Teen Batti Char Raasta

Teen Batti Char Raasta
Film poster
Directed by	V. Shantaram
Produced by	V. Shantaram
Written by	Dewan Sharar
Starring	Sandhya Shashikala Sheila Ramani Karan Dewan
Music by	Shivram Krishna
Cinematography	G. Balakrishna
Production company	Rajkamal Kalamandir
Release date	1953 (1953)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Teen Batti Char Raasta (Three Lights And Four Streets) is a 1953 Hindi social family drama on national integration directed by V. Shantaram. The film was made under the Rajkamal Kalamandir banner and produced by Shantaram. The story and dialogue were by Diwan Sharar while the cinematography was by G. Balkrishna. With music composed by Shivram Krishna, it had lyrics by Pyare Lal Santoshi. The star cast included Karan Dewan, Sandhya, Shashikala, Nirupa Roy, Sheila Ramani, Dewan Sharar and Lalita Kumari.

The film, a social comedy-drama showing national integration, involved a family, whose patriarch Lala Gulabchand (Diwan Sharar), is a Punjabi married to a woman from Uttar Pradesh. He lives near a crossroads with three lights and four streets. The crossroads is used symbolically as a union of the different states and religions in the country, as mentioned in the film. Their five of six sons then marry girls from five different states in India and the story follows the chaos that ensues. The film had a sub-plot weaved into it in the form of a dark-complexioned girl, Shyama (Sandhya), who is first humiliated by the hero Ramesh (Karan Dewan), and then accepted by him as he falls in love with the "real person".

Lala Gulabchand (Dewan Sharar), is a Punjabi and his wife is from Uttar Pradesh. They live at the corner of a crossroads with three lights and four roads. He is a firm believer in national unity and has had five of his six sons, each married to a girl from a different state; a Marathi, Sindhi, Bengali, Tamil and a Gujarati. His sixth son Ramesh (Karan Dewan), works in the press and is a writer and an artist. He is a bachelor but falls in love with a woman named Kokila whose singing he hears on the radio. He draws a portrait of Kokila from imagination just listening to her sing. Unbeknownst to him, Kokila, called Shyama (Sandhya), is the dark-complexioned maid who works in their home and is proficient in all the different languages that the wives of the brothers' speak and very efficient in her chores. However, he rejects her as she's dark and Shyama leaves the house despondent. The turmoil the household goes through with the absence of Shyama and a repentant Ramesh finally makes for a happy ending by everyone getting together again.