Balraj Sahni

Somesh lives a very wealthy lifestyle with businessman dad, Banwari, and housewife mom. His dad runs a bank, Canara Bank, and wants Somesh to take an active interest in helping him, Somesh spends all his time drinking alcohol, womanizing, and at the races. When Banwari asks Somesh to marry Rekha Mahendru, his friend's, Superintendent of Police, Dinanath's daughter, Somesh not only refuses but quarrels and leaves. Several weeks later, Somesh is apprehended by the police smoking cocaine and is brought back home. His father apologizes to him, and tells him that he will not force him to marry Rekha. Banwari wants to throw a big party on the bank's anniversary, and asks Somesh to invite all his new-found friends and taxi-drivers from the slums, who he had been living with when he ran away from home. That night a number of well-dressed dignitaries arrive for the party, so do Somesh's poor friends. His father wants to make an announcement about Somesh's forthcoming engagement to Rekha until a woman named Chanda shows up. Somesh is in with love with Chanda and will not marry anyone else but her. The only problem is that Chanda is a highly paid prostitute and may have snared Somesh with her charms merely to get to his wealth. Watch what happens when Banwari decides to disown Somesh, leaving him penniless. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Meloda (Saira Banu) who was educated in India, speaks Hindi; though she is Japanese. Dr. Gautamdas (Rajendra Kumar) is a UK trained doctor who volunteers to go to Japan to help deal with the horror of the radiation aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They meet in Japan and the inevitable happens when hero meets heroine. Lord Bertrand Russell in London, gives Gautam his blessings and best wishes for his travel to Japan. Russell , a pacifist and anti-war thinker (who appears in a cameo role) sets the tone of this 1967 film. On arrival in Japan Dr Gautamdas takes up a role in a hospital where Meloda's father Dr Akhira (Chetan Anand) is director. The storyline takes us through the stark and sometimes gory suffering that radiation victims endured; as a stark reminder of the long term damage caused by atomic weapons. A majority of the shoot sequences are in Japan, with director Mohan Kumar taking artistic liberties in switching from the Ginza strip, with pan shots of the Mitsubishi tower, the Hokkaido and with glimpses of Mt. Fuji. A scenic gondola ride, ski fields are all part of the package. Lata Mangeshkar's rendering of the fusion song "aisuru" is set to a musical score that is drawn from both cultures Shankar. Mohammed Rafi sings a few forgettable, but apt to the storyline songs. A group of fishermen are exposed to radiation from French nuclear tests in the Pacific, Dr Gautamdas mounts a daring rescue to help save the fishermen. Battling angry elements Dr Gautamdas helps the fishermen survive, saving every last one of them - but at what cost? When viewed in the context of India-Japan relationship, beginning with the arrival of Buddism in Japan, formation of the Indo-Japan Society in 1905, Japan's support for Subash Chandra Bose's INA this film takes on a meaning beyond a love story. It is a cry against the horrors of atomic weapons, the enduring damage they inflict and martyrdom for a cause.

A platoon of Indian soldiers encounters harsh realities while fighting in the Sino-Indian War of 1962. Set against the Sino-Indian War of 1962, the film's main plot concerns a small platoon of Indian soldiers in the hilly terrain of Ladakh who are considered dead but are rescued by Ladakhi tribesmen and by Capt. Bahadur Singh (Dharmendra). They are asked to retreat from their post (chowky) as the Chinese have surrounded them. Capt. Bahadur Singh and his girlfriend Almo (Priya Rajvansh) die holding the Chinese at Bay so that their comrades can retreat to safety. But even the retreating soldiers are heavily outnumbered and give up their lives for the country. —gavin@sunny_deol2009@yahoo.com In July, 1962, China's Red Army started their propaganda that Chinese and Indians are brothers (Hindi-Chini bhai bhai) and at the same time threatened dire consequences if the Indian soldiers did not withdraw from the disputed land near Ladakh in Northeastern India. Ram Singh, Ram Swarup, Major Ranjit Singh, Major Pratap Singh, Captain Bahadur Singh, and his dad Brigadier Singh are amongst the many soldiers that have been deployed to protect India's border with strict instructions that the first shot must come from the Chinese. Bahadur is in love with a Ladakhi/Kashmiri belle by the name of Angmo and has just secured his mother's blessings and permission to marry her. It is at this time that the Chinese launch their attack on all Indian positions and camp. The Indian army soldiers must fight to keep their borders safe, knowing fully well that they may not survive to tell this tale to their loved ones. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

An orphan gets in trouble with the law and is sent to a home for young women. There, for the first time, she finds friendship, compassion, and possibly love. After her parents pass away, teenager Gauri goes to live with her paternal uncle, Kashinath, and his wife. She is ill-treated there, made to do all the housework, and abused by her aunt. She is also asked to work as a servant for meager wages in another household, and her earnings are taken away by her aunt. One day, Kashinath is summoned to the Police Station where he is told that since Gauri has been convicted of stealing a necklace from her employer, she is placed under his care for 12 months. Kashinath undertakes to look after her, but she manages to escape, and beats up Bankelal, who had originally accused her of stealing the necklace. The Police are summoned again, and this time Gauri is placed with Shree Satyanand Anarthalaya, an orphanage run by a compassionate Manager, Ashok. Gauri revolts against all the rules imposed upon her and she is placed in solitary, where she ends up breaking all the windows and furniture. Then one day she escapes, beats up Bankelal severely, and returns back. She is once again placed in solitary. Then Ashok and his associate Murlidhar find out that Bankelal had framed Gauri, and they inform the Police, who make Bankelal confess. In this way, Gauri gets a pardon, and is asked to leave the orphanage, but she refuses to do so and stays on after promising that she will always obey Ashok. When Ashok has a heart attack, she proposes to stay and look after him, but Ashok wants her to leave and get married to Murlidhar. The question remains, will Gauri disobey Ashok or keep her promise and get married to Murlidhar? —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com) As a young, impoverished orphan, Gauri is sent to be a servant in her aunt's house, where she develops into a beautiful young woman. But when she turns downs a sleazy male servant's advances, he conspires to frame her for theft and gets her thrown out onto the streets, where she struggles to get by, as men try to take advantage of her, and women distrust her. Eventually she lands in a reformatory, where she finds love with Babuji and gradually begins to come into her own. —gavin (gunmasterM@hotmail.com)