Jeevan Yatra (1946)

Shantaram, who had given him his first break, also produced Vinayak’s last film. It features a large number of characters travelling on a bus to Benares. A storm forces the passengers to take shelter in an abandoned temple where a prostitute tries to seduce Raja (Yakub) and he is left behind. The bus later breaks down and when Raja rejoins the group a local bandit, Vishwas (Pendharkar), attacks it. Eventually the bandit turns out to be Raja’s father and the husband of an old woman, Kalindi (Protima Devi), another passenger on the bus. Vinayak’s only film in the mainstream Hindi cinema, it included the collective number Ao azadi ke geet gate chalein and Lata Mangeshkar’s Chidiya bole choo choo. Mangeshkar plays a village girl.