This broad social satire about middle-class attitudes toward marriage and the Divorce Bill has something in common with American screwball comedy--namely, that nobody comes out unscathed, least of all the rebellious woman. Guru Dutt once again plays the cynic looking for love. This time he is an out-of-work cartoonist who becomes the pawn in a plot to marry off a liberated young heiress so that she might lay claim to her father's property without violating the condition in his will which stipulates that she be married. This runs contrary to the wishes of her guardian aunt, who has instilled a western-feminist attitude in her niece from early childhood. Much switching of political postures goes on before the ending, which is either unsettlingly typical in its philosophy, or else a truly black parody of that philosophy, brings the niece to her knees.