Padosan (1968)

Bhola is a village-bred innocent who moves in with his aunt and falls for Bindu, the modern, music-loving girl in the house opposite, who mocks him. Bindu only has eyes for her scheming Tamil music teacher, Masterji. So Bhola's friend Guru, who runs an amateur theatre troupe, has a plan: Bhola mimes at the window while Guru sings from hiding behind him, and Bindu starts to fall for "Bhola's" voice. Sunil Dutt is Bhola and Saira Banu is Bindu, with Kishore Kumar as Guru and Mehmood as Masterji - the pair in 'Ek Chatur Naar', the most famous comic song duel in Hindi cinema, where Kishore sings for himself and Manna Dey for Mehmood. Jyoti Swaroop directed, R. D. Burman wrote the music, and Rajendra Krishan wrote the story adaptation, the dialogue and every song. It remakes the Bengali film Pasher Bari (1952), from Arun Chowdhury's story, which is itself regarded as an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. R. D. Burman was first offered the part of Bhola and turned it down to stay with music. The film was the sixth biggest hit of 1968.