Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978 film)

The story is set in a village where Roopa lives with her father, the village priest. As a young child, the right side of Roopa's face and neck were burned by a pot of boiling oil, leaving part of her face disfigured. Henceforth, Roopa keeps her right cheek hidden under the veil of her sari. Despite the terrible accident, Roopa remains religious and goes to the village temple daily, singing hymns and devotional songs.

Rajeev is a dashing engineer who arrives in the village to oversee the operation of a major dam. He abhors anything ugly. He hears Roopa's lovely singing and meets her, but does not see her disfigured side, and falls in love with her. He then asks her father's permission to marry her.

After the wedding, he discovers the truth and thinks that he was cheated and forced to marry someone else, at which point he disowns Roopa and drives her out of the house. Roopa decides to meet him at night, using a veil to hide the charred side of her face. Rajeev spends his days ignoring his wife, and his nights loving his mistress, not knowing they are both the same woman.

During one of their nights together, they make love and Roopa gets pregnant. When Rajeev finds out that his wife is pregnant, he suspects her of infidelity and refuses to believe that his "mistress" and wife are the same. He publicly shames her and sends her back to her home. Seeing it, her father dies out of agony. Roopa vows that she will never ever return to him as his mistress.

A terrible storm ravages the village, breaking open the dam which Rajeev had come to repair. The village is being evacuated as the dam's shutters are opening. In the swirling waters of the flood, Rajeev realises how shallow he has been, and saves Roopa from drowning. He now realises both are the same person and accepts Roopa as his wife. In

• Shashi Kapoor as Rajeev, a civil engineer
• Zeenat Aman as Roopa, a village girl
  • Padmini Kolhapure as Young Roopa
• Kanhaiyalal as Pandit Shyam Sunder, village priest
• A. K. Hangal as Bansi, Roopa's uncle
• Hari Shivdasani as Chief Engineer
• David Abraham Cheulkar as Bade Babu
• Leela Chitnis as Bade Babu's wife
• Vishwa Mehra as Jai Singh
• Sheetal as Champa
• Monika as Roopa's friend
• Subroto Mahapatra as Shastry, Roopa's prospective father-in-law
• Javed Khan as Shastry's son
• Tun Tun as Fat Lady

In her book Raj Kapoor Speaks, Ritu Nanda reveals that Lata Mangeshkar was the inspiration behind the film and that he wanted to cast her in the movie; "I visualised the story of a man falling for a woman with an ordinary face but a golden voice and wanted to cast Lata Mangeshkar in the role, the book quotes Raj Kapoor as saying."[3] Before Zeenat Aman was cast in the role, Hema Malini, Dimple Kapadia, Vidya Sinha were offered the role, but they refused because of sensual content and body exposure in the film.[4][5]

Kumar Gaurav (Son of Veteran actor Rajendra Kumar) was an assistant director on the film SSS. He was credited as "Manoj Kumar".

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Planet Bollywood	[6]

Laxmikant–Pyarelal's music won the Filmfare Best Music Director Award. Lata Mangeshkar lends her voice to the main theme song "Satyam Shivam Sundaram", which was among the chart-toppers of the year, and remains a chartbuster. Various recent music groups from both India and the United States, such as Thievery Corporation and Sheila Chandra, have re-done the theme song from the movie. Also, many variations of the song have been made (e.g. the original version is considered, in Indian music, a Bhajan, but Lata Mangeshkar has also made a bhangra-like version, a different style). The song "Chanchal Sheetal Nirmal Komal" was the last song of the popular singer Mukesh, who died soon after recording the song.

Mangeshkar at the time of recording the main theme song was in dispute regards royalties with Raj Kapoor. She has conveyed that she came for the recording, practiced the song for a short while, sang the song in anger in one take, and left.

• Song "Satyam Shivam Sundaram" was listed at #6 on Binaca Geetmala annual list 1977
• Song "Yashomati Maiya Se" was listed at #7 on Binaca Geetmala annual list 1978
• Song "Chanchal Sheetal Nirmal Komal" was listed at #24 on Binaca Geetmala annual list 1978

Rakesh Budhu of Planet Bollywood gave 9 stars stating, "Satyam Shivam Sundaram is still a soundtrack that shines more amidst L-P’s many melody accomplishments."[6]

Filmfare Awards[7]

Won

• Best Music Director - Laxmikant–Pyarelal
• Best Cinematographer - Radhu Karmakar

Nominated

• Best Director - Raj Kapoor
• Best Actress - Zeenat Aman
• Best Lyricist - Pandit Narendra Sharma for the title song "Satyam Shivam Sundaram"
• Best Male Playback Singer - Mukesh for the song "Chanchal Sheetal" (Posthumous)

The Film's exhibition was challenged by a man named Laxman from Himachal Pradesh. A prosecution u/s 292 of the Indian Penal Code was lodged against Raj Kapoor for promoting 'Obscenity' through the Film. The local Magistrate Court took cognisance and summons/notice was issued to Mr. Raj Kapoor. The notice was challenged by Mr. Kapoor before the High Court but the High Court did not interfere. Kapoor then approached the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Justice Krishna Iyer found merit in the contention of the Filmmaker and quashed the prosecution at the threshold. Once a certificate u/s 5. A of the Film Certification Act was granted, the Filmmaker would be covered by the protection u/s 79 of the Indian Penal Code which states, "Nothing is an offence which is done by any person who is justified by law, or who because of a mistake of fact and not because of a mistake of law in good faith, believes himself to be justified by law, in doing it." Justice Iyer in the concluding para has made following observation highlighting the responsibility of the Censor Board, "And the Board, alive to its public duty, shall not play to the gallery; nor shall it restrain aesthetic expression and progressive art through obsolete norms and grandma inhibition when the world is wheeling forward to glimpse the beauty of creation in its myriad manifestations and liberal horizons, A happy balance is to maintained."

• Satyam Shivam Sundaram at IMDb