The film was made during British colonial rule of India, and is a dark critique of the divide-and-rule policy of the British that stirred communal hatred between Hindus and Muslims, whose legacy continues in India to this day, with communal riots and genocide. Keshavarao Date and Gajanan Jahagirdar play the leads as Hindu and Muslim neighbours who are dear friends (the Hindi version was called Padosi.) A proposed dam will submerge their village and opinion is divided about it. The film could also be seen as a critique of big dams, as post-independence in 1947, India followed Jawaharlal Nehru`s model of economic progress with big dams and infrastructure that was later severely criticised for its inability to erase poverty. The dam contractor (a metaphor for the British) engineers a rift between the Hindu and Muslim friends. Finally the dam is blown up and floods the village, and the two friends are reconciled too late: they are found drowned, but with their hands linked forever.The film has amazing trick photography and special effects during the dam and other sequences and was way ahead of its time. It is also quite daring on the issue of love marriage, underscored through a parallel romantic track. But overall, the film is often cloyingly sweet, fairly long and melodramatic, and has too many songs.