This Land of Mine

Panchu and his brother Shiri live in poverty in Bombay. Through friends Ashok and Prema, they find love and better prospects, but tragedy strikes when Sonu drowns, Panchu is jailed, Prema is injured, and Shiri falls from a train. Panchu Kumtekar lives a near-destitute lifestyle in Bombay along with his school-going brother, Shiri. He makes a living as a con-man, gambling and picking pockets with the assistant of another poverty-stricken male, Choti. He has a friend in Ashok who sells Cavendar cigarettes on busy streets by wearing stilts. One day Ashok meets with a maidservant, Sonu Mangeshkar, and both fall in love with each. Shiri is unable to pay his fees and is expelled from school but a local prostitute, Prema, comes to his assistance, much to the initial displeasure of Panchu. But he does change his mind, accepts her help, they fall in love and get married. Ashok then gets employed as a boxer with Sonu's employer, starts earning enough money to support them all, and even moves into a 3 room apartment, while Panchu decides to go honest and finds work as a Peon. Then their lives are shattered when Sonu's Goa-based dad falls ill, she goes to visit him via a ship, which sinks, killing everyone on board; Ashok, depressed and devastated, decides not to box anymore; Panchu decides to back to stealing, unknowingly extorts money from the mother of Police Inspector Moti, is subsequently arrested, and jailed; Prema gets run over by a horse-carriage; Shiri takes to selling candy on trains, tries to escape from a ticket-checker and falls off of a running train. Will Prema and Shiri recover? and, if yes, will their lifestyle ever get better? —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)