‘I asked for the Mike, I was given the mirror’ ‘If I were a boy I would’ve married LATA MANGESHKAR’
Just two of the many quotes attributed to yesteryear’s star singer Sulakshana Pandit, a former star forgotten by film lovers and her own fraternity as well.
Sulakshana was born in 1954 in the illustrious Pandit household which boasted of renowned classical vocalists like Pandit Maniram, Pandit Pratap Narayan(her father), pandit Jasraj and many others. In the mid 60s she along with her father and older brother shifted to Bombay and started singing as a child star in movies like Taqdeer(1967).
Her rose complexion and golden tresses only added to the film makers and Co singers recommending her to take up acting as an alternate career. She struck gold with the suspense thriller Uljhan(1975) her debut as a lead star opposite Sanjeev Kumar. She alternated between a singer and an actress and struggled hard to establish herself as a singing star. She appeared in films like Raaja (1975), Hera Pheri(1976), Sankoch (1976), Salaakhein(1976), Thief of Baghdad (1977), Apnapan (1978), amar Shakti (1978), Bondie (1978), Khandan (1979), Waqt Ki Deewar(1981) and others taking a tally to 30 films released till 1988.
As a singer she got an opportunity to sing for music directors like Shankar Jaikishan, R D Burman, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Kalyanji Anandji, Usha Khanna, Ravindra Jain, Rajesh Roshan, Bappi Lahiri, and sang primarily in Bollywood besides Marathi, Bengali, Rajasthani, Gujarati and Punjabi devotional.
It was in matters of the heart that she failed miserably, she fell hopelessly in love with Co star Sanjeev Kumar whose intimate company she yearned for. She even proposed marriage to him which he declined as he couldn’t get over his heartbreak with Hema Malini. After Kumar’s untimely death in 1985 Sulakshana slipped into acute depression. She shunned all social and public events for a long time and lived along with her mother (who passed away in 1999). Younger sister Vijayta urged her to shift at her house in 2003 thereby putting an end to Sulakshana’s long spell of loneliness and depression.
During her heydays in the 70s and early 80s she was pursued as a ‘marriageable’ miss and ironically she stayed unmarried all her life! Having once won the Filmfare best playback singer award she had to swallow her pride for not being invited for any functions after she stopped working. In an interview conducted in 2002 she had confessed that she was eager to return to playback singing but her last recorded full fledged song was in Paththar Dil (1985) after which she had only sung devotional songs or an alaap in Khamoshi(1996).
She had once claimed that her ambition in life was to be the next LATA Mangeshkar whom she considered an ideal but unfortunately her career was nipped in the bud and at the most she could be called an sunset nightingale who never really got her dues.
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