This is another nice Raj Kapoor movie, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
The story is about Rajkumar (Raj Kapoor), an unemployed honest painter who lives in a rented room to Mrs. D'Sa (Lalita Pawaar). He never pays his rent, and though Mrs. D'Sa gets annoyed, she treats him like her son.
On his way to finding a job, Raj bumps into Aarthi (Nutan), who was climbing over a wall to get out of her boring college class. Then he goes to his job interview, which is at a restaurant. He checks the daal (lentils) he finds a roach floating at the top. He reports this by screaming it out to everyone at the restaurant...which makes the manager very annoyed. Raj's honesty wasn't getting him anywhere, he gets kicked out.
He goes home only to make Mrs. D'Sa mad. The next day, he bumps in to Aarthi again (in a chain reaction biking crash lol). Aarthi tells him that her name is Aasha. But Aasha (Shuba Khote) is actually Aarthi's naukrani...even though they're like sisters. Aarthi continues to pretend that she herself is the naukrani. She invites Raj to paint a picture at her "malkin's" house the next day. Raj readily agrees.
The next day, Aarthi keeps on making up stories about her poorness, saying that her mom was really sick, and that's why she's working at the mansion. He gets paid 1,000 rupees for his work, but because of his kind heart, he gives it all back to Aarthi...saying that it would come in handy for her sick mother.
Which makes Aarthi like him all the more.
He goes back home, again with no pay to give Mrs. D'Sa. After a long argument, she gives him a quarter to go eat. When he's outside, Raj is almost hit by the car of Seth Ramnath (Motilal). Raj continues to look for his attani in the dark. To test his honesty, Seth Ramnath drops his wallet in the middle of the road. When Raj notices, he picks it up and wants to give the wallet back to Seth Ramnath...he gets chased by gonads...and goes through a lot ~ but he returns the wallet. Impressed, Seth Ramnath gives him a job in his office.
Raj's life starts going well. He does hard work. Mrs. D'Sa doesn't take his rent, because they basically become like mother and son. And of course he has his dear "Aasha".
But what Raj doesn't know is that Seth Ramnath is the uncle of his "Aasha", and what Seth Ramnath doesn't know is that Aarthi likes Raj. Poor Raj doesn't even know that his "Aasha" is actually Aarthi. He has yet to find out about what's in store for him.
And once he does (in a quite saddening way)...his life is upside down. To make matters worse, Mrs. D'Sa gets the flu.
Another thing that Raj doesn't know: the company he works at sells contaminated medicines sometimes.
How is Rajkumar's life supposed to come back together? Can a poor man ever marry a rich girl? Or ever be given justice? That's the plot. It's a great movie, with emotion as well as entertainment. Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Lalita Pawar, and everyone gave wonderful performances. Nutan looked exuberantly beautiful and matched well with Raj Kapoor.
And my god the music! Shankar Jaikishan once again delivers a perfect sound track. Songs like "Dil Ki Nazar Se", "Kisi Ki Muskarahoton", "Woh Chand Khila", "Tera Jaana" and so many more are just classics. Lata and Mukesh at their best once again. The background score is quite touching too. Helen's dance was a delight as usual.
Hrishkesh Mukherjee's direction is pretty good, and there are many times in the movie where you just have to cry. The relationships between all of the characters just light up the screen. Despite a few extremely sad situations, and some unreasonably evil characters, the direction is very nice. I give this movie an 8.5 out of 10! Watch this classic.
