His friend from jail, Joker (I. S. Johar) is with him. Tulsiram on finding out that Anil has vowed vengeance on him, is on the run with his daughter. He goes on a pilgrimage with Anil and Joker in pursuit. Joker thanks God that at least this way an atheist will also perform a pilgrimage. Anil meets Rama (Nalini Jaywant), the priest Tulsiram's daughter when he sees Rani Ma, (Leela Mishra) scolding an untouchable boy for touching her, begging for alms. A priest hits the boy and Anil in turn hits the priest. Rama tends to the boy and Anil finds out she is Tulsiram's daughter. He decides to revenge himself by marrying Rama, an act which would be disagreeable to the priest. With contrived circumstances, he gets Rama who has fallen in love with Anil, to marry him. They spend the night together and are out in the boat with the father after them when they both fall in the water. Rama is saved by her father but finds out later that she's pregnant. She presumes that Anil is dead. A son is born to her and when he falls sick she takes him to a God-man, Babaji, whom everyone believes has healing powers. Babaji is none other than Anil pretending to be a God-man. Once Anil discovers that Rama is alive and his son is ill a change comes over him, and with the recovery of his son his belief in Sanatana Dharma is restored. The film was highly successful at the box-office, running for fifty weeks (Golden jubilee) even though the film was banned initially. "Nastik" made use of "documentary footage of refugees in overcrowded trains to show the mass exodus of people from both sides of the border". Later Yash Chopra's "Dharmputra" (1960) was to show similar footage. Nastik highlighted the anguish of partition, and is stated to be one of the better films on the subject, and is still used as a benchmark in comparison to other films on the same topic. The film shows Hindu shrines "spread all over" India, with Dwarka, Rameshwar, Puri, Varanasi, and Brindavan among others. The music direction was by C. Ramchandra. Lyricist Kavi Pradeep, known for his "inspirational verses" wrote the famous "thought-provoking" song "Dekh Tere...Kitna Badal Gaya Insaan".