The wealthy patriarch of a Mumbai family learns more than he wants to about his own origins after his refusal to accept his sons' chosen spouses drives them and his own wife away.
Acting
Shammi Kapoor's triple-role madness—each disguise unhinged
Score
Shankar-Jaikishan earworms that outlast the plot
Costume
Sheikh Kalimullah's fake beard deserves its own credit
Director
Bhappi Sonie
Shammi Kapoor
Sunder Srivastava / Sundaram Munderam / Sheikh Kalimullah
Rajshree
Sapna
Shyama
as Seema M. Srivastava
Rehman
Mahendra Srivastav
Rajendranath Malhotra
Chintu (as Rajindernath)
Madhavi
(as Madhvi)
Achala Sachdev
Mrs. Srivastava (as Achla Sachdev)
Krishan Dhawan
(as Krishna Dhawan)
Asit Sen
Gyanprasad (as Ashit Sen)
Brahm Bhardwaj
Dr. Bannerjee
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shammi Kapoor reportedly improvised much of the Sundaram Munderam persona, adding his own English malapropisms that became iconic.
The film satirizes the 'self-made patriarch' archetype common in post-Independence Indian cinema—wealthy men who forget their humble roots while enforcing rigid class boundaries.
IN
