Jyoti (1969)

Nirmal Mukerji, a young aero-mechanic, and his wife Radha are a happy couple the harmony of whose married life is some times affected by but one discordant note. While Radha is a deeply religions woman, Nirmal is an atheist. Despite her inherent goodness Radha is childless, and yearns for an offspring. Her unhappiness on this count causes a lot of concern to Nirmal. One day Preetam, Radha's brother known for his faith in Sadhus, persuades her to visit a holy man who predicts early motherhood for her. Nirmal who had reluctantly accompanied his wife on the mission scoffs at the prophecy and later takes her to a foreign-returned doctor for consultation. The doctor, after examining Radha, signals a ray of hope. She will not remain barren he asserts. After a while the dark clouds over Nirmals married life wither away and Radha is in the family way. She soon gives birth to a bonny boy who is named Nandan. To Nirmals utter horror, Radha is determined to bring up Nandan in the traditional way as she wants him to become a God-fearing man. As the child grows, the conflict between the parents widens. It has a bearing on the boys education too the problem of getting him admitted to a good school in Bombay is solved only when Preetam, the maternal uncle, comes to the rescue and "manages" to get through the admission bottleneck. Now Preetam a Bengali is attracted to a village belle from Andhra who knows only one language, her native Telugu, and whose father Gopalaswany can more than match Preetams fanaticism when it comes to parochial pride and prejudices. The tangle is finally solved in wedlock with love blossoming into an inter-provincial marriage with a touch of symbolic secularism all its own. Nirmal who has never approved of his wife's teachings to their son, has a strange eye-opener when he is caught in a test flight resulting in a plane crash and starts believing God.