Maha Chor

(translated as "high thief") is a 1976 Bollywood action comedy film directed by Narendra Bedi, starring Rajesh Khanna in the lead role, paired opposite Neetu Singh for the very first time. The film had music by R.D. Burman and the lyricist whom Rajesh Khanna preferred for his films; Anand Bakshi. The film grossed 1.90 crores in 1976 and it became a box office hit. Plot Raju (Rajesh Khanna) is an orphan who is brought up by the people of a colony in the Juhu area of Bombay. He lives as a son of all residents of the colony and helps them with their financial needs by stealing and because of this, he is often jailed for some months. He is affectionately called "Raju" by Hindus and "Khan" by Muslims. Prem Singh (Prem Chopra) intends to build a hotel in the colony and compels people to vacate the place or pay Rs.10000 as rent. Actually, the land belongs to Neetu, the princess of Raigadh. Prem urges Neetu to marry him so that he can own the land of Juhu. But Neetu (Neetu Singh) resists the proposal. Neetu's uncle manages to get the photograph of the prince and sends it to Raj Matha. Prince Rajeshwar (Rajesh Khanna) had been kidnapped by Prem's mother in his childhood to prevent him from inheriting the wealth of Raigadh palace and to make her son the heir for it. Raju steals a car of Prem Singh and gets caught when he tries to sell his car back to him. Seeing his intelligent innocence, he first uses him to transport smuggled kinds of stuff to Raigadh in the car. Neetu escapes from Prem and hides at the back of the car. While Raju drives towards to Raigadh, he finds her and takes her along with him. On the way, though they both fight, they develop a feeling for each other. Raju, who thinks he is not eligible for the princess, tries to kill his feelings. Prem recognizes the identity of lost Prince Rajeshwar in Raju. So he insists upon Raju to act like him in the palace, but Raju refuses as he cannot serve several years of jail as his colony people need him. Prem sets fire to the colony and this angers Raju. So he sets off to the palace where, without any effort, gets accepted by the Queen as Prince Rajeshwar, in spite of his repeated denials. The Queen identifies him through his photograph, burnt hand (actually he got burnt in the fire set in the colony) and the finger print of the Prince. But the astrologer who is working for Prem lies to the Queen that he is the real prince, thinking Raju is the man sent by Prem. Raju was crowned as Prince Rajeshwar.