Pitamber Chaudhri, headmaster of a school in Madhupur, India, has a daughter named Geeta (Zarina Wahab). Geeta is a typical village belle — naive, childish, and always in the company of a little boy who is her neighbour.

Pitamber's older daughter, Meera, who lives in Mumbai, informs Pitamber of the arrival of a young engineer who could be a possible match for Geeta. Pitamber is asked to welcome him and treat him well. Without further question, Pitamber and family do just that when the visitor arrives by train.

Vinod (Amol Palekar), the newcomer, takes an instant liking to the family and to Geeta in particular, even teaching her to sing. The family begins to talk about the possibility of Vinod and Geeta marrying. Life is good until another letter from Meera arrives. Pitamber is shocked to read that the engineer whom Meera was sending to meet the family has not yet arrived but will be coming soon. Vinod is an overseer who happened to come early, as his boss was delayed and could not make it as planned.

The family is disappointed. They ask Geeta to stop seeing Vinod and turn her attention to Sunil (Vijayendra Ghatge), the engineer, but Geeta cannot forget Vinod. Sunil is fond of Geeta and agrees to the engagement, which is quickly arranged. When Vinod hears of the engagement, he prepares to leave the village before the ceremony. Upon hearing this, Geeta insists that she will marry Vinod, against the wishes of her family. She rushes to the train station but not before the train leaves. Disheartened, she turns back and is received and driven back to her house by Sunil. To her surprise, Vinod is at the house. All misconceptions have been cleared up: Geeta and Vinod are to be engaged.

Cast

• Amol Palekar as Vinod
• Zarina Wahab as Geeta P. Choudhry
• Vijayendra Ghatge as Sunil Kishan
• A. K. Hangal as Pitamber Choudhry, Geeta's father
• Dina Pathak as Mrs. P. Choudhry, Geeta's mother
• Ritu Kamal as Meera, Geeta's sister
• Master Raju as Deepak Kumar Agnihotri 'Deepu'
• Shail Chaturvedi as Chaubey
• C. S. Dubey as Postman
• Amit Narvekar as cart driver

Crew

• Director: Basu Chatterjee
• Producer: Tarachand Barjatya
• Associate Producer: Kamat Kumar Barjatya, Ajit Kumar Barjatya
• Banner: Rajshri Productions
• Screenplay: Basu Chatterjee
• Dialogue: Basu Chatterjee
• Cinematographer: K. K. Mahajan
• Art Director: Jadhav Bhattacharya
• Audiographer: Dinshaw Billimoria
• Music Director: Ravindra Jain
• Lyrics: Ravindra Jain

The principal shooting of film was spread over 25 days at neighbouring hill stations of Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. A bungalow in Panchgani was the setting on Zarina Wahab's home, where many keys scenes, including the songs, like Gori tera gaon bada pyaara were shot.

All tracks written by Ravindra Jain.

The film became a box office hit and received several nominations with also winning a couple of awards. This also completed the 'Debut Silver Jubilee Hatrick' for actor Amol Palekar, who had given hits with his debut film, Rajnigandha (1974), followed by Chhoti Si Baat (1975). All three films were directed by Basu Chatterjee, and were all Silver Jubilee hits in Mumbai.^[6]

Awards

Recently in 2003 Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon starring Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan was directed by Sooraj R. Barjatya based on same storyline. The storyline was unofficially adapted in the 1990 Kannada movie Panchama Veda starring Ramesh Aravind and Sudha Rani. Another uncredited remake titled Minda Poochakku Kalyanam released in 1990 in Malayalam starring Suresh Gopi, Lizi Priyadarshan and Mukesh. It has also been remade in Telugu as Ammayi Manasu which stars Jayasudha, Chandra Mohan, Kanta Rao.^[9] A Bengali remake by name Sedin Choitro Mas was also made by director Prabhat Roy. A 1997 movie Pardes, by Subhash Ghai, starring Shahrukh Khan & Mahima Chaudhry is also loosely based on this movie.