Sharmila Tagore won the Silver Lotus Award for her acting at the 23rd National Film Festival and the film itself was awarded the Second Best Feature Film that year. The film was nominated in eight categories at the 24th Film fare Awards. Sanjiv Kumar was nominated for the Best Actor category but did not get it but Sharmila got her Best Actress Film fare Award for Mausam. Gulzar has mentioned in one of his interviews that the song ‘Dil Dhoondta Hai’ is one his most memorable songs and he cherishes his own lyrics.
Sanjiv Kumar broke all the myths of being actor and of stardom; he did not have the physique of a star, he was not ‘‘handsome’’ like Vinod Khanna, Dharmednra or Firoz Khan his contemporaries of the 70s and 80s, however, he did some of the best romantic roles, most challenging roles and he personified the ‘all-rounder concept’ as an actor. He left for the heavenly abode at 47….which is no age for exiting. He is remembered even today as one of the brightest talents of Hindi cine- world.
In the song DIl Dhoondata Hai…Bhupinder Singh’s voice aptly suits Sanjiv Kumar; he emotes the yearning and longing so well, his expressions of deep pining, a strong desire, tenderness and sadness in his singing. On the screen Sanjiv emotes all of this with par excellence. The flashback is captured excellently in song adding significance to the tune and lyrics of the song. Also, the younger Sanjiv Kumar and Sharmila Tagore’s onscreen romantic meetings add fantastic chemistry to the song. Sanjiv Kumar portrays nostalgic feeling impeccably; the flashback shows shades of pleasure while his loneliness visiting the same spots where he met his love in past. Feeling nostalgic describes pleasurable emotions associated with a longing to go back to a particular period of time.
Life is a cycle of losing and gaining; we sometimes desire to live some pleasant moments of past. We all feel nostalgic sometimes but nostalgia creates dilemma. Past love especially is remembered without creating nagging doubts and niggling details. Consequently, the details of breaking the relationship for whatever reasons come back repeatedly which adds anxiety. This song shows the feelings of nostalgia so well and it tells the story of the movie.
For me, the song is melodious and timeless, I love watching the song again and again on YouTube.
