General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Chandan Ka Palna (चन्दन का पालना)

Chandan Ka Palna (चन्दन का पालना) is a 1967 Hindi-language drama film directed by Ismail Memon and starring Meena Kumari, Dharmendra, Mehmood, and Mumtaz, with music by Rahul Dev Burman. It won the Filmfare Award for Best Art Director, Colour, at the 15th Filmfare Awards held in 1968.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Original title	चन्दन का पालना³
Release year	1967; listed dates include 5 June 1967¹
Director and writer	Ismail Memon (story and screenplay)⁴
Lead cast	Meena Kumari (Shobha Rai), Dharmendra (Ajit), Mehmood (Mahesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay), Mumtaz (Sadhana)⁵
Music	Rahul Dev Burman; lyrics Anand Bakshi⁴
Runtime and genre	2 hours 46 minutes; drama⁶
Award	Filmfare Best Art Director, Colour, 1968, to Abdul Rahim²
Producer	Arzoo Films⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Ajit (Dharmendra) lives with his mother (Durga Khote) in a wealthy family. He falls in love with Shobha (Meena Kumari), daughter of Harikishan Rai (Nazir Hussain), and the two marry with great ceremony. A few years later Ajit notices a change in Shobha's behavior: she adopts a more liberal outlook, takes to drinking alcohol, and cuts her hair. Ajit and his mother are perplexed and want to know the reason, but Shobha refuses to explain. After an argument with her mother-in-law, Shobha is asked to leave and returns to her father's house, leaving the question of whether Ajit should marry again.⁸

A fuller account of the story explains the motive behind the change. Ajit's mother Radha, a widow, wants a grandchild to continue the family line, and after years without children a doctor tells her that Shobha may never become a mother. The family's revered spiritual figure Gurudev (Bipin Gupta) tells Shobha she is destined to remain barren. Fearing the humiliation of being branded barren and wanting Ajit to remarry, Shobha deliberately stages a campaign of misconduct so that her husband's family will reject her.⁹^•¹⁰

Cast and crew

The credited cast includes Meena Kumari as Shobha Rai, Dharmendra as Ajit, Mehmood as Mahesh Chandra Mukhopadhyay, Mumtaz as Sadhana, Durga Khote as Mrs. Radha Laxmidas, Mukri as Munshi Chhote Lal, Dhumal as Gopi, Bipin Gupta as Gurudev, Abhi Bhattacharya as Dr. A.N. Das, and Nazir Hussain as Harikishan Rai.⁵ Ismail Memon wrote the story and screenplay (with Shor Niyazi also credited on the screenplay), D.C. Mehta was the director of photography, and Rahul Dev Burman composed the music.⁴^•⁵

Some databases list the director as Ismail Mohan rather than Ismail Memon, and Rotten Tomatoes spells the name Ismail Menon; the majority of sources, including Times of India, IMDb, and Letterboxd, use Ismail Memon.⁷^•⁶^•¹¹

Music

The soundtrack was composed by R.D. Burman with lyrics by Anand Bakshi, and the playback singers included Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, and Manna Dey.⁴^•¹² The track list includes "O Ganga Maiya Paar Laga De" (Lata Mangeshkar), "Sharabi Mera Naam" (Lata Mangeshkar), "Tumhe Dekha Hai" (Mohammed Rafi), "Nir Ta Ta Dhang" (Rafi and Manna Dey), "Kya Baat Karte Ho" (Manna Dey and Asha Bhosle), "Kis Karan Kamini Sharmaye" (Usha Mangeshkar and Lata Mangeshkar), and "Mastana Huye Parwana Huye" (Asha Bhosle and Manna Dey).⁴^•¹³

"O Ganga maiya, paar laga de meri sapno ki naiya," set in Raag Jogiya and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, was shortlisted among the four finalists for the Sur Singar Samsad's best Classical Song of the Year award for 1967; the award that year went to a Madan Mohan composition.¹⁴

Reception and legacy

The film won the Filmfare Award for Best Art Director, Colour, for Abdul Rahim at the 15th Filmfare Awards, which honored the films of 1967.² On IMDb it holds a rating of about 7.0/10 from 59 votes.¹⁵

A retrospective review describes the film as a relatively obscure Meena Kumari vehicle that treats the era's anxieties about a woman's childlessness, lifted by Mehmood's comic turn as a Bengali obsessed with Indian classical music and by Dhumal's Kathak dancing in the jugalbandi (duet where two musicians improvise competitively) number "Nir ta ta dhang."¹⁰ The film is listed in the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema among Meena Kumari's 1966–67 releases.¹⁶

Release dates

Sources disagree on the exact release date. Times of India gives 5 June 1967,¹ Moviebuff gives 3 May 1967,⁴ Letterboxd and FMDb give 17 September 1967,¹¹^•⁵ and Bollywood Hungama gives 1 January 1967.¹² All agree on the year 1967.

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 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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