Bundal Baaz

About the film

Bundal Baaz is a 1976 Hindi fantasy comedy film directed by Shammi Kapoor. The film stars Rajesh Khanna in the lead role, with Shammi Kapoor, Sulakshana Pandit, Ranjeet and Johnny Walker in supporting roles. Khanna was impressed with the character of The Phantom and hence he designed an entire sequence in this film around it. This film was not commercially successful at the time of its release, but was critically acclaimed. However, over the years, this film has gained a cult following and appreciation from audiences upon its screening in television. This was Shammi Kapoor's second and final directorial effort after Manoranjan (1974).

Plot

Daydreamer Rajaram lives a poor lifestyle in a village in India along with his aunt and an unmarried sister, Malti, who has mortgaged their shanty house with Sukhi Lala so that she can educate Rajaram in Bombay. Rajaram pretends to be wealthy in order to marry his sweetheart, Nisha Sharma, much to the chagrin of her dad, who wants her to marry a boxer, Ranjeet Gupta.

The story opens at college, where an impoverished student named Raja dreams of making it big and winning his true love Nisha. His rival for her affections, Ranjit is the class bully and a cheat; but Ranjit's father and Nisha's father are close friends and want their children to marry when they graduate. Raja's roommate and best friend Gopal —also poor— knows the truth of his circumstances, but Raja has fooled everyone else into believing he has a rich father. After Rajaram gets a degree in Arts he returns home and finds out about the debt, he attempts to find work, ends up working as a laborer with Sukhi, but is beaten-up when he is found slacking. Rajaram returns to Bombay, meets with Suleiman, and takes up collecting waste material from households for a fee. When he returns to his village, he discovers that his sister Malti and his aunt are being harassed by the local moneylender to repay the money lent to them for Raja's education, or he will force Malti to marry him. Raja is overwhelmed at their sacrifices. He returns to Bombay to find work so he can send money home, and is befriended by Sulaiman, who buys bottles and boxes for recycling, and teaches Raja the trade. Raja begins earning money and sends some home to his village. He also meets Gopal again, but doesn't contact Nisha since he is too poor to court her. When he does run into her, she is going into a New Year's Eve…

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