Paying Guest

An incompetent lawyer, Ramesh, is repeatedly evicted for failing to pay rent. To stay in the city, he adopts the guise of an elderly man to gain entry as a tenant. In the process, he meets Shanti and quietly falls for her, setting up a risky romance.

Ramesh's masquerade brings him into Shanti's sphere, where he begins to fall deeper in love. Meanwhile, Chanchal marries Dayal for money and moves in as Shanti's neighbor. The two women' dynamics create tension and jealousy that influence the unfolding drama.

Shanti's elder sister's rake and ruffian husband Prakash pressures Shanti's father to send money. The threat underscores the family's financial precarity and the pressure on Ramesh to contribute.

Ramesh cannot pay his rent, pushing Shanti to lend him money her father had allotted for monthly expenses. She tries to arrange a money order to send to the brother-in-law, but there is no spare money to spare. The family teeters on the edge of further disaster.

During a confrontation, Prakash's push causes Shanti's frail father to collapse and die. The family sinks into greater peril as the loss compounds their financial and emotional strain.

Shanti's elder sister falls ill and needs medicine. To help, Shanti gives her brother-in-law the gold bangles, but Prakash squanders the money on liquor. The family grows poorer and more vulnerable.

With money tight, Ramesh's friends advise Shanti to seek work. She lands a job at a theatre, starting a new phase in her independence and drawing her further into the web of schemes around Dayal and Chanchal.

Chanchal arranges a job for Ramesh under her husband Dayal, pulling him deeper into Dayal's world. This connection tightens the plot and fuels jealousy and manipulation among the players.

Prakash and Chanchal team up to separate Ramesh and Shanti. At a party, Ramesh is humiliated and drunk; Dayal witnesses the scene and rewrites his will to disown Chanchal. The will's revision becomes a weapon in the ensuing power struggles.

Chanchal, in cahoots with Prakash, engineers Dayal's removal and lures him to a lakeside resort. Dayal is drowned, and the murder leaves everyone scrambling for answers and control of the altered Will.

Prakash uses the Will and Dayal's murder to blackmail Chanchal, threatening to expose them both. Shanti's suspicions grow as the legal and moral quagmire tightens around the central relationships.

Shanti races to Chanchal's bungalow, where Prakash roughs up Chanchal. In a tense confrontation, Shanti disarms Prakash and fires a shot that kills him, marking a dramatic twist in the case.

Shanti confesses to the crime, and the town's top lawyers refuse to take her case. Desperate, she turns to Ramesh, who finally becomes her lawyer. The courtroom fate of Shanti hangs on whether he can secure her salvation.