alongside Anuradha, Mem Didi, and Saanjh Aur Savera, before the films that gave him his distinctive identity, Anupama and Aaradhana.¹¹ The film remains available on streaming platforms, listed on Prime Video and on Shemaroo Me and YouTube.¹⁵^•¹³

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 before 1970

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

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