Jeevan Dhar

Teja's family consists of himself, his wife, Sita, his brother, Shanker, and a son, Sunder. They all live happily. Things take a turn for the worse, when Sita passes away. Teja decides to re-marry, and he does so with Sonia, who comes to live with him at his palatial home with her brother, Laxmidas, with a devious agenda of taking over his property. Soon misunderstandings arise, and Shanker is asked to leave the house. Eventually these misunderstanding involve Sunder, who also is asked to leave the house by Teja, who thinks that his brother and son are consipiring against his newly-wedded wife. Years later, Sunder has grown up to be a conman, and Shanker a black-marketeer. Both Sunder and Shankar meet without knowing each other's identity, and a confrontation takes place. When they realize they are related, they decide to expose Sonia, and open Teja's eyes, not knowing that Teja is completely blinded by Sonia's love, and will not let anyone to come between them. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Lala Kedarnath Prasanta (Balraj Sahni) has three sons whose birthdays are on the same day. Lala Kedarnath has a Kashmir carpets & dry fruits business and fate has been kind to him that he got rich and earned a lot of respect and fame in society. On the occasion of their birthday celebration, they are visited by a well-known astrologer Pandit Uday Shankar (Badri Prasad), who advises Lala Kedarnath not to be proud for his past achievements and to not be too optimistic about the future as fate (Kismat) plays a key role in life. Lala Kedarnath ignores the prediction and is busy making plans for an even wealthier future. He says that his eldest son will become a barrister, the middle one Ravi will join him at the shop, and the youngest would be an engineer. Later that night as he is proclaiming his grand plans for the future to his wife (Achala Sachdev), there is a sudden earthquake and the whole town crumbles. When Lala Kedarnath regains consciousness, his house has been destroyed and his family is gone. The oldest son, Raju (Raaj Kumar), ends up in an orphanage, while middle son, Ravi, (Sunil Dutt) is found on the road by a rich couple who take him to their home to raise him as their own son. The youngest son, Vijay (Shashi Kapoor) who is still an infant, is with his mother Laxmi (Achla Sachdev). A family friend tells Laxmi that he saw an iron beam fall on Lala, and he might not be alive anymore. Unable to find the rest of the family, Laxmi and Vijay live in poverty. Lala Kedarnath traces Raju to the orphanage but finds that he has run away because the orphanage manager (Jeevan) beat him up. The manager was very corrupt who took the government grants and spent it on his own luxury and comfort rather than provide the basic amenities to the kids. When Raju protested, he was severely disciplined. Frustrated, Kedarnath kills the manager and is jailed. As the police drive away with Kedarnath. Raju grows up as Raja, a sophisticated thief, who works for Chinnoy Seth (Rehman). Raja falls in love with Meena (Sadhana) and decides to give up the life of crime. Once Raja had stolen a necklace that belonged to Meena and then decided to return it to her as a present on her birthday. That day Raja fell I love with Meena. Raja claims that the thief dropped the necklace inside his house while escaping. Chinnoy is livid that Raju returned the necklace to Meena and says that he got Raju from the streets and made him what he is today. Raju refuses to let Chinnoy own his personal life. Ravi is a lawyer now and his father and Meena's father are good friends. Ravi's father had asked Meena's father to arrange for Ravi's internship. Ravi is loved by his foster parents who never told him that he is adopted. He has a sister named Renu. Meanwhile, Vijay has completed his BA but cannot find a job. Renu has been in love with Vijay since their college days together (Vijay is also in love with Renu), but Vijay has not been able to find a suitable job in Delhi despite having a BA degree. Laxmi has been diagnosed with cancer. Vijay takes Laxmi to Bombay for her treatment at the Tata Memorial Hospital. Vijay cannot find any job in Bombay and has no other option but to be a driver employed with Chinnoy Seth. Lala Kedarnath is released from prison after completing his sentence and decides to find his kids. Kedarnath finds from his old friend Hardayal (Hari Shivdasani) that Laxmi is alive and stays in Delhi. When Kedarnath reaches the address, he finds that Laxmi had shifted to Bombay. Renu and her parents also come to Bombay for a vacation. Renu finds Vijay as a driver working for her father's friend Chinnoy Seth, when he comes to visit them. Renu still loves Vijay, but now Vijay is very reserved and knows that the gap between their social status is too huge. Raja continues to pursue Meena, but a vivacious Ravi arrives in her life and sweeps her away. Raja finds that Meena is spending all her time with Ravi. Gradually, Meena and Ravi fall in love with each other. To Raja's dismay he realizes that she however intends