Anand - 1971

Maut tu ek kavita hai....
Mujhse ek kavita ka vadaa hai, milegi mujhko ...

Doobti nabzon mein jab dard ko neend aane lage
Zard sa chehra liye chaand ufaq tak pahunche ...
Din abhi paani mein ho, raat kinare ke kareeb
Na andhera ho, na ujala ho ...
Na aadhi raat, na din
Jism jab khatm ho aur rooh ko saans aaye ...

Mujhse ek kavita ka vadaa hai milegi mujhko....
Written by Gulzar and uttered by Amitabh Bachchan in Famous Rajesh Khanna starrer Anand (1971), yet another movie directed by Hrishikesh Mukharjee on this Blog. :)
Winner of 6 'Filmfare' Awards in 1972: Best Movie, Best Actor -- Rajesh Khanna, Best Supporting Actor -- Amitabh Bachchan, Best Story -- Hrishijesh Mukherjee, Best Editing -- Hrishijesh Mukherjee and Best Dialogues -- Gulzar.
It also won the National Award for Best Regional Film (Hindi).

Cast : Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Sumita Sanyal, Ramesh Deo, Seema Deo, Lalita Pawar
Directed By :- Hrishikesh Mukharjee
Written By :- Hrishikesh Mukharjee, Gulzar, Bimal Datta, D. N. Mukharjee
Music By :- Salil Chaudhary

As the movie starts, we sees Dr. Bhaskar (Amitabh Bachchan) receiving the honorary award in literature 'Saraswati Puraskar' for his novel Anand. When asked to brief about the inspiration of the story, Bhaskar says this novel is nothing but his daily diary. As Bhaskar shares his experiences, in the start only we are introduced to the incurable illness (Cancer - lymphosarcoma of the intestine) of the hero Anand Saigal (Rajesh Khanna) and that he is left with only 4/6 months of his life. Doctor Prakash Kulkarni (Ramesh Deo) discuss the case of Anand Saigal with Doctor Bhaskar. Hrishida had told Gulzar to write a start such that audience comes to know at beginning only about the illness of the hero as he wanted the emphasize on the essences of the movie, how Anand lives his remaining life to its fullest. He comes to Bombay for a treatment to doctor Prakash and also meet doctor Bhaskar.
Dr. Prakash is a a doctor who was far from idealistic, and cashed in on hypochondriacs and patient's anxieties to buffer his pockets. And he uses this money to treat poor patients free of charge.
Anand walks into Dr Bannerjee's life just when he is about to sink into cynicism. Bhaskar is a no nonsense character who treats his patients with utmost seriousness and treats his life also in a similar way. A sober doctor like him gets upset with life seeing the dark reality of his nation.

Dr. Prakash admits him in his hospital. Anand sees Metron D'sa (Lalita Pawar) there and get scared of her strict disciplines. He runs away from the hospital and goes to Bhaskar's residence and requests him if he can stay with Bhaskar. Bhaskar allows so. He calls Bhaskar as Babu Moshaii. Bhaskar is a character living with utmost seriousness while Anand wants to spread only happiness everywhere.

Anand, who never stops talking is always in search of a friend, Murarilal. He calls any unknown person on the street by the name as Murarilal and tries to make friendship. One day he finds his Murarilal as he meets with Isa Bhai (Johnny Walker) a Muslim Stage Actor.

Anand is preceded by a letter from a Delhi physician describing his terminal illness—a rare form of stomach cancer. Realizing that he has no treatment to offer, Bhaskar is initially re pelled and even angered by Anand’s bouncy entrance—and here the film briefly but effectively explores the psychology of the physician, when Anand thoughtfully responds to an outburst by Bhaskar (who is appalled that he isn’t taking his illness “seriously”): “Ah, I understand, you aren’t angry at me, you’re angry at yourself, because you can’t help me.”

Anand sees the seriousness of bhaskar and has a conversation with Ramu Chacha about it and he discovers that Bhaskar is in love with a school teacher renu whom he had treated for pneumonia. Anand goes to meet Renu 's Mother (Durga Khote). Seeing few Mawali's near renu's house, he consult a Wrestler (Dara Singh) and set it clear for Renu.

He even engineers their first date and strangely accompanies them. Feeling bit odd due to Anand's presence two love birds sit quietly and rather starts discussing weather. Anand being a chatter box breaks the silence and talks on their part.

Anand tries to steal every joyous moment from life, as he shows himself in front of every other person, but he carries his own grief in depth of his heart, may it be about his lost love or about the life that he is loosing away. When Renu finds out about this through the record, he hides it even from her.
With Anand's increasing death symptoms, sooner everyone starts pleading God, hoping for a miracle be it Matron D'sa, Ramu Chacha, his sister Suman and even a Murarilal, Isa Bhai. But as Bhaskar finally concedes, “God needs good people as much as we do….” And so, with none-too-subtle symbolism (a tape running out, a bunch of balloons floating skyward), Anand Sehgal dies.

And Bhaskar writes Anand mara nahi, Anand marte nahi.

Rajesh Khanna as Anand is absolutely brilliant, this is his career-best performance, he bagged the Filmfare (1 out of 3) for this. He makes you laugh and cry. He causes anxiety and goose bumps.‘Anand’ was everything a human being should be - idealistic, happy-go-lucky and bringing a cheer, smile or guffaw to the faces and hearts of everyone he encountered. Rajesh Khanna delivered a stunning performance in the role of a man who smiled and laughed in the face of Death, and surrendered to it cheerfully,

leaving behind an indelible impression on his friends. 'Anand’ remains the epitome of everything that is beautiful, warm, compassionate and joyous in life. He is no fictional character, but a gem of a human being we all knew for a very short, delightful two hours and whose memory will always remain in a select corner of our being.

Amitabh Bachchan as a supporting actor is no less to mention. He is fantastic as a Bengali doctor, babumoshai. His gaunt, towering, embittered persona softened only when in the company of his dying friend. He beautifully rendered the pain and frustration of a doctor who knew only too well that his science could do nothing to save a man who, within a few days, had grown to be an inseparable part of his life. Anand launched Amitabh Bachchan on the path to superstardom.

The supporting cast was effective and strong, be it real life couple Ramesh Deo and Seema Deo, Laita Pawar as Mrs. D'sa, Johny Walker as Murarilal, Sumita Sanyal as Renu, Durga Khote as Renu's mother or even Ramu Chacha. Everyone gave excellent performance in their roles.

Salute to the Director!! Hrishikesh Mukherjee once said in an interview that every director begins to stale creatively after 10 or 15 films. ‘Anand’ gave a lie to his own statement, at least as applied to himself - as he had made over a dozen films before this. Undoubtedly, his best-ever film (the only one that comes close is ‘Anupama’), ‘Anand’ was a huge commercial success and also picked up awards galore, both at the National and popular level.