Asit Kumar Sen

Dhoop Chhaon (Shammi Kapoor) is the owner of a cafe in Manoranjan street & is narrating the story in a train to a recently married Parsi couple. Havaldar Ratan (Sanjeev Kumar) is a rookie at the local police station and is assigned duty on foot patrol on Manoranjan Street, a notorious red-light area, on the very first day of his job. His senior constable (Asit Sen) is also assigned to the street and is notorious for collecting bribes from all pimps and goons to let them get on with their illegal activities. The constable would keep his cap on the table and all the pimps and goons would deposit the bribe in it. Ratan strikes up a conversation with a good-looking young woman named Nisha (Zeenat Aman) and tells her that there is a possible violation of Suppression of Immoral Trafficking Act taking place on this street. Ratan witnesses several women soliciting men, and decides to call in the paddy wagon, and get them arrested. Tingoo (Paintal) is the pimp of the area. Dhoop tries to explain the local economy to Ratan and tries to explain that he should not mess it up as many homes and families are sustained by the activities of the street. Dhoop wants Ratan that messing with the system would likely backfire on Ratan, but Ratan is adamant. While Dhoop and Ratan argue, Ratan's cap was on the table and as usual, the pimps and the goons deposit the bribe money in it. Balram (Dev Kumar) is the local don who is livid with Ratan interfering with his business and vows revenge. Alas, one of the men frequenting the prostitutes is none other than Ratan's superior officer (Madan Puri), who immediately summons Ratan. When Ratan removes his cap after saluting the officer, the bribe money falls out and the officer has him removed from service on corruption charges. Nisha takes pity on a homeless and unemployed Ratan and asks him to live with her. Balram manhandles Nisha for letting Ratan stay with her, but Ratan protects Nisha by beating up Balram. Since Ratan defeated Balram, he is accepted by the other pimps and goons, who were fed with Balram and his bullying ways. Balram was Nisha's pimp and now that job goes automatically to Ratan. Nisha's mother was a singer in Banaras who loved a man and came to Bombay. The man used to make fake currency notes and fled from the police. Nisha's mother was arrested instead, and Nisha was born in prison. Ratan does not want Nisha to sell her body and says that he wants to marry Nisha. Nisha does not like Ratan's views who considers prostitution as menial work and marriage as woman's savior. She says that she is happy where she is, and wants Ratan to accept her life, which he refuses to do. Nisha tells Ratan about a rich Nawab who used to visit her on Sunday's and paid her Rs 500 for the entire week, which meant she had 6 days off. So, Ratan decides to work at night, and during the day he takes on the guise of a rich Nawab Buland Dakhtar and spends time with her as a customer. As Nawab, Ratan only plays cards with Nisha for the entire time he spends with her and claims to be impotent. Tingoo informs Ratan that he has been selected as the head of the Bombay Dalla Union (union of pimps). Things go along smoothly, but the new job requires Ratan to stay away all night. The job is to be a live dummy for training attack dogs. The job is dangerous, but pays Rs 20/hour, which is a princely sum. Nisha thinks that Ratan is cheating on her. Nisha suspects her fellow prostitute Lolita (Faryal) is trying to seduce Ratan and proceeds to thrash her. But then again Nisha sees Ratan return home early morning and is sure that Ratan is sleeping with Lolita. She throws Ratan out of the house. Nisha tells the Nawab that she wants to run away with him to his palace to serve him for the rest of his & her life. Ratan decides that it is now time to get rid of the "Nawab", and he does so. Balram sees that Ratan and Nawab are the same person. Ratan finds that the police have been informed, by Nisha's ex-pimp & Ratan's enemy Balram, that Ratan has killed the Nawab, and they are out to arrest him. Dhoop advice Ratan to accept the murder charge to win over Nisha' love and to prove to her that his love is pure & he does so. Nisha sees how much Ratan loves her. Ratan then escapes police custody by running away. He then dresses up as the Nawab to prove to the police that there was no murder. The Commissioner of police (Murad) gets to know Ratan's case & how he was wrongfully fired for doing his job. Ratan is re-instated. Ratan & Nisha get married.

A Bombay cop tries to track down a serial killer who snipes at random victims.

