Set at the height of the great Mughal empire, it's a classic star-crossed love story, with Prince Salim (Kumar) being forbidden to pursue his passion for dancing courtier, Anarkali (Madhubala), by his imposing father, the Emperor Akbar (Kapoor).
But, after nearly a decade in pre-production, the director clearly wasn't content with merely discussing such intimate subjects as duty, class, religion and parental disapproval.
He was intent on creating a crowdpleasing spectacular and, with glorious colour sequences recalling those in Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible and battles evoking the same director's Alexander Nevsky and Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, he triumphantly succeeded.