and in the end Nandu takes Pushpa home with him, like a son who is reunited with his long lost mother with Anand Babu looking on, crying happily. Cast Sharmila Tagore as Pushpa Rajesh Khanna as Anand Vinod Mehra as Nandkishore Sharma "Nandu" Abhi Bhattacharya as Dr. Ghosh Satyendra Kapoor as Vijay Madan Puri as Nepali Babu Sujit Kumar as Mahesh Sharma Bindu as Kamla Sharma Farida Jalal as Nandu's wife Om Prakash as Natwarlal Master Bobby as Young Nandkishore Sharma "Nandu" Master Raju as Nandu's younger brother Leela Mishra as Mausi Asit Sen as Chandar Manmohan as Ram Ratan Rakesh Pandey as Anand's Brother-in-law Hiralal as Hostel Supervisor Moolchand as Pan Shop Owner Jankidas as Priest Production Script After making entertainers like China Town (1962), Ek Raaz (1963), Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), Sawan Ki Ghata (1966) and An Evening in Paris (1967) through the 1960s, with Aradhana (1969) and Kati Patang (1971), Samanta had entered the phase of emotional dramas in his career. Nishi Padma (Night Flower, 1970), for night-flowering-jasmine, was made by Arabinda Mukherjee with Uttam Kumar and Sabitri Chatterjee as leads. When Samanta saw the film, he was so impressed by the performance of Uttam Kumar, that he decided to remake it. However, he decided to make some changes in the script. The original film was based on the Bengali short story Hinger Kochuri, written by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay,. The title derives its name from a typical Bengali late afternoon snack, kachori, made with of fried dough stuffed with lentils, and hing (asafoetida). The story was first published in Bandopadhyay's short story collection, Galpa Panchashat (Fifty Stories, 1956). His stories had previously been adapted by Satyajit Ray as Pather Panchali (1955) and the Apu Trilogy. Shakti Samanta asked Mukherjee who also wrote Nishi Padmas screenplay to write a Hindi version, with Ramesh Pant, a longtime-collaborator with Samanta penning the Hindi dialogues. The famous dialogue, "Pushpa, I hate tears" though also there in the original, was merely part of a dialogue, Samanta decided to use it to great effect, delivered in Rajesh Khanna's trademark style. Later, both the writers of the film won Filmfare Awards in their respective categories. Casting Once the script was ready, Samanta approached Sharmila Tagore, with whom he had done a string of films, like Kashmir Ki Kali (1964), An Evening in Paris (1967) and most recently Aradhana (1969), with Rajesh Khanna. Tagore found her