On his arrival in Britain, Bharat meets his father's college friend, Sharma (Madan Puri) with his wife Rita (Shammi), daughter Preeti (Saira Banu) and hippie son Shankar (Rajendra Nath).

However, Bharat also realises that others do long for India but stay in Britain for financial reasons, like Sharma with his stack of K. L. Saigal records.

Purab Aur Paschim held the UK record for 23 years up until Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994).

Manoj Kumar shot in London at the height of the "hippie" phase and caught both the beauty and ugliness of the English landscape.

However, his simplistic view of the West was greed, lust and depravity, while India stood for love, honour and piety.

In Namastey London (2007), Akshay Kumar sells the same version of India to the London girl (Katrina Kaif) -- and a line in the film pays tribute to the original, when he tells her that if her boyfriend's uncle and their associates want to learn more about India, he'd give her a DVD of Purab Aur Pachhim which she should give to them.