Roti 1942

Roti is a 1942 Indian Bollywood social film released on Jan 01, 1942. The film is directed by Mehboob Khan.
Mehboobs classic, didactic film couterposing capitalism and primitive tribal communism. The films crooked commentator (A. Khan) persuades the starving hero (Chandramohan), to impersonate Seth Laxmidas, the long-lost heir of a rich family. In the process, the hero reveals himself as a ruthless entrepreneur and acquires the Laxmidas business empire. He and his girlfriend Darling (Faizabadi, a legendary ghazal singer in a rare film appearance) happen to crash their private plane and wind up in a tribal, sexually liberated community which ignores notions of private property and believes in the basic goodness of all humankind. The tribals Balam (Mukhtar) and Kinari (Sitara Devi) look after the injured capitalist and help him get back to the city by lending him a pair of buffaloes, Changu and Mangu, who are friends rather than beasts of burden. When the animals are not returned, the tribals go to the city to retrieve them. They are astounded by the way capitalism functions; they have no concept of money and get arrested for eating food they cannot pay for. Their gradual descent into bonded labour is intercut with the machinations of Laxmidas, who was his future father-in-law murdered. Eventually, with the help of Darling (who falls in love with Balam), the tribal couple manages to leave, even as Laxmidas, facing disaster, escapes from hism outraged shareholders in a car full of gold bricks. He encounters the tribals again in the desert where his car broken down. In an echo of Stroheims Greed (1925), he refuses their offer of water, preferring to die of thirst. The films dominant character is the fat, cynical commentator (echoeing a Brechitain device) who manipulates the story, laughs every time disaster strikes and riducules compassion (Garibon ki daya knake bada ahsaan karte ho) in a kind of prose chant. Begum Akhtar aka Akhtari Faizabadi gives a fine performances as Darling, the women who accepts her foles as a sex object and the property of the capitalist while hating him inwardly for the murder of her father. [Source: Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema] Check out this page for more updates on Roti.