Documentary essay about the First Moscow International Film Festival, held in August 1959, about its participants and guests - Soviet and foreign actors, directors who came to the film forum.

Maya (Jamuna) is the poor cousin of rich socialite Shanta (Azoorie). Shanta is supposed to marry the equally rich Pratap (P. Sanyal), but he falls in love with Maya and fathers her child before going abroad. Shanta causes a seperation by intercepting Pratap's letters to Maya. When he returns, a successful lawyer, he us unable to trace her, while her efforts to meet him are foiled.

The poor but educated Mahim and his childhood friend, the rich but conservative Suresh, both fall in love with the same woman, the liberated Achala. Mahim marries her and they move to a village but she cannot forget Suresh. Her smoldering unhappiness takes the form of resentment towards the orphaned Mrinal, raised by Mahim's father, and receives a dramatic visual embodiment when their house burns down. Mahim falls ill, is rescued by Suresh, and nursed back to health by Achala. On a train (a metaphor for the irreversibly linear course of life) to a health resort where Mahim is supposed to convalesce, Suresh on a rainswept night gives in to temptation and elopes with Achala. At the end of the film, there is a dubious reconciliation as Achala is shown following Mahim's 'good' traditionalism with Sharatchandra's barely concealed hostility towards Achala's liberated Brahmo Samaj upbringing.

A tenant attacks the villainous landlord Jawaharlal Choudhry, injures his son Priyalal and abducts his daughter-in-law Sandhya. Sandhya escapes unharmed to her relative, the engineer Praksh, but her father-in-law refuses to take her back, believing her to be 'damaged goods'. Sheltered by the kindly Promode, her husband eventually accepts her back although she feels torn between affection for her savior and her marital obligations.

An impoverished man and his young son travel to Calcutta and look for work, in order to make money that'll save their ancestral land from being seized by a corporation.

The postmaster of a village receives a check for 500,000 rupees, for the purpose of bequeathing it to the village’s most upstanding citizen.

An orphan adopted by an upper caste family never learns of her untouchable caste background. This proves problematic when years later, she falls in love with an upper caste man.

In 1930s British-ruled Bengal, a prison-doctor falls in love with a convicted murderer with past connections to a freedom fighter.

Childhood sweethearts grow up in a small village with a love-hate relationship which changes to love when they mature.

Nilambhar Chakravorty belongs to a poor family, and lives in a joint family with his married brother, Pitambar, unmarried sister, Punnu, and wife, Biraj. Since his sister is of marriageable age, he arranges her marriage, and borrows some money. When Pitambar comes to know about this, he refuses to share any expense in his sister's marriage, and decides to separate, resulting in a fence being put up between their homes. Nilambher, unable to find employment, is unable to pay back the loan, and soon both he and his wife barely have enough to live on. To complicate matters further, Deodhar, a wealthy young contractor has his eye on Biraj's beauty and would like to be intimate with her, in return for money and a better life.

Two men take shelter in a derelict mansion situated in the countryside during a storm. One of the men suddenly becomes aware that he once visited this mansion in a past life; he recounts a story about when he was Anand, a painter, who fell in love with a tribal girl named Madhumati.

The comic, tragic and heartrending saga of Ratan Kumar Chaudhary, who leaves his village, aging mom and seriously ill sister, to obtain employment in Calcutta, only to end up in a tiny tenement apartment full of other unemployed youths.

In Calcutta at the turn of the century, two families (one wealthier than the other but both belonging to the same caste) live in adjoining properties. Their respective patriarchs fall out over the repayment of a loan and the intervention of a member of a lower caste in the families' financial arrangements. The rift causes much heartache to the younger members of the families, two of whom have secretly plighted their troth to each other.

Acclaimed director Bimal Roy’s debut feature about a struggling writer established him as an important Bollywood voice through its realistic portrayal of the simmering class conflicts in pre-independence India. Anup (Radhamohan Bhattacharya) loses his job writing speeches for a wealthy industrialist and decides to focus on finishing his novel. But when his former boss steals Anup’s unpublished book, he throws himself into socialist politics.

Sibling rivalry abounds in this film about two privileged brothers, Anwar and Nawab, and the women who come between them. Nawab, although a married man and father, engages in frequent secret rendezvous with his mistress, Benazir. Meanwhile, Anwar declares his love for a woman named Shahida, whom he desires to wed. So when Nawab witnesses Anwar in the arms of the lovely Benazir, he's outraged -- and puzzled -- by the brotherly betrayal.

Documentary on the Great Stupa at Sanchi, built by the Emperor Ashoka, and adorned with some of the finest examples of Buddhist art in the world.

A poor Afghani leaves his family behind to earn a living as a dried fruit vendor in India. Profoundly homesick, he befriends a young girl who reminds him of his own daughter. Meanwhile, the locals are distrustful of all foreigners.

