Prem Pujari (1970)

The first film Dev Anand officially signed as director is a nationalist and militarist pot-pourri of war and international espionage, partly shot in Spain, France and Britain. Ram (Anand), a soldier descending from a long line of famous army men, is a pacificist. Court-martialed for disobeying orders he is jailed but escapes. On the run, he encounters Rita (Zaheeda) whose single-seater plane has crashed and who embroils him in a spy ring he is determined to expose. This involves impersonating a Tibetan and a Portuguese and travelling to many international tourist spots before he destroys the spy ring which was leaking information about India’s military deals. However, he is too late to prevent Pakistan from attacking India in 1965 and, abandoning his pacifism, he rushes back to fight the enemy and to win back his girl (Rehman). The film is mainly notable for its aggressive exoticisation of the West (bullfights in Spain; cabarets, restaurants and boulevards in Paris; the Embankment and Scotland Yard in London).