Actor and director/producer of this lavish film, Raj Kapoor, is without doubt India's first international star. His film Mera Naam Joker (My Name is Clown) is a three-part tale charting the life of Raju, the melancholic clown. The film starts with 16 year old Raju (played by Kapoor's own son Rishi Kapoor), who is at a posh boarding school, where he falls in love with a teacher (Simi). Raju knows he will never win her love and so sets his mind on becoming a clown, despite his ailing mother's pleas to stay away from the circus.

In the film's second part, Raju becomes a successful clown working in a Russian circus troupe touring India. He is in love with a circus performer (Kapoor's appreciative nod to his Soviet fans) who ends up returning home to Russia. The final drama of Mera Naam Joker has Raju in love with an aspiring actress who rejects him for the sake of her career.

Raj Kapoor often spoke of his admiration for Charlie Chaplin, whose character was the early template for the Kapoor hero. Inspired by Chaplin's Limelight, the theme of unrequited love and tragedy runs through Mera Naam Joker, the most personal of all Raj Kapoor's films.

Mera Naam Joker was a mammoth production that took six years to make, nearly bankrupting Raj Kapoor in the process. When the film was released, it did not do well at the box-office despite its strong story-line, great music and fine performances but today it is recognised as a classic of Hindi cinema.