Kunwara Baap

About the film

Kunwara Baap (lit. 'The Bachelor Father') is a 1974 Hindi film produced by Amarlal Chabria. It is based on Charlie Chaplin's The Kid (1921). It is a film with a serious message about polio vaccination. Mehmood directed the film and stars in a main role along with Bharathi, Vinod Mehra, Tamil actress Manorama and Mehmood's son Macky Ali in other lead roles.

Mehmood made the film to raise awareness about polio, which had affected his own son, Macky Ali aka Maqdoom Ali. The Sports Day, a major scene in the movie, was shot in Bangalore's Bishop Cotton Boys' School where the boy studied. Mehmood's comedy scenes in the film earned him a Filmfare nomination for best actor in a comic role, the only nomination for the film.

Plot

Radha (Bharathi) is the deserted wife of Vinod Mehra. She abandons her newly born baby boy outside a temple where he is rescued by a rickshawala (Mehmood). The boy develops polio and the rickshawala feels guilty after a doctor (Sanjeev Kumar) admonishes him. He promises to take care of the boy (Macky Ali) and love him as his own.

In the meantime, the boy's real-life parents reconcile and turn to a police officer (Vinod Khanna) for help in finding their missing son. When the boy is located, the rickshawala is unwilling to give him up. The policeman urges him to do so, as the parents are wealthy and can pay for an operation that will help the boy to walk again. He does so sorrowfully. The boy comes back with his parents after the operation only to see the rickshawala die. The film ends with Mehmood, the actor, getting up and explaining to the audience that his death was for the camera, but polio is real and deadly and that people should get their children vaccinated.

Kunwara Baap had special appearances by Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Yogita Bali, Dara Singh, Lalita Pawar and Lucky Ali. It was the debut film of famed music composer Rajesh Roshan.

Key details