Mohanlal G. Dave

Jayant Desai directs this melodrama centering on Kanhaiyalal (K. L. Saigal) who, according to a fortuneteller at his birth, will consort with a prostitute, grow skillful with a knife, and be sentenced to the gallows. As the film progresses, this unpromising prediction comes true, but in an unexpected manner. After a family tragedy, Kanhaiyalal and his mother find shelter in the home of a kindly whore named Saguna (Suraiya) who eventually sacrifices her life for that of the protagonist. Later, he becomes handy with a knife when he goes to med school and becomes a surgeon. As Kanhaiyalal matures, he and his mother battle against crime and poverty.

The story for this film was derived from the Bawla murder case. The maharaja of Holkar fell in love with a dancing girl named Mumtaz (Moti) who spurned his advances because she loved another man. In fact, the maharaja had the man kidnapped in full public view and killed.

The story for this film was derived from the Bawla murder case. The maharaja of Holkar fell in love with a dancing girl named Mumtaz (Moti) who spurned his advances because she loved another man. In fact, the maharaja had the man kidnapped in full public view and killed.

This film is about a poor painter named Chandrakant (Khalil) who is about to commit suicide when he meets the film star Manjiri (Sulochana). He is creatively rejuvenated by the fantasies she inspires. Manjiri's modeling sessions are used to narrate her biography: her mother was a prostitute with a heart of gold who made sure her daughter was well educated. Chandrakant and Manjiri fall in love, but he is already married and his vampish, ill-tempered wife will not set him free.

This film claimed realist intent, mainly for its thinly veiled allusions to a major scandal in Bombay known as the Champsi-Haridas murder case.

This film claimed realist intent, mainly for its thinly veiled allusions to a major scandal in Bombay known as the Champsi-Haridas murder case.

This film tells two independent stories from the Mahabharata. The first part features the princess Savitri, who stands by her husband, the woodcutter Satyavan, when he is marked by Yama, the god of Death. When Yama fulfills his prophecy and takes away Satyavan's life, Savitri pleads with him and eventually wins her husband back. There are extraordinary scenes showing Savitri's pleas with the god sitting astride a buffalo somewhere between heaven and earth, intercut with shots of the couple's idyllic life as Savitri tends to her blind parents-in-law. The second half narrates the legend of Sukanya, the daughter of Sharyati. Seeing a large ant-hill, and unaware that it has been built over the meditating sage Chyvana, she blinds the sage and, in return, is forced to marry him. She tends to the old and decrepit man, and he changes into a handsome youth.