Do Raaste

Rajesh Khanna in a career launching role. Typical family drama made into a classic by acting of Kamini Kaushal and Balraj Sahni. The songs and picturisation is above average. every thing works well with this movie if you watch it with your family.

"Do Raaste" portrays the aspirations & disappointments of a middle class family. The head of the Gupta family, Balraj Sahni manages with great difficulty to educate Prem Chopra, his younger brother abroad for which he had to mortgage his ancestral home. Prem Chopra returns and marries Bindu a rich girl. Tensions arise due to Bindu's behaviour and Prem & wife shift to a new home. Prem, who has got a very good job refuses to share Balraj's burden. The tired old Balraj, who has lost his job, is not able to repay back the loan and is kicked out of his home along with his family. This devastates Balraj. In the end Prem realizes that he has stopped loving his family due to Bindu's machinations and reconciles with Balraj.

The film revolves around Balraj -his hopes, responsibilities, aspirations & misfortunes. The romance of Rajesh Khanna & Mumtaz is incidental to the script but provides lilting songs. The brilliant script & Raj Khosla's superb direction holds the viewer's interest.

Quite a disjointed film, as Mumtaz seems to have disappeared in the second half of the film. Songs are brilliant though few times the camera work was too ambitious in the dolly shots which resulted in few out of focus shots. Noticed that in Bindu's inserted reaction shots as well. Balraj Sahni, Prem Chopra and Bindu are by the far the best performers. Sahni is so convincing as the elder brother. Somehow Mumaz seemed to lack that special spark that she has with Feroz Khan on screen, perhaps she grew into it in their subsequent films togetheras this was Rajesh's first film with Mumtaz.. It's a nice stereotypical family film, brilliant for a rainy day. Raj Khosla did a great job.it was a super hit, running simultaneously with Aradhana, it was a golden jubilee hit,meaning it ran for 50 weeks. Imagine a film doing that nowadays.

One of Raj Khosla's best movies - and a formula that has been tried again many times over the years, but old is gold. The movie is excellent family viewing with no nudity or scenes unsuitable for kids, it is a story that the whole family can relate to about 3 brothers and the inclusion of new family member and the effects this has on the household. To top a very good story the film is packed with excellent songs tuned by Laxmikant Pyarelal. The gem of all tracks is the fantastic duet "Dil Ne dil ko pukara" by the Late Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar. Very melodious and you can almost hear Rafi and Lata enjoying the song. "Yeh Reshmi Zulfen" by Mohammed Rafi has also stood the test of time and can still be enjoyed now.

Exellent movie with superb acting of Rajesh Khanna, Beautiful songs, Highly recommanded.