Returning home from war after being assumed dead, a pilot weds the woman he has long loved, unaware that she had been planning to marry his best friend.
Sunder Khanna is an orphan and lives a poor lifestyle in India. He is friendly with wealthy Gopal Verma, the only child of Judge Verma; and a wealthy girl named Radha, who is the daughter of an army Captain. The trio grow up, and Sunder falls head-over-heels in love with Radha, but she as well as her parents reject him. Sunder decides to prove himself to be worthy of them and enrolls in the Indian Air Force, carries out a risky flight to help army soldiers, disappears, is believed to be dead, but re-surfaces virtually unscathed, and returns to get married to Radha. After the marriage the couple go for a honeymoon in Rome, Paris, London, and Switzerland. Sunder also invites Gopal, who is now a Magistrate. One day before going to attend a party, Sunder finds his life turned upside down when he comes a love letter written to Radha by an unknown male. Torn with suspicion and hatred he grabs his revolver and confronts Radha in order to find out the author of this letter and kill him. Watch what happens when Radha is confronted and the response she provides to Sunder.—rAjOo ([email protected])
Sundar (Raj Kapoor), Gopal (Rajendra Kumar) and Radha (Vyjayantimala) have been friends since childhood. As they grow into adults, Sundar develops an obsessive romantic attraction to Radha; for him, she is the only woman in the world. Gopal and Sundar are very close friends, and Gopal would never complain about Sundar even when Sundar would get into a fight with him and hurt him physically.
Gopal was studying overseas and returns after completing his lawyer studies.Sundar is poor and Gopal is the rich guy, but Gopal is a devoted friend to Sundar (who is considered by everyone to be a loafer and vagabond). Radha prefers Gopal, who is also in love with her, and systematically resists Sundar's advances. Sundar is undeterred and is adamant that he will marry Radha.Sundar has an offer from the Air Force, but to remain close o Radha he had taken up a job as a flight instructor at a local aviation club.
Matching Sundar's great love for Radha is his unswerving devotion to his friendship with Gopal. Sundar accidentally gets a letter that Radha had written for Gopal. Radha wanted to throw the letter from her roof into Gopal's car, but it got stuck in a tree instead. Sundar was passing by and saw Radha trying to retrieve the letter when she was called into the house by her father. Sundar then retrieves the letter himself. Sundar doesn't know Hindi and hence takes the letter to Gopal to read.
The letter is not addressed to anyone, and Sundar assumes its written to him. Sundar admits his feelings for Radha to Gopal and says that if Gopal had loves Radha, he would have gladly sacrificed his love on the altar of friendship. Gopal is in a dilemma but decides to step back and pay his debt of friendship to Sundar by letting him pursue Radha.
Sundar asks Gopal to invite Radha for a picnic at the lake and then asks Gopal to vanish. Sundar spends time with Radha, believing that she loves him. Radha meanwhile is assured when Sundar says that it was Gopal who read her letter.
Gopal is asked by Sundar to represent him in front of Radha's parents and ask for Radha's hand. Her parents refuse as Sundar has no income. They want to marry Radha to Gopal, but Gopal says he can't betray Sundar. Radha also rebuffs Sundar saying that he is a nobody, and she can never love him. Sundar is hurt.
Eventually, Sundar enlists in the Indian Air Force and is assigned a dangerous mission in Kashmir. Before leaving, he extracts a promise from Gopal, whom he trusts implicitly, never to let any man come between Radha and himself while he is away.Till he is away, Gopal fulfills his promise, despite many advances from Radha. Radha tells Gopal that for her Sundar is only a childhood friend and nothing more. Gopal tells Radha that he never loved her and that she should let him go. Radha refuses to answer Sundar's letters, and Sundar writes to Gopal lamenting that he is dying without any word from Radha. So, Gopal writes letters to Sundar making it look like they came from Radha.
Sundar is a fighter pilot, but he learns from his commanding officer (Iftekar) that Indian Army positions in the mountains are under heavy fire from the enemy and no supplies are able to reach them. Sundar decides to fly a transport plane himself to drop supplies to the Indian Army positions. This is a very dangerous mission as all supply flights before have been shot down.Sundar subsequently completes his mission, but his aircraft is shot down and he is listed as killed in action and presumed dead. For his bravery, he is awarded the Param Vir Chakra.
The news of Sundar's death saddens Radha and Gopal, but they are nonetheless now free to profess their love for one another. Among other expressions of love, Gopal writes her an unsigned love letter that touches her and which she hides away. Just when they begin taking steps to be married, Sundar returns, safe and sound. The self-effacing Gopal sacrifices himself once more (He tells Radha to keep quiet about the letters he had written to Sundar on her behalf), stepping back into the shadows and watching as the reborn Sundar resumes his wooing of Radha.Before Sundar enlisted, Radha's parents did not like him, but after he was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, they are happy to give her away in marriage to him. Her dad (Hari Shivdasani) is a retired army officer and hence has respect for servicemen.
After the couple returns from an extended European honeymoon, Sundar is deliriously happy, as his life's dream has been realized. Radha is resolved to be faithful to her husband and to put Gopal out of her mind, privately asking him to stay away from her and Sundar because of the torture his presence causes her. Sundar's devotion to Gopal, however, is such that he constantly tries to draw him into their lives, much to Radha's chagrin. The perfection of their marital bliss is, however, shattered when Sundar accidentally discovers the unsigned love letter Gopal had written to Radha. An enraged Sundar pulls a pistol on his wife and demands she divulge the name of her supposed lover, threatening to kill the man, but she refuses.
In the days that follow, Sundar becomes consumed with discovering the identity of the letter's author. Radha's life becomes miserable, lived out against the incessant drama of Sundar's jealousy, threats, anger, and fixation with the letter. Eventually unable to bear the wretchedness of her existence with Sundar any further, she flees to Gopal for help. Sundar takes the same route, unaware that Radha has gone to Gopal's house.
There, matters come to ahead. The overwrought Gopal admits his authorship of the infamous letter to Radha, an admission that almost destroys his friend. Gopal, perceiving no exit from the impasse at which the three have arrived, kills himself with Sundar's pistol. Radha and Sundar are finally reunited but in mourning.
