Yesteryear’s Bollywood actor Asha Parekh will be awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the most prestigious in the field of Indian cinema, in the forthcoming National Film Awards. This was announced by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur on Tuesday. 

Asha Parekh was one of the leading actresses in the 70s and 80s. She starred in blockbusters like Kati Patang, Teesri Manzil, and Do Badan. She started her career as a child actor in the year 1952, with the film Aasman.  

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The actress’s last film was Sar Ankhon Par, which was released in the year 1999. The plot of Sar Ankhon Par revolves around a small-time actor Samdev (played by Dilip Joshi), who is dying from cancer. His son abhors the film industry as he blames it for his mother’s death. But to support the dying actor in his last moments, all the popular stars in the film industry come together and show up when he needs them the most. 

The film stars other popular actors such as Shammi Kapoor, Biswajeet Divya Dutta and Mukul Dev. The veteran actors Shammi Kapoor, Asha Parekh and Biswajeet star as themselves in the film, as popular Bollywood actors who pool their support for the dying actor. 

According to the director Gyan Sahay, the basic treatment of the film has been such that its tone is musical. But the underlying tone of the film is full of drama, and it is full of moments brimming with emotions, so viewers might catch their eyes welled up at times.

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It also picturizes a lot of real life incidents, as conveyed by Mukul Gandhi in an interview with Lehran. One particular incident is about a stuntman who passed away during a shoot where they had to enact a scene wherein a car crashes and falls into a lake. This was the director’s effort to portray the repercussions that the stuntman’s family had to bear with the carelessness and negligence of the crew. 

Sar Ankhon par depicts unity and friendships in the film industry, which, according to some, it is devoid of.