On the run from the police for a murder he has not committed, Pratap meets a slum-dwelling girl, Anokhi, and her motley group of friends. According to the Thought journal, there was nothing new in the thematic approach to the story.[7]
Plot
Prakash Verma (Sunil Dutt), a young graduate is a fugitive hounded by the police. He is suspected of murdering Seth Maganbhai Mehta, a multi-millionaire of Bombay. Scared and hungry, Prakash walks through the dark, deserted streets of the city, seeking food and shelter. Mad with hunger, he steels into a bakery and tumbles against Anokhi (Vyjayanthimala). Anokhi is a vivacious and wild girl from the slums. She employs strange means to earn her livelihood. In her moral code begging, borrowing, and even stealing are not prohibited the hungry have no scruples and the poor have no caste.
Anokhi brings Prakash to her abode a rickety and abandoned godown near the back-yards where live a number of other queer but interesting specimens of humanity. Prakash calls this bunch of beggars, pickpockets, and loafers "gutter-snipes" but soon begins to like them for the several other redeeming qualities they possess. In the abode of these degraded characters, Prakash finds food and shelter and stays on with them. Prakash revolts against the profanity of their life and soon succeeds in making them give up their bad habits and wrong pursuits. Anokhi resents his homily at first but gives in to him at last. This conflict between the two brings them close together and then the inevitable happens, they fall in love with each other.
The Police have announced a reward to the informer of the absconder Prakash, Anokhi discovers quite accidentally that Prakash, whom she has given shelter as well as her heart, is a murderer. She rates him for not taking her into his confidence. He assures Anokhi that he is not guilty of the murder and has nothing to do with it. Anokhi, in love, finds it easy to believe him. She and her companions decide to help Prakash out of the trouble by solving the mystery of the murder of Seth Maganbhai Mehta. But in the meanwhile, as fate would have it, Prakash is betrayed by a companion and is arrested by the police. Anokhi takes the job of a dancer at the cabaret and lures Sudhakar, the young manager of the late Seth Maganbhai Mehta, with her charms. Sudhakar stupefied by her charms and intoxicated with liquor, gives Anokhi the clue of Maganbhais murder. Maganbhai's daughter, Kusum, and the police arrive on the scene and arrest the real culprit. Prakash is released. He walks out of the police lock-up to the greeting crowd of his friends from the slums-and into the open arms of his beloved Anokhi.
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