OUR PARIS DREAM, WHICH CAME TRUE AFTER 35 YEARS

In 1964 Raj Kapur had produced his blockbuster romantic movie Sangam. It was a big hit and is considered a classic in India even today. Parts of this movie were shot in Europe. It also had very good cinematography. To my memory, it was the first Hindi movie shot those locations in Europe.  It had a short scene of a few minutes showing Raj Kapur and Vaijayanti Mala as a newlywed couple standing at second floor of the Eiffel Tower. This scene had become very popular during those days. Eiffel Tower became USP of the movie. All posters of this movie had a big picture of Eiffel Tower in the centre. Those were the days, when foreign travel was a very distant dream for us Indians and Eiffel Tower at Paris was nearly an impossible dream destination for most Indians.

The scene from movie Sangam showing Raj Kapur and Vaijayanti Mala
at Eiffel Tower which made us dream about visiting this place.

At that time I was posted at Dhaulakuan, near Nahan in HP. We were also recently married when we saw this movie at a theatre in Ambala Cantt in the year 1964. As the movie progressed, the silver screen came alive wherein Raj Kapur and Vaijyanti Mala were spending some blissful moments at Eiffel Tower on their honey moon. This scene really fascinated us and planted the dream of being at this place sometime in our lives. Though it seemed very far fetched during that point of time, almost like the dream of legendary “Sheikh Chilli”.

Dream fulfilled after 35 years, myself and my wife Pushpa at the Eiffel Tower.

But as the years passed and life continued, things changed and with it our fortunes too. As they say, you have to dream before your dream comes true. So one fine day after thirty five years, finally the much awaited dream became a reality and both I and my wife Pushpa were at Paris in May, 1999. We took a stroll around the lawns and watched this majestic structure from below. After that we took the lift to go up and reach the point where those particular scenes in movie Sangam were filmed. VOILA!! Our dream of standing at the same point, where Raj Kapur and Vaijayanti Mala had stood and watched the sprawling view of The City of Paris with river Seine flowing through. Our special moments on the Eiffel Tower were captured in my video camera by a fellow traveller.  This was a moment of great excitement and joy for both of us. We were also full of gratitude and thanked the Lord for making our 35 year old dream come true.  

A poster of the movie Sangam

I am posting here a picture of that dream moment. In fact it is not a camera photograph but a screen shot taken from the video made with my Sony Handycam. Therefore it is not so good but still serves the purpose of reliving us that great moment.

Another photo of Raj Kapur and Vaijayanti Mala at Eiffel Tower