Kusum Deshpande

A story about a poor Marathi village potter who tries to feed his wife and six children in the hope that things will improve when younger brother Shankar completes his education. But they don't and, to foil Shankar's plans to start a porcelain factory, the local moneylender starts legal proceedings to claim the family house.

Chanderbabu (Nazir Hussain), a retired postmaster, lives in the village with his wife and two sons, Rajan (Paul Mahendra) and Bhanu (Bharat Bhushan). He continues to live there and work for the Zamindar, while his children are getting their education. Rajan is studying for his law exam. He is married to a girl (Padma) from a wealthy family whose haughty ways alarm and frightens him. Bhanu, the younger brother is fun-loving but studious. He gets influenced by the Nationalist Movement in the campus and stops his education in the last year of college. His father is disappointed and feels that Rajan is the one they can depend upon in their old age. Bhanu meets Meena (Shyama), and the two fall in love. Meera's father, Ramnarayan, is the school Principal and is impressed by Bhanu. He decides to get Meera married to Bhanu.

A girl learns music from her courtesan grandmother and breaks into the burgeoning show business industry of 1930s Bombay, which eventually leads to decades of superstardom as well as romantic entanglements.