# Roti (1974 film)

Roti (transl. Flatbread) is a 1974 Indian Hindi-language action film, produced by Rajni Desai and Rajesh Khanna under the banner Aashirwad Pictures Pvt. Ltd and directed by Manmohan Desai. It stars Rajesh Khanna and Mumtaz, with music composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. This film was released on 11 October 1974, along with Benaam and Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. Kader Khan was reportedly paid ₹1.21 lakhs for writing dialogues for the film. The film was remade in Telugu as Neram Nadi Kadu Akalidi, starring N.T. Rama Rao and Manjula.

## Plot

Mangal Singh has been a career criminal and he is finally sentenced to be hanged due to the murder of a man for the sake of roti. Underworld don, Suraj who raises him as a criminal, plans his escape from jail and is followed by a police inspector. He escapes on a train when he throws a fellow passenger Shravan Kumar off the train. Mangal Singh lands up in a small village in Northern India and becomes a school teacher with the help of a local restaurateur, Bijli. He takes on the identity of Ramu, a friend of Shravan, and goes to live with Shravan's parents, Lalaji and Malti who are blind, little knowing that they are the parents of a man he killed while escaping from the police.
Bijli falls in love with the reluctant Mangal, but she discovers the truth when inspector Jagdish Raj comes to search Mangal in the same village and informs the blind couple about Shravan's death due to Mangal. Finally, Mangal also learns the truth about Shravan's parents. Mangal reunites Lalaji's long-lost daughter with him, who thereby releases Shravan's house. Mangal takes Shravan's parents for a holy pilgrimage along with Bijli where he meets the alive Shravan again. He pardons him and allows him to escape from the police, but Bijli follows him. While in pursuit of Mangal, Suraj shoots Bijli, but he dies in the snow avalanche. Bijli dies and Mangal is shot by inspector Sujit. The inspector finds Mangal dying with a gun without cartridges asking none to deprive anyone of roti.

## Cast

* Rajesh Khanna as Mangal Singh
* Mumtaz as Bijli
* Nirupa Roy as Malti
* Jagdeep as Khadak Singh
* Pinchoo Kapoor as Suraj
* Sujit Kumar as Police Inspector
* Jagdish Raj as Police Inspector
* Viju Khote as Doctor
* Om Prakash as Lalajee
* Vijay Arora as Shravan
* Paintal as Headmaster
* Asrani as Ramu
* Jeetendra as Himself (guest appearance)
* Jeevan as Lalaji
* Pravin Paul as Mrs Lalaji
* Kader Khan as Lawyer (voice only during opening credit)

## Soundtrack

The songs were composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal. The lyrics were written by Anand Bakshi.
| # | Title | Singer(s) |
| 1 | "Gore Rang Pe Na Itna" | Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar |
| 2 | "Naach Meri Bulbul" | Kishore Kumar |
| 3 | "Phoolon Ke Saath" | Lata Mangeshkar |
| 4 | "Yaar Hamari Baat Suno" | Kishore Kumar |
| 5 | "Yeh Public Hai" | Kishore Kumar |

## Box office

The film was a major Box-office success of the year and considered to be the mile-stone in the path of illustrious career of Formula-films made by Manmohan Desai. The Film grossed ₹2 crore in India and ₹4 crore worldwide. That works out to ₹160 crore and ₹320 crore resp. at 2018 price.

## Remake

The film is loosely inspired by the English movie Face of a Fugitive, a 1959 movie. Vast changes were made in the script of Roti. Later, Roti was remade in Telugu as Neram Nadi Kadu Akalidi, in 1976 starring N.T. Rama Rao. It was also remade in Bangladesh as Ek mutho bhat (One fist rice) starring Zafar Iqbal, Babita in 1976.

## Awards

* Filmfare Best Editing Award – Kamlakar Karkani