Gumnaam

<p>On a dark night, wealthy Seth Sohanlal, stepping drunkenly out of a hotel, is run down by a speeding car and dies on the spot. A room overlooking the hotel is occupied by Khanna ( ), Seth Sohanlal’s murderer, who gives a bundle of to the unseen driver of the car arriving shortly after. Khanna then makes a series of to unseen people: to a , whom he tells that a needs to be created; to a mysterious young girl, whom he tells that the needs to be sent to the “right place”; and to a , whom he tells that the will will reach him the next morning and after that it is his job. Later, Khanna calls Seth Sohanlal’s niece, Asha ( ), and breaks the news of her uncle’s death. As Asha screams in anguish, she hears some at the other end of the line as an unseen intruder in a long and has entered Khanna’s room and him to death. A few days later, it is announced at a that the seven winners (five men and two girls) of a “lucky draw” have won a free -long trip to an unspecified destination abroad and will be going in a . These fortunate people are Rakesh ( ), Dharamdas ( ), Kishan ( ), Kitty Kelly ( ), Dr. Acharya ( ), Madhusudan Sharma ( ), and finally, Asha, who now seems more composed. Soon, these seven winners are in their chartered airplane, off of their vacation abroad, when the announces to them and the only who is on board, Anand ( ), that the airplane is forced to make an at an anonymous remote due to some technical problems. However, as soon as Anand and the seven passengers alight from the airplane, the pilot shockingly dumps all their out and the airplane without them, leaving them all stranded on the island. At the same time, a mysterious girl begins singing an eerie song on the island without the girl ever being visible. The eight people follow the girl’s and finally come across at a vast and spooky , which seems to be unoccupied except for a comical -clad ( ), who is in charge of the mansion and has been shockingly expecting the arrival of the . The butler also knows each of these people by name and has been provided with a listing all of these people except Anand. Moreover, everyone discovers that the butler has a which, besides containing an of daily , also contains a message addressed to the entire group, accusing each of these people of having conspired to kill Seth Sohanlal and passing a death sentence on them. That night, Anand, who himself has mysteriously brought with him a , discovers that Dr. Acharya has brought a of and Dharamdas a fearsome-looking . While Rakesh and Kitty fall in love and Anand begins with Asha, the butler’s suspicious actions indicate the presence of an unknown person in the mansion. The next day passes uneventfully, but at night, Anand and Asha are shocked to find Kishan to death with a half-smoked and a letter addressed to the group next to Kishan’s . The letter states that Kishan was the driver of the car that ran down Seth Sohanlal, and that is why he has now been killed. The group deduces that Dharamdas killed Kishan, but he pleads innocence and Anand and Asha also later find him to death. Rakesh accuses Dr. Acharya of actually having Dharamdas and it becomes clear that everyone was connected to Seth Sohanlal: Kitty was Seth Sohanlal’s who sent his will to Rakesh on Khanna’s instructions; while Rakesh wrote Seth Sohanlal’s will on Khanna’s orders, though neither was aware about the other. The next day, Anand notices Rakesh hiding an before Dr. Acharya appears informing that Sharma has been murdered with an axe. The murderer has left another letter addressed to the group next to Sharma’s dead body, stating that Sharma has been killed because he was Khanna’s co-conspirator in Seth Sohanlal’s murder. Now only three men – Anand, Rakesh and Dr. Acharya – and two girls – Asha and Kitty – are left alive and terrified on the island along with the butler. That night, Dr. Acharya catches the butler acting suspiciously and learns his secret before a scuffle ensues between them. In the presence of Asha and Kitty, a stabbed Dr. Acharya enters the , utters Anand’s name and breathes his last. Anand and Rakesh accuse each other of Dr. Acharya’s murder, while Asha begins questioning her faith in Anand. The next day, Kitty goes for a walk by herself and is strangled to death by a . Rakesh and Asha, searching for Kitty, are shocked to find her dead body and Anand’s hat next to it. Rakesh witnesses Anand escaping from the and begins pursuing him, but loses his trail. In a fit of rage and grief, Rakesh returns to the mansion and attempts to Asha in the middle of the night. Asha escapes from Rakesh, but runs into him again as Rakesh collapses dead with two daggers in his . All the in the mansion go out, which indicates that the killer has arrived and that Asha is next. The killer approaches Asha and she falls unconscious in fear, before he carries her to a secret room and helps her regain consciousness. At this point, Asha is shocked to learn that the killer is none other than Sharma, who reveals that he is alive and that he had only employed the butler to make the necessary arrangements on the island. Posing as one of the castaways, he killed Kishan and Dharamdas and then convinced Dr. Acharya to falsely declare him dead, on the pretext that it would help him secretly track down the killer, and later killed Dr. Acharya as well along with Kitty and Rakesh. Just then, Anand appears at the scene and reveals that he is actually an on the mission to capture Sharma, an escaped whose real name is Madanlal. Madanlal confesses to Anand and Asha that both Khanna and Seth Sohanlal were his partners in , but he was betrayed by them after being by the police. Khanna and Seth Sohanlal also raped Madanlal’s sister, which led her to commit suicide, and murdered Madanlal’s brother as well after he informed Madanlal about their crime in . Khanna also had Seth Sohanlal killed to usurp the share of his money, but Madanlal escaped from prison and murdered Khanna. He then ensured that his targets “won” the lucky draw held at the nightclub and took the trip in order to murder Khanna’s remaining five assistants too. Madanlal then ties up both Anand and Asha and plays a game of with them. However, the butler secretly arrives and unties Anand, who attacks Madanlal as he is about to shoot Asha with the only . In the ensuing scuffle, Madanlal escapes from the mansion and runs towards the , but an airplane full of police (acting upon Anand’s information) on the island and Madanlal is arrested for his crimes. At the same time, the ” ” girl singing the song turns out to be the butler’s sister (Naina). The film ends with Anand, Asha, the butler and his sister leaving the ill-fated island on the airplane. It was the 8th in 1965, grossing 2.6 . This was equivalent to 5.46 million in 1965.</p>