Mangal (S. K. Prem) lives with his wife Laxmi (Tarla), their six children and his younger brother Prakash (Dev Anand). Mangal has taken a loan from a local moneylender for Prakash's college education. Mangal's poverty is so bad that he sells his sixth child's bed to buy a blanket. Soon, Laxmi dies due to the family not being able to afford to buy medicine. Meanwhile, Prakash becomes well-educated with a modern outlook and a reformist attitude, he confronts his brother every now and then with hard truths of life. Mangal calls Prakash an iconoclast and asks him to leave the house. This affects the lives of Prakash and his girlfriend Sandhya (Sharada). Her father Gangu Teli (Radhakrishan), a small time businessman, does not approve of their marriage. Prakash loses his cool when he finds his nephews and nieces begging for a living. He then immediately takes up a job in a printing press that promotes family planning and other social issues. After obtaining the advance, Prakash arranges food and clothes for his kin, using Sandhya as the go-between. After Mangal loses his job he requests Gangu Teli to take him to the temple priest, Sanatan (Hiralal) with a request for advance, who while saying he is helpless appeals to the assembly to help him with whatever they can spare. This invokes Mangal’s conscience and he rushes back home.

Adapted from The Hindu.

• Dev Anand as Prakash
• Sharada as Sandhya
• Tarla Mehta as Laxmi
• Radhakrishan as Gangu Teli
• Hiralal as Sanatan
• S. K. Prem as Mangal
• Madhu Apte

The music was composed by S. D. Burman while Kaifi Azmi wrote the lyrics.^[4] On the album, film critic Suresh Kohli of The Hindu noted that except for "Chali Yeh Fauj Humari" and "Thumak Thumak Chali Hai", the other songs were "not really hummable".^[2]

All lyrics written by Kaifi Azmi; all music composed by S. D. Burman.

Kohli wrote that the film "was a well-intended message-laden story with a weak, confused screenplay attempting to cash on Anand’s newly formed stardom." The film did not do well at the box office.^[2]