''Paying Guest'' is a 1957

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

Romance

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Subodh Mukherjee Subodh Mukerji (14 April 1921 – 21 May 2005) was an Indian filmmaker (producer and director) of Hindi-language films. He was the brother of the leading producer-director Sashadhar Mukherjee. Profile Mukerji was a devotee of the school of mov ...

. The film stars

Dev Anand Dev Anand (; born Dharamdev Pishorimal Anand; 26 September 1923 – 3 December 2011) was an Indian actor, writer, director and producer known for his work in Indian cinema, Hindi cinema. He is considered as one of the greatest and most succes ...

and

Nutan Nutan Samarth-Bahl ( Samarth; 4 June 1936 – 21 February 1991), known mononymously as Nutan was an Indian actress who worked in Hindi films. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Indian cinema, Nutan was noted for her natu ...

along with

Shubha Khote Shubha Balsavar (''née'' Khote) is an Indian film and television actress who has worked in several Hindi-language and a few Marathi- Bhojpuri- films. She is also a former women's national champion in swimming and cycling. Early life and educa ...

. The soundtrack, composed by Sachin Dev Burman, received a degree of popularity and made a lasting impression. The lyrics were written by

Majrooh Sultanpuri Asrar ul Hassan Khan (1 October 1919 − 24 May 2000), better known as Majrooh Sultanpuri, was an Indian Urdu poet and lyricist in the Hindi language film industry. He wrote lyrics for numerous Hindi film soundtracks. He was one of the dom ...

. ''Paying Guest'' was the second hit film of the team of Mukherjee, Hussain, Dev Anand and S. D. Burman, who had combined two years earlier to make the successful '' Munimji''.

Plot

An incompetent lawyer Ramesh (

) keeps on getting evicted as a tenant due his to failure to pay rent. He then dons the guise of an old man to gain entry in a house as a tenant and falls for the landlord's daughter Shanti (

), whose best friend Chanchal (

) marries a famous barrister Dayal ( Gajanan Jagirdar) for money and who is of her father's age. After marriage Chanchal becomes Shanti's neighbour. Dissatisfied with her marital life, Chanchal becomes jealous of Shanti and Ramesh's love. Shanti's older sister's rake and ruffian husband Prakash threatens Shanti's father to send him money or else he would come to his house. Ramesh is unable to pay the house rent and Shanti gives him the money her father had given her for monthly expenditure. When Ramesh gives Shanti's father the money that Shanti had given him, he is ready to send it to his son-in-law as money order so as to prevent him from coming to his home. Shanti dissuades him from doing so saying that she will do the needful. However, since there is no spare money, she fails to send the money to her brother-in-law. In the meantime, Prakash with his wife reaches Shanti's father's house and in an altercation, Prakash pushes Shanti's father and since he was frail, he subsequently dies. Shanti's elder sister also falls ill and Shanti gives her brother-in-law her gold bangles to get medicine but Prakash squanders the money on liquor. Ramesh has no income and Chanchal suggests to Shanti that she pick up a job. Shanti gets employed in a theatre. Meanwhile, Chanchal tries to entice Ramesh and gets him a job under her husband. Prakash, for want of money, allies with Chanchal and conspires to pull Ramesh and Shanti apart. Ramesh is made to drink by Chanchal during a party, and after the party, Dayal sees a drunken Ramesh and Chanchal in his own house together and changes his Will disowning Chanchal. Prakash, who surreptitiously enters their house, sees the rewriting of the Will and steals the Will. Dayal accuses Chanchal of misdemeanour but Chanchal somehow convinces him to take a break to a lakeside resort. Chanchal connives with Prakash to have Dayal removed and drowns Dayal in the lake. Prakash keeps blackmailing Chanchal over the Will and Dayal's murder and on one such occasion, Shanti sees shadows of someone strangling Chanchal. She reaches Chanchal's place only to find Prakash roughing up Chanchal. On seeing Shanti Prakash starts shooting her. Shanti runs to the outhouse of Chanchal's bungalow and disarms Prakash and threatens to shoot him. A shot is fired and Prakash is killed. Shanti confesses to the crime and is produced in front of the court on a charge of murdering Prakash. All top lawyers of the town refuse to take up her case. Finally, Ramesh becomes her lawyer. Will he be able to save his beloved from the gallows?

Cast

as Advocate Ramesh Kumar *

as Shanti *

as Chanchal * Gajanan Jagirdar as Barrister Dayal * Sajjan as Jagat * Dulari as Uma *

Yakub Yakub, Yaqub, Yaqoob, Yaqoub, Yacoub, Yakoub or Yaâkub (, also transliterated in other ways; ''Yakob,'' as commonly westernized) is a male given name. It is the Arabic version of Jacob and James. The Arabic form ''Ya'qūb/Ya'kūb'' may be direct ...

as Prakash

Music

The music of the film is composed by S. D. Burman and lyrics by

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 050829, Paying Guest 1957 films 1950s Hindi-language films Films scored by S. D. Burman Indian romantic drama films 1957 romantic drama films Cultural depictions of Dev Anand