Jewel Thief

<p>A mysterious jewel thief has been looting valuable gems throughout the country. As the daring crimes grab headlines, the of mentions that the thief is currently operating in his jurisdiction. He vows to resign if he fails to catch the criminal by . Meanwhile, the Commissioner’s son Vinay is hired by prominent jeweller Vishambhar Nath, who highly values his skill with jewels. During his work, Vinay grows close to Vishambhar’s daughter Anjali. At a party hosted by Anjali, Vishambhar’s childhood friend Arjun and Arjun’s sister, Shalini, mistake Vinay to be Shalini’s , Amar. Both of them soon realise the mistake, but Arjun notes Vinay’s uncanny similarity to Amar. Nevertheless, Shalini and Vinay strike a friendship, that develops into romance. Shalini’s engagement ring is identified as a previously stolen piece of jewellery, and the Commissioner suspects that Amar might actually be the elusive jewel thief. At Vishambhar’s shop, all the jewellery in a concealed storeroom gets stolen. He believes that the man he had left in charge was Vinay, although the real Vinay was with Anjali. The police believe the impersonator was Amar. A small-time thief gets caught at the shop and divulges information about Amar’s associate, Helen. Vinay agrees to help the police by impersonating Amar and goes to meet Helen. He tricks her and learns that the real Amar is going to . There, Vinay meets other members of Amar’s gang, including Julie, Amar’s wife. The gang flies to and pulls off another jewellery heist. Arjun and Vinay learn from Julie, who has realised that Vinay is only masquerading as her husband, that Amar has left for , . Vinay visits Gangtok and meets another Amar associate, Neena. He promises to help her escape the gang in return for information. Neena, however, gets Vinay captured by luring him into the gang’s . The gang’s real leader is revealed to be Arjun, who is the jewel thief. No person named Amar ever existed; the identity was created to baffle the police and deflect any attention away from Arjun. Vishambhar Nath was part of this carefully planned scheme, too, while Shalini had assisted the gang in securing the release of her kidnapped brother, Shishu. When she approaches Arjun for Shishu’s release, she gets locked up with him in the safe house. Having discovered secret passages under the building, Shalini rescues Vinay and explains the situation to him. The three try to flee but are recaptured. Vinay is administered electric shocks to wipe out his memory. The gang then makes Vinay believe that ‘jewel thief Amar’ is his real identity. Their plan is to stage a fake heist of the Sikkimese crown jewels and let ‘Amar’ take the blame. The police will be manipulated into shooting ‘Amar’ dead, forever lifting suspicion from the actual criminals. Since Shalini is a well-known dancer in the royal court, she is to facilitate the gang’s entry disguised as a . ‘Amar’ dies according to plan, and the gang celebrates. Vinay, however, had merely been acting; he had secretly warned the police about the gang’s plan beforehand. Anjali, who has discovered her father’s criminal involvement, has got in touch with the police too. The police surround the safehouse and Vinay corners Arjun, but he manages to escape. Vinay follows Arjun to his plane, but the latter threatens to shoot him. Anjali, though, has already removed the bullets in the gun, and the Commissioner appears to announce that the entire gang has been arrested, before January 26 as promised. Anjali takes Vinay to the cabin where Shalini is waiting for him with Shishu, as the plane gets airborne. For the lead female role, was approached by Dev Anand. Banu, who had earlier worked with Anand in (1966) declined the role due to her marriage to actor . Banu had also turned down the role of Rosie in the 1965 film , which was produced by Anand. Soon, actress was signed for the role; she had worked with Anand before in a decade earlier. Vyjayanthimala was also considered by Anand for the lead role in , but was rejected by , the director of s English version. The movie was noted for combining elements from different movies, (1955), (1958) and in particular (1959). Film critic Richard Allen also adds the movie (1956) to this list as well influences from the series in how the female actresses are empowered, including a bath scene taken from (1965), and aesthetic borrowings from the , such as the cap of Dev Anand’s character. The film’s soundtrack was composed by , who earlier made a string of memorable films under Navketan Films. The lyrics for this film were by songwriter , except for “Rula Kay Gaya Sapna” by . At that time, Shailendra wasn’t keeping well, so Sultanpuri was approached for the movie. The male playback was done by and , who lent their voices to . The female singers were , who lent her voice for and for and . The song, “Dil Pukare Aa Re, Aa Re, Aa Re” was notable for being the first duet that Mangeshkar and Rafi recorded together, following their disagreement over royalties in the 1960s. was a profitable venture for the distributors. Over its theatrical run, reported that the film had managed to gross 3,50,00,000 with a net of 17,500,000 and, adjusted to inflation is about (US$4.1 million). Subsequently, was declared a hit at the box office. It ended up as the sixth highest-grossing film of 1967 and . Following the success of , the film was screened in many film festivals. In August 2008, the film was screened along with three other films by Dev Anand at the Government Museum Auditorium for the Chandigarh Film Festival. The film was also screened by the on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of . On 1 August 2009, was premiered at , . The premier was attended by , , , , , Vijay Kalantri and Pooja Misrra. A sequel titled was released in 1996, with only two actors reappearing and reprising their original roles; , reprising the role of Vinay Kumar and , reprising the role of Arjun. It was one of the movies in which Dev Anand acted outside his own banner, Navketan. The movie also had an ensemble cast, consisting of actors , , , , , and .</p>