Cuckoo

Circa the Mughal Rule in the Persian Gulf, a noble man asks his soldiers to bring a man trustworthy enough to commit a crime. The soldiers go to the Chor Bazar, where they find a beggar-cum-thief, Yusuf Ustad, and bring him before the noble man. The noble man asks Yusuf to abduct and kill the child, who will be the future king. Greedy Yusuf accepts the offer, but is unable to kill the cherubic child, and ends up abducting him, leaving evidence in blood to show that the child has been killed. The young prince is thus brought on to the streets of this Chor Bazar where he will grow up, and be destined to spend the rest of his life as a thief and beggar. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com) Chor Bazaar (1954); Shammi Kapoor, Sumitra Devi, Om Prakash, Chitra, Cuckoo and Ramavtar. Mustafa, uncle of Sherkand heir apparent, hires a thief-cum-con Yusuf to kill infant prince Murad so that he gets throne of the state. Yusuf goes to execute his job but could not gather enough courage to kill an infant. He runs away with prince to a neighboring state and brings him up as a highly skilled thief Shimoo and comes back to Sherkand with a single aim to instate Shimoo as King of Sherkand. Yusuf needs money for this cause. He plans to rob the state treasury with the help of Shimoo. Shimoo makes an attempt to learn about security arrangements for the treasury and catches glimpse of Princess Gulnaar, daughter of Mustafa. He instantly falls in love with her. Gulnaar is already engaged to Marrakesh Prince Haider who gives her a precious Pearl as her engagement gift. The pearl gets stolen by Chikoo, another high class lady thief. Yusuf & Shimoo decides to take help of Chikoo to loot the treasury and they succeed. Indignant Haider announces that if the stolen Pearl is not recovered within one month, he will bring Sherkand to ashes. Mustafa once again turns to Yusuf for recovery of the stolen pearl. Yusuf recovers the Pearl but it gets stolen again by Chikoo. Chikoo falls in love with Shimoo. Mustafa announces Gulnaar's marriage to whoever brings the Pearl. Chikoo comes to know that Shimoo is a prince himself and hands over pearl to him so that he can marry Gulnaar. Shimoo comes to palace to handover the pearl but attacked by Mustafa's army. Yusuf discloses identity of Shimoo to the army which turns against Mustafa. After a fight Shimoo is re-instated as king of Sherkand. —VInod Arya

A vengeful princess waits for the right moment to kill her foster-father - the emperor. Claiming to be a homeless orphan, young Amber gets adopted by the Maharaja and grows up in the palace. 10 years later, she dramatically meets a bandit, Raj, and both are attracted to each other. Raj's father fears for the life of the Maharaja and asks his son to act as a bodyguard. The former dons the guise of a tutor and arrives at the palace. While the Maharaja is pleased, the Diwan and his son, Johar, are not too thrilled. Then the latter comes to know of a conspiracy to kill the Maharaja - and the person he suspects is none other than Amber. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

"Awara", a film that introduced Raj Kapoor`s tramp character inspired by Charlie Chaplin, is regarded among the greatest films of all time. The film tells the story of Raj (Raj Kapoor) the estranged son of a wealthy judge Raghunath (Prithviraj Kapoor) who throws his wife out on the streets suspecting her of adultery as a result of which Raj and his mother live in poverty. Raj meets Rita (Nargis) in school and she leaves an impression on him, but they drift apart when Raj is expelled from school. Raj is convinced by Jagga (K.N. Singh), a crime boss, to take up a life of crime to escape his life of poverty. He encounters Rita again who is now a lawyer and a ward of Raghunath. Through dramatic twists and turns, Raghunath discovers that Raj is his son and a contrite Raj goes to jail with Rita promising to wait for him.

The story of Barsaat revolved around two contrasting love storiesone rooted in innocence and the other in heartbreak. Two friends, Pran (Raj Kapoor) and the womanizing Gopal (Prem Nath) romance two local girls Reshma (Nargis) and Neela (Nimmi) while holidaying in the valley of Kashmir. While Pran and Reshma's love is true, Gopal is a womanizer, who disregards the faithful Neela and condemns her to wait faithfully for his return. The music of the film marked the debut of the legendary duo Shankar-Jaikishan and has songs that are hummed even today. The poster of the film that depicted the romantic pose of the heroine gazing up at the hero as she bends backwards on his arm inspired the famous insignia of R.K. Films.

A traumatized beautiful woman loses her memory in a train accident. Prakash and his beautiful sister live an impoverished lifestyle in a rented room in Bombay. They do not even have enough to eat and are three months behind in their rent. The neighborhood has put pressure on their landlord to evict them as they suspect his sister of being overly friendly with a homeless male who calls himself Laatsaheb. Things only get worse after Prakash is killed and his sister decides to re-locate by train. While traveling she finds her co-passenger is none other than Laatsaheb - who confesses that he loves her. Before she could respond, the train meets with an accident, he survives with minor injuries but she loses her memory, is hospitalized and presumed to have lost her mind also. She manages to escape and ends up with Imperial College's Professor Nath - who gets smitten by her beauty, calls her Kamini, assures her that she has always lived with him, and decides not to treat her medically - so that she can be his forever. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)