A family goes to Fatehpur Sikri for a picnic. There they encounter an old man, who says that every stone of the fort is steeped in a story written with blood. The old man asks the family to see Lal Patthar, the red stone, which the family retorts is not on the guidebook. The old man says that the guidebooks don't reveal the history of the fort. The old man is paranoid and sees blood even in a glass of plain water. The old man narrates the story of Rai Nagar. The first ruler of Rai Nagar Raja Raghav Shankar Rai (Ajit) was a bandit. Raghav sexually assaulted a peasant woman named Sonmai during one of his village raids, and made her his wife. Sonmai cursed the entire family with insanity. Now in the 7th generation, Gyan Shankar is the only male heir of the house. His grandfather is Raja Ram Shankar Rai (D. K. Sapru) and is mentally unstable. As a kid, Gyan stopped his drunk father Anand Shankar from sexually assaulting a maid in their palace. Gyan Shankar was sent to his uncle in Allahabad, where he studied history and psychology. Gyan returned home with Chhotu (Paintal), his servant. To become the ruler, Gyan has to marry, but he has decided not to, as he fears that he will ruin a woman's life due to Sonmai's curse. Raja Gyan Shankar Rai (Raaj Kumar) is also known as Kumar Bahadur. He goes to the jungle to hunt a man-eating tiger. After killing the tiger, Gyan manages to fight off a group of bandits that were carrying a palanquin. The bandits escape and Gyan finds a woman named Saudamani (Hema Malini) inside the Palanquin. Gyan brings Saudamani home and is smitten with her beauty. Gyan finds that Saudamani is the widow of Gokul from a nearby village, which was plundered by bandits a few days ago. Gyan sends Saudamani back, but Gokul's mother (Leela Mishra) declares her unchaste and refuses to let her back into the house. Gokul's mother is scared by the guns of Gyan's guards and is forced to accept Saudamani. Back at the palace, Gyan starts to drink. Gyan finds that Saudamani is being tortured in her own home and brings her back to his palace. Calling her Madhuri, he invites the lower-class woman to his rich home and eventually has sex with her. But Gyan refuses to marry Madhuri. Still, Madhuri has full control over the house and has Gyan wrapped around her fingers. Gyan also educates Madhuri. Initially, Gyan is enamored with Madhuri, but with time he realizes that Madhuri cannot be trained (in singing) or educated. She has a middle class thinking, limited ambition and a negative mindset. He starts getting disgusted with Madhuri. Soon, 10 years have passed and Gyan is no longer a young man. Gyan runs away from his palace, and comes across a singing function, where he meets a much younger woman, Sumita (Raakhee). Gyan finds that Sumita's father Harishchandra Chakraborty is a gambler and in heavy debts. Gyan organizes a financial deal with her father and marries her. Sumita's mother Madhu (Dulari) was vehemently against the marriage but was overruled by Harish. Sumita had a childhood sweetheart, Shekhar (Vinod Mehra), and was coming to India from London, to marry her. But before he got there, Harish married off Sumita to Gyan for money. It is clear that Madhuri is not happy with Gyan marrying Sumita. Due to her anger, Gyan does not consummate his marriage to Sumita. Sumita tells Shekhar that she was forced to marry Gyan, as Harish was beating Madhu relentlessly. Gyan finds out that Sumita was friends with Shekhar before her marriage. Shekhar was also the one who taught music to Sumita. Gyan befriends Shekhar and invites him to the palace for their music sessions. Madhuri is quick to figure out that Shekhar and Sumita were lovers before Sumita got married to Gyan. Madhuri starts poisoning Gyan's mind that Shekhar and Sumita might have been close to getting married before he came into Sumita's life. Madhuri then invites Shekhar to the palace, while Gyan is away, and escorts him to Sumita's room, assuring him that these are Gyan's orders. Meanwhile, Gyan tries to balance both Sumit and Madhuri, and disappointing both in the process. Gyan knows that Madhuri is jealous of Sumita, but Madhuri continues to play the theme that Sumita is cheating on Gyan with Sekhar and drives Gyan insane. One day Gyan returns home while Shekhar was with Sumita in her room. Shekhar was only consoling Sumita to give more time to her marriage and things would get better, but Gyan misunderstands and believes that Shekhar was plotting against him with Sumita. But then Gyan sees Madhuri trying to seduce Sekhar and realizes that Madhuri has gone blind with rage. He asks Madhuri to leave the palace and scars her face with a whip. Gyan takes Sumita with him to Agra. He finds Sumita wishing at the grave of Maulana Salim Chisti, and believes that she is wishing for Shekhar, while she was wishing for a child. Gyan writes to Sekhar and asks him to come to Agra. Once Sekhar arrives, Gyan says that he is not feeling well and sends Sekhar and Sumita to see the Taj Mahal. He then follows them and spies on them. Gyan hears only parts of their conversation and is convinced that Sekhar and Sumita still love each other. Gyan invites Sekhar to view the fort of Fatehpur Sikri with him on full moon night. Gyan puts on an act, which convinces Sekhar that the ghosts of the fort are real. Gyan even fires 2 blanks at a person who was paid to act as a ghost. But then Gyan changed the blanks to real bullets in the rifle, as the next female ghost comes along. Gyan gives the gun to Sekhar, who fires at the ghost, and it turns out to be Sumita, whom Gyan had also invited to the fort that night to complete the act. Before dying, Sumita tells Gyan that she only wished to be the mother of his children. Gyan loses his mental balance. Gyan wants to kill himself, but Sekhar stops him and wrestles with Gyan for the gun. In the chaos, Gyan shoots Shekhar, and he dies as well. The curse of Sonmai is completed. Gyan wanders the fort waiting for Sumita's ghost on every full moon night. But it is revealed that Madhuri is alive and she is the one who plays the role of Sumita to give solace to Gyan.