Haath Ki Safai

About the film

Haath Ki Safai (lit. 'Skill of Hand'; a euphemism for pickpocketing) is a 1974 Indian Hindi-language masala film, written by Salim–Javed, produced by I.A Nadiadwala, and directed by Prakash Mehra. The film stars Vinod Khanna, Randhir Kapoor and Hema Malini. Vinod Khanna won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor, the only nomination for the film. The rest of the cast includes Simi Garewal, Ranjeet and Satyen Kappu. It was a remake of 1959 film Do Ustad. The music is by Kalyanji Anandji. The film became a "semi-hit" at the box office.

The film was later remade in Telugu as Manushulu Chesina Dongalu (1976) and in Tamil as Savaal (1981).

Plot

Two brothers get separated when fleeing from their village and reach Mumbai. Raju is led to a crook Usmanbhai Bombay and becomes a pickpocket under his tutelage. The elder, Shankar becomes a crime-boss. Shankar is popularly known as Kumar in his circle and is married to Roma, who is pregnant with their child. Roma is unaware of his criminal activities. He runs a hotel as a cover for his criminal activities and is mostly involved in smuggling gold and diamonds. Kamini is an orphaned girl, living with her crook uncle Chopra. For a dance show she arrives at Mumbai with her troupe and is robbed of her purse by a pickpocket. Raju retrieves her purse from another pickpocket Raghu only to steal her expensive necklace. Kamini's uncle owes one million rupees to another criminal, Ranjeet (Ranjeet). In order to pay his debt he advises Ranjeet to marry Kamini, so that he can inherit her wealth worth five million. Kamini runs away from her home.

In order to trace her, Ranjeet advertises in a newspaper that Kamini has run away from home with jewellery worth one million. Raju is the first one to trace her and entices her to an isolated bungalow. Here, Kamini confesses her love for Raju, and pretends to love her in return. He secretly checks all her baggage for jewellery and is disappointed to find that she has none.

Shankar is able to trace Raju and trades Kamini for Rs. 10,000. Kamini is heartbroken with the reality. Ranjeet pays off Shankar for Kamini, while Kamini slips past his custody just in time. Coincidentally, she seeks shelter at Shankar's home and Roma learns much about him. She is shocked and tries to kill herself. Shankar assumes that she has killed herself, but is saved by Raju in the nick of time and takes her home. Since she is pregnant, the doctor advises her to rest. Shankar is heartbroken and vows to give up all his criminal activities. He also gives shelter to Kamini and keeps her at his home. Kamini respects Shankar for his gesture and treats him like an elder brother.

Soundtrack

Peene Wale Ko Peene Ka Bahana is about the play Devdas with Randhir Kapoor as Devdas and Hema Malini as Chandramukhi. Lyrics were penned down by Gulshan Kumar Mehta with his pen-name, Gulshan Bawra.

Vaada Karle Sajna is the most popular song of the film by Mohd Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar.

Key details