Hindi cinema is full of young love stories in which the sweethearts have to suffer the prejudices of their families, there was something so charmingly different about LV Prasad”s K Balachander-directed Ek Duje Ki Liye, that it became one of the biggest Hindi hits of all time.It didn”t have too many chances of success - a South Indian director who had not made a hit Hindi film, a South Indian hero Kamal Haasan, who was entering a market not welcoming to heroes from the South, an unknown heroine Rati Agnihotri who was a Punjabi girl working in Tamil films.

Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s music and the freshness of the directorial approach. Songs likeHum bane tum bane, Tere mere beech mein, Solah baras ki bali umar, and Mere jeevan saathi (the last made up of film titles, since the hero does not know Hindi).

The Tamilian Basu (Kamal) who does not speak a word of Hindi, falls in love with his pretty Punjabi neighbour Sapna (Rati) who lives next door.

Their parents, already at loggerheads over North-South differences, blow a fuse. Faced with defiance by the youngsters they put forward the condition that Basu and Sapna stay away from each other for a year. If they survive the separation, it would prove their love was genuine and not just an infatuation.

They agree to the condition even it means suffering the separation intensely. Sapna writes Basu”s name all over the walls and when her mother burns his photograph, she puts the ashes in her coffee and drinks it.

Madhavi played the third angle of the story, a widow who silently loves Basu and supports him in his time of agony. In the end, Basu and Sapna are forced to commit suicide, and so realistic and disturbing was the scene, that there was a spate of copycat suicides by lovers all over the country.

Ek Duje Ke Liye was the biggest grosser of 1981. But Rati was the only one who benefited from it. Director Balachander and actor Kamal Haasan did a few more Hindi films, but they weren”t too successful. In spite of her limited talent, Rati had a long and flourishing career.

Many imitation love stories were made, but none could match the originality and success of Ek Duje Ke Liye. Movie got lots of very touchy seens, like sapna writes name of basu everywhere in her room during there 1 yr separation, and drinking tea with ash of basu’s photograph which her mother burns.

Each and every artist gave there best performance.