to marry Ravi, who is a family friend. On the night before their engagement, Raja decides to kill Ravi only to realize that he is his long-lost brother. However, he cannot tell Ravi about his parentage and in the meantime Meena's parents (father (Manmohan Krishna) and mother (Leela Chitnis)) decide to break off the engagement on discovering that Ravi is of unknown parentage and religion. Heartbroken, Ravi leaves his home after an argument with his foster parent's (father (Surendra Nath) and mother (Sumati Gupte)) daughter Renu (Sharmila Tagore), whom he considers a sister, over the fact that he had objected to her affair with Vijay who is working as a driver for Chinnoy Seth. Raja learns about Ravi's problem and decides to reveal the truth about their relationship at a party organized by Chinnoy Seth. However, Chinnoy Seth's employee Balbir Singh (Madan Puri) drunkenly misbehaves with Meena at the party and Raja manhandles him. Later that night, the drunk Balbir gets into a fight with Chinnoy Seth and in self-defense, Chinnoy Seth ends up stabbing Balbir fatally with his dagger. To cover up his crime, he decides to frame Raja and drags the body to Raja's house, hiding it in his closet. Vijay happens to witness this but is shut up with the promise of money for his mother's treatment. Raja is arrested and asks Ravi to defend him as an advocate, while Vijay initially testifies falsely and then recants his statement after being confronted. Lala Kedarnath also appears in court as the witness who found Raja being caught by the police. Raja is ultimately proved innocent and Chinnoy Seth is convicted after he blurts out the truth in court (as Ravi uses his smarts to prove that Raja could never have attacked Balbir from the angle that Chinnoy proposed and that it was Chinnoy who was in the right position to attack Balbir), thanks to Ravi. Afterward, Laxmi arrives in the court to make sure Vijay did the right thing. Lala Kedarnath sees her in the courtroom and has an emotional reunion with her and Vijay. Raja then overhears Lala Kedarnath narrating his orphanage incident to Laxmi and introduces himself and Ravi as Lala Kedarnath and Laxmi's remaining two sons. The entire family finally reunites. In the end, Lala Kedarnath and the rest of the family build a new home where they, Meena's family, and Renu's family live together.

A dynastic struggle between the collateral branches of the Kuru clan, the Kauravas and Pandavas, for the throne of Hastinapur leads to the Kurukshetra War. Pandu and Dhirtrashtra are two brothers who rule Hastinapur. Pandu gets married to Kunti, who conceives five sons and names them Yudhister, Bhimsen, Arjun, Nakul and Sahdev, while Dhirtrashtra, who is blind, gets married to Gandhari, and gives birth to a 100 sons, including Duryodhan and Dushasan. Gandhari's brother, Shakuni, also resides with them. After Pandu passes away, Dhirtrashtra decides to bequeath the empire to Yudhister much to the chagrin of Duryodhan, who plots with Shakuni to kill them in a palace made of wax, but the brothers and Kunti manage to escape and live incognito in a forest where Bhimsem meets with, Hidimba, slays her demon brother, Hidimb, gets married to her and sires a son, an illusionist, Ghatotkach. The brothers do reveal their identity when Arjun wins a competition at Panchal to wed Draupadi defeating Duryodhan, Dushashan, Jarasandh and others. Kunti unwittingly asks the brothers to share Draupadi, as she had in a previous birth as Devi Maa Parvati, prayed to Bhagwan Shri Shivji five times for a husband. Dhirtrashtra acknowledges the enmity between the cousins and asks five brothers to re-locate to Khandavprasth, which is subsequently transformed by Bhagwan Shri Indra's aide, Vishwakarma, and re-named Indraprasht. Duryodhan is then humiliated by Draupadi, who mocks him and tells him that sons of a blind man are also blind, when he stumbles in the Maya Mahal, and he takes a vow to humiliate her. Shakuni then invites the five brother to gamble at Hastinapur where Yudhister ends up losing Indraprasht, his brothers, his wealth as well as Draupadi herself. Bhagwan Shri Kishan comes to her aid when Dushashan publicly disrobes her as no one comes to her defense. The Pandavas are then sentenced to 13 years in exile, which will be extended by 12 years more if they are discovered during the 13th year. The 13 years pass by, Arjun also gets married to Subhadra and sires a son, Abhimanyu. When the Pandavs return to claim Indraprasht, the Kauravas oppose and challenge them to a war in the Kurkshetra. Duryodhan chooses Bhagwan Shri Kishan's armies, while Arjun chooses Kishanji, who decides to only be the charioteer for Arjun. And it is here that Kishanji who shows his true self to Arjun when he hesitates to kill his relatives, cousins, and gurus. It is here that Gandhari will bless Duryodhan with a body of steel, Kunti will go to plead with Karan to show mercy to her five sons, and Bhagwan Shri Hanuman, the elder brother of Bhimsen, decides to make an incognito appearance, in this epic battle between Good and Evil.