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.

Teesari Kasam - 1967

Yet another movie on this blog, directed by Basu Bhattacharya. Teesri Kasam was the only film produced by the lyricist Shailendra.
It won the golden Lotus Award for being 'Best Film' in 1967 at National Film Awards.
Shailendra won the only Filmfare of Best Lyricist for 'Sajan re jhooth mat bolo'.
This film was also nominated in Moscow International Film festival for 'Grand Pix'.
Nabendu Ghosh, the screen play writer got Best screenplay award from BFJA.

Teesari Kasam
Cast :- Raj Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Iftekhar, Asit Sen, Dulari, Keshto Mukherjee, C.S. Dubey
Directed By :- Basu Bhattacharya
Produced By :- Shailendra
Written By :- Nabendu Ghosh (Screenplay)and Phanishwar Nath Renu (Story & Dialogue)
Music By :- Shankar-Jaikishen
The film was based on a story by revolutionary novelist Phanishwar nath Renu, 'Maare gaye Gulfam'. He was the voice of the contemporary rural India and among the pioneers to bring regional voices into the mainstream Hindi literature.
Since the film was far away than the regular Hindi melodrama, its more lyrical, heart touching, practical and with an unexpected heart aching end.

As the movie starts we are introduced to protagonist Hiraman who is a bullock cart driver form a small village who gets caught transporting illegal goods. Somehow he manages to escape from scene avoiding imprisonment and takes his first Kasam, vow "Not to transport Illegal goods". After that he takes another job of transporting bamboos which leads to unfortunate accident with another cart. After getting badly beaten by other cart driver, Hiraman takes his second Kasam, vow "Not to transport Bamboos".


He buys a new cart from his savings to transport passengers. One night a stranger approaches Hiraman and ask to transport his Samaan to another 30km away village. Hiraman agrees and what he sees of this Samaan is a leg of female. Thinking that he should not be in any trouble, he stops on the way to a temple and prays to god. He gets amused when get a glimpse of his passenger sleeping quitely.
The woman, Heerabai gets friendly with Heeraman and calls him her Meeta as they share the same name. She is a dancer with The Great Bharat Nautanky Company who holds dance sequels in village fairs, and she is headed to it. As they travel together, heerabai gets charmed the simplicity of Heeraman and his singing, whereas heeraman considers her to be a educated, well mannered and a bashful virgin from a respectable family. All through the course of their journey, he shields her from the prying eyes of strange men on the road. Hirabai who is really a bazaru aurat who keeps men entertained through the nights with her nautankis, is enchanted by Hiraman’s naivete and entranced by the songs he sings. As the journey continues, both get dragged to each other. After three days they arrive at the Nautanky Company and the reality shatters their idyllic world.

Hirabai coaxes Hiraman to spend a few days at the fair and see her dance. She is kind enough to arrange free passes for him and his friends. Heeraman accepts this happily as he will get to see her beautiful performances and will also get to spend some more time with her. The image that Heeraman has of Hirabai - is that of a Devi. Attending the drama shatters him as people looks at her, even his friend leers at her. He fights with one drunkard who passes a comment on Hirabai. Hirabai angrily asks him what right does he have to fight on her behalf. Hurt, Hiraman stays away from the show. Hirabai calls him to her tent and apologises to him. Hiraman asks her to leave this profession where people talk ill of her. His concern touches Hirabai's heart as she realizes he looks upon her just as is she were a respectable woman.

Being helpless in her own situation, Hirabai refuses the Zamindaar who request her to stay after the Nautanki to spend some time with him Alone. The zamindar tries to force himself on her but she fights him off. Hirabai decides to leave the Nautanki company for her presence will threaten the livelihood of others in the troupe as the zaminndar will not leave them alone unless she gives in to him.

But she cannot live a lie with Hiraman. She knows very well that for Heeraman she is Heeradevi - Devi - a form of all good virtues. She doesnt want to be pretentious to him.

She decides to leave the company and sends for him to say goodbye. At the train station she tells him she is going back to her old company. She tells a hurt Hiraman that like Mahua she already has been sold. As she departs and Hiraman returns to his cart he takes a third vow never to carry a woman from a Nautanki Company again.


There are many strengths of the movie which got it the Golden Lotus :).
The uncluttered story which revolves around the main characters of Heeraman and Heerabai. The story has a sensitive lyrical quality with very well portrayed conversations between these two people.

Raj Kapoor though seems too old to make a hero, after seeing the movie you wont deny the power in his performance without any polished manner or the chaplinesque like in his other movies.

Waheeda with her dancing skills fits perfect in role of Heerabai.
And Ofcourse the songs by Shankar-jaikishan...enhanced due to lyrics by this film's producer Shailendra and Hasrat Jaipuri. Mukesh has sung well as usual to reveal Raj Kapoors character in Sajjan re jhooth mat bolo, duniya bananewale... and also the wonderful paan khaye saiya hamaro by Asha.

This film was taken into the syllabus of NCERT Hindi 'Sparsh 2 ' Text book. The lesson was named 'Teesri Kasam ke Shilpkar Shailendra'.
From Prahlad Agarwal’s Teesri Kasam ke Shilpkaar Shailendra:
“Shailendra ne likha tha ki wah Raj Kapoor ke paas Teesri Kasam ki kahaani sunaane pahunche toh kahaani sunkar unhone bade utsaahpoorvak kaam karna sweekaar kar liya. Par turant gambhirtapoorvak bole, “Mera paarishramik advance dena hoga!” Shailendra ko aisi ummeed nahin thi ki Raj Kapoor zindagi-bhar ki dosti ka yeh badla denge. Shailendra ka murjhaaya hua chehra dekhkar Raj Kapoor ne muskuraate hue kaha, “Nikaalo ek rupaiya, mera paarishramik! Poora advance!”
Raj Kapoor accepted only that one rupee as his fees for this movie as it was produced by his friend Shailendra.

Watch Teesari Kasam Online