Plot

Writer Sagar Sharma is in love with a much younger woman named Barkha. When Sagar meets his ex-wife, Neelima, she tells him that Barkha is her daughter. Perturbed that he is dating his ex-step-daughter, Sagar disbelieves her and continues to have his affair with Barkha. And then Neelima tells him that she had an affair with his elder brother, and that Barkha is his daughter. Sagar will now to decide to end this affair, as neither the community nor his very own brother will permit him to have an affair with his own niece.—rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

This is one of those Dev Anand movies where everything is great except the plot. Amarjeet, the family friend of Anands, is the producer, so he could get the dates of Dev Saab and Zeenat Aman. In 1974, if you had already signed Dev Anand and Zeenat Aman , the financiers bee-lined to back the project.With the funds available in abundance, Amarjeet could hire Bindu, Anand Baxi, and Laxmi Kant Pyare Lal. It was quite common in late sixties and early seventies to sign highly sale-able stars and begin the shooting- and develop the plot as you go along. BR Ishara was chosen as the director. In my opinion, BR Ishara was a very good director but in the early seventies , his name was associated mainly with the adult movies. I could not see his films like Jaroorat, and Chetna because I was a minor then. So I only saw these movies when they came to the theaters for the second time. While Jaroorat is run of the mill stuff, Chetna is an excellent film with hardly any nudity in it. Ishara's Ek Nazar(Amitabh and Jaya) was also a good movie but not many viewers remember it.The main point is all Dev fans were surprised at BR Ishara directing a Dev Anand film. For the sake of the convenience , I am only giving the names of the actors which should be taken to mean the characters played by them in the film Dev Saab plays a famous novelist and the college girls are crazy to meet him. One such girl, Zeenat Aman, gets intimate with him; and they want to get married. The rest of the plot is how seemingly difficult or even impossible it is for the two lovers to unite in matrimony. First, Dev Saab is shown to be already married to Bindu-though it is a failed marriage because Bindu had lied to Dev Saab that she was carrying his child.Then, Bindu introduces Zeenat Aman to Dev Anand as her sister whom she had kept away for several years.Then, Zeenat tells Dev Saab that she is not Bindu's sister but she is her daughter. How can the hero marry the daughter of his wife from a previous marriage? When the hero braces up to take this extreme step, Bindu gives him another shock- that the Hero's brother Abhi Bhatacharya is Zeenat's father.So, how can the hero marry his niece?. But Hero and Heroine don't give up- they go to Abhi Bhatacharya to find out if Bindu was telling the truth. Abhi Bhatacharya says he is not Zeenat's father- her father is possibly one of the three gentlemen with whom the vamp slept before she was crowned Miss India in 1951.Bindu's true story is revealed- she had pleased three gentlemen-IS Johar, Rehman, and Shekhar- to win the Miss India contest. She marries Rehman who is the real father of her daughter. But as she wants freedom , she leaves Rehman and takes her daughter with her whom she leaves in the care of Sajjan in a hill station . After some time Bindu realizes that freedom to a woman can only be available within marriage, she compels Dev Anand to marry her. As she doesn't like the idea of Dev Anand divorcing her and marrying her daughter Zeenat , she sues him on the grounds that Dev Anand has abducted her minor daughter. Dev Saab pleads his own case and is able to prove in the court room that his marriage to Bindu is null and void because she never divorced her husband.And the biggest surprise of them all is that Zeenat is not Bindu's real daughter. Her real daughter is Anju Mahendru. Dev Anand was fifty one but he didn't look a day older than twenty five.He had a great chemistry with the gorgeous heroine Zeenat, and he was outstanding in the court room scenes. Bindu was the top vamp at that time after her portrayal of Shabnam in Kati Patang, and Mona Darling in Zanjeer; but Ishara saab couldn't use her well. Among the character actors, Asit Sen is impressive in his role as the editor cum literary agent of the hero, and David shines in a cameo .Anju Mahendru is in a very small role but she looks super gorgeous which makes us wonder why Kaka left such a beauty. Laxmikant Pyarelal's music is very good- the best of course is ' Doston Mere Kisse' which has almost become an anthem for the alcohol lovers. The other songs like ' Mujhe Pyar Kar, and ' Pyar Hamara Manjoor Ho Gaya' are also very good. Dev and Zeenat fans can watch this movie again.