Pagla Kahin Ka

Plot

Sujit (Shammi Kapoor) started having mental problems when he was six years after visiting his dad, Ajit, at a mental asylum. Thereafter he kept on getting into trouble, and even ran away from the orphanage. Years later, a musician and singer, Shyam (Prem Chopra), finds Sujit singing on the roadside, and decides to hire him as a singer in a nightclub. This is where Sujit meets dancer, Jenny (Helen), and both fall in love with each other. When they announce their plans to get married, the news does not augur well with the nightclub's owner, Max. An argument ensues, Max draws a gun, and Shyam ends up killing Max. Sujit decides to take the blame and is arrested by the police. In order to escape the gallows, he feigns insanity, and is ordered to be admitted to a mental asylum until he recovers. In the asylum, he is placed under the compassionate care of Dr. Shalini (Asha Parekh) and about a year later is discharged. He returns to the nightclub just in time for Jenny's and Shyam's engagement party. Baffled, confused, and angered at this betrayal, he really does go insane and ends up being re-admitted in the very same asylum. But this time his chances of recovery are very slim as he has retreated deep into the inner recesses of his mind - from where he may never return. Even though, Helen does her usual cabaret dance number in this film, it still contains one of her most dramatic roles, as she plays a rape victim.

Cast

Crew

Reception

The film wasn't a box office hit. Leading lady Asha Parekh said audiences didn't want to see Shammi Kapoor play a madman. Nevertheless, the film remains one of her personal favorites, calling it a "beautiful film." In her 2017 memoir "The Hit Girl", she wrote that Shammi Kapoor loved the song "Tum Mujhe Yun Bhula Na Paaoge" so much that in his later years, he used it as a ringtone for his cellphone. Director Shakti Samanta liked Parekh's performance so much that he cast her again in Kati Patang (1970), which became a hit, and which won her Filmfare Best Actress Award. Her co-star Helen also holds a special place in her heart for the film, since she called it a "very nice film." Actor Kamal Hassan wanted to star in the Tamil remake and asked Mani Ratnam to direct it, but Ratnam wasn't interested.