Vijay Mehra [Rajendra Kumar] is a wealthy builder who loves Sumon [Vidya Sinha]. On the other hand, Ram Dogra [Danny], a college friend of the engineer, also likes Sumon. Vijay wants to bribe in the interest of the business. After this only, he comes to know about the love affair of Ram and Suman. Eventually, Sumon and Ram get married, and a daughter is born, named Pinky (Vijayeta)
Vijay too gets married. But his wife dies after giving birth to their son. Vijay brings up his son Bunty with utmost love and care. After many years, Pinky and Bunty suddenly face each other and needless to say, that meeting was not pleasant. Bunty wanted to be a pilot, but his father wanted him to be a builder. Pinky’s father wants her to get married but she does not want to. This is the reason why both of them run away from their homes. Havaldar Shwer Singh [Amjad Khan] arrests them and drags them with the same handcuff. It is in this twist that the love between the two develops.
But the story does not proceed so smoothly. Ram Dogra enters the scene. He never allows Pinky to get married to Bunty. So both of them run away again. This time they encounter some robbers. After many incidents, Bunty saves Pinky from the brink of death and finally the two love birds reunite.
The main inspiration of the story is undoubtedly Romeo and Juliet. Raj Kapoor’s ‘Bobby’ seems to have a small impact on the teen’s love story. For example, in the song “Kya gajab karte ho ji”, the way Aruna Irani irritates the teen Kumar Gaurav is somewhat similar to the way Rishi Kapoor was instigated by the same Aruna Irani in “Bobby.” Rahul Rawal learned filmmaking as an assistant to Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor has a reputation for portraying the physical beauty of his heroine-actress, but that style has not impressed Rahul Rawal at all. He has portrayed the actress in a beautiful way but has never unclothed them to expose their beauty. Rahulji told, the film is slightly influenced by the English film ‘The Defined Ones’. The handcuff element is taken from this picture.
Rahul Rawal’s speciality was to adorn the film with his own aesthetic skills, ignoring the prevailing notions. The name Love Story evokes a kind of poetic tone and the director was keen to preserve that tone and mood throughout the film. The design of the poster, the style of writing the title, and the credit title all have their mark. Another example that supports this comment is the scene of a Bunty, aspiring to become a pilot, playing with a herd of sheep seen at the bottom of a small plane. The description of the scene was not common, it was not dramatic, it was poetic. And in that poem, there was a kind of loneliness and sadness This sadness, however, is flowing in a very subtle way throughout the whole film. The such poetic depiction was not found in the major mainstream films of that time. Even later, Rahul Rawal’s harsh and rude reality-based films like ‘Dacait’ and ‘Arjun’ were a continuation of the poetic beauty of loneliness and the elegant picturisation. Rahul Rawal and especially Love Story, are still relevant today because of the creativity shown in making a mainstream commercial film, a sensitive work of cinematic art.
Sadly, the identity of Rahul Rawal was not engraved on the body of the film in which he was established. There are many stories of confrontation between producers and directors, but omitting the name of the director seems to be the lowest level of this work. In a conversation, Rahul Rawal said that he himself had withdrawn the name of the picture. In response to a question about “did you get the director’s remuneration”, he said, Love Story was one of the most successful films of that year, a major hit. But I got very little remuneration, that too, after a long court appearance.
Although not mentioned in the film, even today, Rahul Rawal’s second identity as a film director is associated with a film called ‘Love Story'.
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