Naya Daur is the story of two friends. Shankar the tongawala, Krishna the wood-cutter and the happy peaceful village of Karanpur in which they lived. Karanpur, far away in the valley of the hills crowned by timber forests, first stop to the sacred temple of Shiva, twelve miles away, to which came pilgrims every day and journeyed forth in the tongas. A village peopled by robust, rugged, simple men and women who despite the lack of an agricultural economy remained happy because of the money earned by the tonga-walas and the wood-cutters working for Seth Maganlal, the kind hearted Timber factory owner who believed his prosperity was entirely due to the people who worked for him and that he owed it to them to see they remained happy. Into this village comes Kundan, the Seth's city-bred, money greedy son and Rajni, a beautiful young lady. Kundan in his greed for quick profits mechanises the saw mill and brings misery to the once happy village of Karanpur. Rajni with her beauty and her preference for Shankar generates bitterness between the two friends who both loved her. The friends who were ignorant of each other's feelings for Rajni realise this only when Shanker goes to Krishna to propose the marriage of his sister Manju, who secretly loved Krishna; as a way out of the dilemma they decide to leave the decision as to who should marry Rajni to the deity on the hill. A pact is made but Manju who overhears the conversations between the friends, and because she wanted Krishna for herself–puts a spoke in the possibility of the decision being in favour of Krishna–an incident which infuriates him and leads to a bitter enmity between the two inseparable friends. Burning with a rage, Krishna aligns himself with Kundan in his plan to make some quick money and a bus is introduced–resulting in throwing the tonga-walas out of employment. Charged with trying to destroy the villagers by his evil schemes, Kundan takes shelter under the guise of trying to march with the rest of the world that is fast progressing and offers to withdraw his bus if the tonga-walas can take their tongas faster than the bus to the temple. Shankar realising the futility of begging for consideration and kindness from Kundan accepts the challenge. >From this bet arises the spirit of Community Effort which Shankar infuses in his fellow-villagers and they en-masse proceed to construct a road that by a short cut would enable Shankar and his tonga to reach the temple as fast as the bus. >From these two incidents arise the emotional and economic conflicts that provide the dramatic thrills, emotional upheavals and the story's moral that it is wrong to misuse the immense potentialities of the machine to create prosperity, by making it create money for the sake of a few rich and generate unhappiness and misery for thousands. Watch the action that unfolds as Shankar unites a divided village, and how he sets about to keep his faith in winning this race between man and machine.