''Roti'' () is a 1974 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

, produced by Rajni Desai and

Rajesh Khanna Rajesh Khanna (; born Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who worked in Hindi films. Considered as one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema, h ...

under the banner Aashirwad Pictures Pvt. Ltd and directed by

Manmohan Desai Manmohan Desai (26 February 1937 – 1 March 1994) was an Indian film producer and director. He was one of the most successful filmmakers of the 70s and 80s. Desai was an influential and sought-after film director of Bollywood and a pioneer of ...

. It stars

and Mumtaz, with music composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. This film was released on 11 October 1974, along with '' Benaam'' and '' Roti Kapda Aur Makaan''. Kader Khan was reportedly paid ₹1.21

lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...

s for writing dialogues for the film. The film was remade in Telugu as '' Neram Nadi Kadu Akalidi'', starring N.T. Rama Rao and Manjula.

Plot

Mangal Singh has been a career criminal and he is finally sentenced to be hanged due to the murder of a man for the sake of

roti Roti is a round flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, East African, and Southeast African countries. It is made from stoneground whole-wheat flour, kno ...

. Underworld don, Suraj who raises him as a criminal, plans his escape from jail and is followed by a police inspector. He escapes on a train when he throws a fellow passenger Shravan Kumar off the train. Mangal Singh lands up in a small village in

Northern India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

and becomes a school teacher with the help of a local restaurateur, Bijli. He takes on the identity of Ramu, a friend of Shravan, and goes to live with Shravan's parents, Lalaji and Malti who are blind, little knowing that they are the parents of a man he killed while escaping from the police. Bijli falls in love with the reluctant Mangal, but she discovers the truth when inspector Jagdish Raj comes to search Mangal in the same village and informs the blind couple about Shravan's death due to Mangal. Finally, Mangal also learns the truth about Shravan's parents. Mangal reunites Lalaji's long-lost daughter with him, who thereby releases Shravan's house. Mangal takes Shravan's parents for a holy pilgrimage along with Bijli where he meets the alive Shravan again. He pardons him and allows him to escape from the police, but Bijli follows him. While in pursuit of Mangal, Suraj shoots Bijli, but he dies in the snow avalanche. Bijli dies and Mangal is shot by inspector Sujit. The inspector finds Mangal dying with a gun without cartridges asking none to deprive anyone of roti.

Cast

as Mangal Singh * Mumtaz as Bijli * Nirupa Roy as Malti * Jagdeep as Khadak Singh * Pinchoo Kapoor as Suraj * Sujit Kumar as Police Inspector *

Jagdish Raj Jagdish Raj Khurana (1928 – 28 July 2013) was a Bollywood actor who holds a Guinness World Record for being the most type-cast actor. He played the role of a police inspector in 144 films. Early life and career He was born in 1928 in the to ...

as Police Inspector * Viju Khote as Doctor *

Om Prakash Om Prakash Chibber (19 December 1919 – 21 February 1998) was an Indian film actor. He was born in Jammu and was a well known character actor of Bollywood, Hindi Cinema. His most well-known movies are Mere Hamdam Mere Dost (1968 film), ''Mere ...

as Lalajee *

Vijay Arora Vijay Arora (27 December 1944 – 2 February 2007) was an Indian actor in Hindi films and television serials who was known for ''Yaadon Ki Baaraat'' and as Indrajit in the television serial ''Ramayan (1987 TV series), Ramayan''. Career Ar ...

as Shravan * Paintal as Headmaster * Asrani as Ramu *

Jeetendra Jeetendra (born Ravi Kapoor ; 7 April 1942) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Hindi cinema. He is noted for his acting, style and dance. He has worked in more than Je ...

as ''Himself (guest appearance)'' * Jeevan as Lalaji * Pravin Paul as Mrs Lalaji * Kader Khan as Lawyer (voice only during opening credit)

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. The lyrics were written by

Anand Bakshi Anand Bakshi (21 July 1930 – 30 March 2002) was an Indian poet and lyricist. He won Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist 4 times during his career. He wrote over 6000 film songs in more than 300 films. Early life Anand Bakshi (Bakshi Anand Pr ...

Box office

The film was a major Box-office success of the year and considered to be the mile-stone in the path of illustrious career of Formula-films made by

. The Film grossed ₹2

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

in India and ₹4 crore worldwide. That works out to ₹160 crore and ₹320 crore resp. at 2018 price.

Remake

The film is loosely inspired by the English movie '' Face of a Fugitive'', a 1959 movie. Vast changes were made in the script of ''Roti''. Later, ''Roti'' was remade in Telugu as '' Neram Nadi Kadu Akalidi'', in 1976 starring N.T. Rama Rao. It was also remade in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

as Ek mutho bhat (One fist rice) starring Zafar Iqbal, Babita in 1976.

Awards

* Filmfare Best Editing Award – Kamlakar Karkani1st Filmfare Awards 1953
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References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roti (1974 Film) 1974 films 1970s Hindi-language films 1970s Indian films Films directed by Manmohan Desai Films scored by Laxmikant–Pyarelal Hindi films remade in other languages Urdu films remade in other languages Fictional portrayals of the Maharashtra Police Avalanches in film