Kishen Kanhaiya

Kishen Kanhaiya

Year: 1990

Runtime: 160 mins

Language: Hindi

Director: Rakesh Roshan

FamilyDrama

Leela and Bholaram live. Leela works as a midwife. She assists Sunderdas’ wife in delivering twins; the mother dies. Leela keeps one baby, raising him as Kanhaiya, and tells Sunderdas his wife had one son, Kishen. Sunderdas, unable to raise Kishen, remarries Kamini, who brings son Ramesh. Learning Ramesh’s parentage, he is attacked and left paralyzed.

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Kishen Kanhaiya (1990) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of Kishen Kanhaiya (1990), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

Kishen / Kanhaiya Anil Kapoor and his twin, raised apart by circumstance, step into a world where love, loyalty, and danger intertwine as they seek the life stolen from them. The tale opens with Leela Shubha Khote and Bholaram Sujit Kumar, a childless couple who live in a modest home. Leela serves as a midwife for a wealthy family, the Das clan, and while delivering the Das children, she learns of the hardships that accompany new life. When the wife dies in childbirth, Leela faces a stark choice: the father cannot raise both babies. In a moment shaped by love and fear, she decides to keep one child for herself, sparing Sunder Das Shreeram Lagoo the burden of two orphans. Bholaram’s anxiety about being discovered clashes with Leela’s conviction, but eventually he agrees to keep the secret. They tell Sunder that his wife has given birth to a child, yet he is now a widower, a revelation that will cast a long shadow over everyone’s future.

Sunder Das listens to the news with a mix of grief and hope, hoping to raise Kishen in a comfortable home. Yet grief gnaws at him, making it hard to be the father he desires to be. In a bid to rebuild a sense of family, he marries Kamini Bindu Desai, hoping she will help nurture Kishen. But Kamini brings with her a troubling secret: her brother Gendamal Amrish Puri arrives along with his child Mahesh, and what starts as a cautious partnership soon spirals into cruelty. When Sunder suffers a heart attack during this tense turning point, Gendamal manipulates the moment to enact a calculated accident that leaves Sunder paralyzed and near mute. Kishen’s life, under Kamini and Gendamal’s rule, becomes a misery-filled regimen of abuse and control, his innocence shadowed by fear as education is kept from him to maintain dependence and power.

Meanwhile, Leela and Bholaram raise the other child, Kanhaiya, in a very different setting. Life in a poorer neighborhood shapes him into a sharp, street-smart young man with a deep love for cinema. He grows into a clever, audacious boy who still carries a surprising tenderness. He crosses paths with Anju Madhuri Dixit, a girl who shares his love for films and understands the pull of luxury and comfort. The two quickly fall in love, and their bond strengthens the twin connection that links Kishen and Kanhaiya: when one is hurt, the other feels the pain. Only Bholaram grasps the full gravity of this link at a pivotal moment, realizing the two brothers may share more than a blood tie.

As Kishen builds a fragile life with Radha, a maid who becomes his confidante, and her younger sister, he falls into a secret romance with Radha and eventually marries her. Yet the cruelty of his step-family never wanes. Gendamal, eager to claim wealth and control, hatches a deadly plan: he urges Mahesh to kill Kishen by pushing him from a cliff after the property is signed over. The deed is carried out, and those who witness it believe Kishen is dead. The shock of this supposed loss sends Kanhaiya into a new, hardened resolve, and he returns with Bholaram to the ancestral mansion, causing a storm of astonishment. His demeanor has shifted; he stands up for himself in ways no one expected, and Radha suddenly realizes that the man she loved is no longer the same Kishen she married.

But Kishen survives the fall, though the injury leaves him with amnesia. One fateful day, Anju spots a wandering man on the streets and mistakes him for his brother-in-arms, Kanhaiya. She tries to help him recover his memories, but the encounter opens old wounds and leaves her heartbroken at the possibility that Kishen’s memory may be forever in flux.

The story threads toward a moment of quiet revelation: Radha visits the same temple where Anju and Kishen have wandered, praying for her husband and, in a twist of fate, encounters him there. From that moment, the two brothers—Kishen and Kanhaiya—cross paths with a renewed sense of purpose. They join forces to confront the scheming Gendamal and to restore their family’s rightful place. The final act fuses courage with familial love as the brothers reclaim what was stolen, reunite with their loved ones, and chart a future defined by resilience, forgiveness, and the power of togetherness.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 15:06

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