Diwan Bahadur Atal Rai lives a wealthy lifestyle in his mansion "Gulistan" in Malabar Hill, Bombay, along with his wife, Malti, and two sons, Pavitra and Charitra. Pavitra was adopted while Charitra is his biological son. They are irresponsible, spoiled, Matric-failed, and refuse to do any work. They humiliate their father when he decides to get Charitra married to Shaila, the daughter of Advocate Vardhraj, and he asks them to leave. Shortly thereafter, Charitra returns home claiming that he had an altercation with his Pavitra and knifed him to death. Subsequently, Police Inspector Madhusudan Apte gets enough evidence to arrest Charitra. He is let go with a warning after admitting that this was a prank. Then Charitra goes on the run after the Mahabaleshwar Police find a dead body and identify it as that of Pavitra. A frantic Atal and Malti attempt to make sense of this homicide, and are eventually relieved when Pavitra is brought home by Shaila and her friend, Poonam Apte. Hilarious chaos will soon prevail when Pavitra claims that his real name is Mani and he lives in Cochin with his widowed mother. Atal is convinced that Pavitra is playing another prank, but a number of questions remains unanswered: if Pavitra is alive - what of the dead body? and exactly when and why did Pavitra decide to change his name to Mani?
The music for the film was composed by R. D. Burman and lyrics were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri.[2] The most popular song from the film "Muthukodi Kawadi Hada" is based on "Muthukulikka Vaareergala", composed by M. S. Viswanathan for Anubavi Raja Anubavi.[3]