The manufacture of kerosene tins in an Indian factory.

A wealthy young man (Rajendra Kumar) is forced by his traditional parents to end his relationship with a girl of lower social standing (Mala Sinha). The heartbroken girl never reveals to her lover that she's pregnant with his child, whom she raises on her own. Years later, father and son (Rishi Kapoor) meet when the son finds a job working for a company that his father owns -- but will the two discover the truth about each other's identities?

Nandu lives in a small town with his widowed mom, Paro. He is friendly with two young girls, Farida and Kamli. He is depressed when Kamli's dad becomes ill and she and her mom re-locate to Ambala. Years later, Farida and Nandu have grown up and continue to be friends. Then they get the news that Kamli's dad has passed away, and they are to return back. Initially they do not recognize each other, but when they do, both fall in love and want to marry. When Paro goes to meet with Kamli's maternal uncle, she is shunned, humiliated because they are poor and Nandu is unemployed, & considered a trouble-maker.

Devdas, the son of a zamindar, and Parvati, his neighbour's daughter, are childhood sweethearts. However, class and caste differences prevent their marriage. Devdas is sent off to Calcutta, while Paro is married off to an aged rich widower. In Calcutta, as remorse drives him to alcohol, Devdas meets Chandramukhi, a tawaif.

Suren, prevented by his family from pursuing a university career, leaves home and becomes a tutor to Pramila. He falls in love with her widowed elder sister Madhavi who, although returning his love, has him sacked to save the situation.

A wealthy man, suspected of murder, is killed before he can be arrested. Everyone in his household is under suspicion. A private investigator looks into the case and finds himself falling in love with one of the suspects.

In ancient Rome, a mourning Jewish man raises the kidnapped daughter of Roman royalty as his own - and she grows up without learning her true identity. Years later, she falls in love with a Roman prince.

When a local mining company dares to provide its workers a fair wage for a fair day's work, and lets its workers unionize, the kingdom's villainous potentate is less than pleased. After considerable pressure, the company agrees to blame unrest in the region on a blameless worker collective.

Arun begins hating Kavita when he loses his scholarship due to a misunderstanding with her. But after his new fiancé asks Kavita to write Arun letters on her behalf, Kavita falls in love with him. An accident intertwines their futures.

A joint family consisting of four brothers, their wives, and their respective children, living under one roof. Some of the brothers are professionls, one a lawyer, a doctor, and others businessmen. They are a happy family, living and sharing each other's joys and sorrows. Then one day, an arguement breaks out over a glass of milk, and the entire family is thrown into chaos, and the only resolution seems to be nothing but dividing the entire property amongst the brothers and their respective families.

A dying man entrusts his lives earnings to Purshotam, a stranger he just met, and asks him to promise to take this money to his wife, and son, Pradeep, in a remote village in India, to which Purshotam agrees. The man passes away, and Purshotam goes to fulfill his promise, in vain though, as he is unable to trace the woman and her son. After sometime he experiences financial difficluties, and decides to use the money for his personal gain. Years later he comes to know of the rightful heir to these monies, but will he able to assert his honesty, or will he carry on as though nothing has happened

A wife rejected by her in-laws following her abduction is given shelter by the husband's friend. The storyline follows the wife's ambivalent feelings for her savior when she's accepted back into the family.

It was 1943. Burma was under Japanese control. In Pegu, a small place near Burma lived two Indian families. They were neighbors Kumar and Lata loved each other. Their parents were also willing to see them engaged. Suddenly one day, it came out in the news paper the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had called on the people to give him blood so that he could give them freedom. Kumar was reluctant but later on he decided to join the INA.

This classic adultery story tells of an artist, Prasanta (Barua) presented in the stereotypically romantic image: dedicated to his vocation, paying no heed to his scandalous reputation (he paints nude models) and with a cavalier attitude to his conservative father-in-law's (Choudhury) demands for a good social behavior.

A young lawyer is involved with a ghostly woman in his new house, where the builder and his fiancée died shortly after it was built.

A modern reformist professor helps a courtesan in her endeavour to achieve high academic level and respectability. They face open opposition and hostility by society but do not relent.

Chanderbabu (Nazir Hussain), a retired postmaster, lives in the village with his wife and two sons, Rajan (Paul Mahendra) and Bhanu (Bharat Bhushan). He continues to live there and work for the Zamindar, while his children are getting their education. Rajan is studying for his law exam. He is married to a girl (Padma) from a wealthy family whose haughty ways alarm and frightens him. Bhanu, the younger brother is fun-loving but studious. He gets influenced by the Nationalist Movement in the campus and stops his education in the last year of college. His father is disappointed and feels that Rajan is the one they can depend upon in their old age. Bhanu meets Meena (Shyama), and the two fall in love. Meera's father, Ramnarayan, is the school Principal and is impressed by Bhanu. He decides to get Meera married to Bhanu.