“Anand” – a story of a man who’s eccentric appearance resembles his name (Anand), which inspires each of them who have lost the hope of living.
Contents:
- Cast & Crew
- Anand’s Movie Review: An inspiration to those who have lost the hope of living
- Awards Won
- More Crew Details
- Did You Know?
Cast & Crew:
| Director | Hrishikesh Mukherjee |
| Producer | Hrishikesh Mukherjee |
| Producer | N.C.Sippy |
| Assistant Director | Nitin Mukesh |
| Screenwriter/ Dialogue Writer | Gulzar |
| Name of Character | Name of Character |
| Rajesh Khanna | Anand Sehgal |
| Amitabh Bachchan | Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee a.k.a. Babu Moshai |
| Sumita Sanyal | Renu |
| Ramesh Deo | Dr. Prakash Kulkarni |
| Seema Deo | Suman Kulkarni |
| Lalita Pawar | Matron D’Sa |
| Durga Khote | Renu’s mother |
| Johnny Walker | Isa Bhai Suratwala |
| Asit Sen | Chandra Nath |
| Dev Kishan | Raghu Kaka |
| Dara Singh | Wrestling Coach aka Papaji |
| Brahm Bhardwaj | Mauni Baba |
Anand Movie Review: An inspiration to those who have lost the hope of living
Critic’s Rating: 4.9/5
Genres: Drama, Musical
Anand’s Story:
Anand (Rajesh Khanna), besides the fact that he is a patient of lymphosarcoma, a rare type of cancer who has only six months left in his life chooses to spend his remaining days in an exuberant manner and runs away from his nursing home and comes to stay with his doctor, Bhaskar.
Whereas, Bhaskar (Amitabh Bachchan) is a doctor who becomes pessimistic about everything in his life. He remains quite unsatisfied with his profession and his financial situation, for he could not cure all the ailments in the world.
But everything changes when Anand comes to stay with him.
Going through a sequence of comedy and drama, it gradually lands to the deep friendship of Anand and Bhaskar. How these two contrasting personalities becomes so good friends? Does Anand dies, or Bhaskar will be able to save him?
Anand Review:
Inspiration is the greatest influence that makes people keep growing and touches every heart deeply. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film Anand released in 1971 fills the very heart of his audience with inspiration. It resides profound truths of life as well as spiritual realities of death.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee delivered a film of everlasting appeal for cine-goers of all ages and all times. His character Anand, an innocent fountain of love who never misses a single chance to put a smile on other’s faces, does not lose his hope even when he gets to know that he only has a six months life remaining.
He goes beyond the trend that says “if there is no hope of tomorrow, everything dies today”, and sets an example of “Live fullest like there is no tomorrow”.
Anand’s jubilant character becomes more evident when Hrishikesh Mukherjee smartly puts Bhaskar, a despondent character who beyond working too hard and being very passionate about his profession could not be happy in his life.
It seems that Anand comes in the story to rejuvenate his life.
The highlight of the movie is when Bhaskar rebukes Anand because of his over-excited attitude besides the fact that he knows he is not going to live long and asks him furiously “You Know the meaning of lymphosarcoma, aap jante hai ye kis bimari ka naam hai?” where Anand in reply tells him about his disease and says “Kya fark hai 70 saal or 6 mahine me?… Babumoshayi! Zindagi badi honi chahiye lambi nahi.”
More about Filmmaking of Anand:
The movie dramatically emphasizes the cheerful and highly inclusive nature of Anand at every point. Whoever he meets, he owns their problems and makes an emotional connection with them very easily. It projects the spiritual message of humanism evidently.
The movie is embellished with Gulzar’s touching dialogues and the very famous poem in which he refers to death as a lullaby namely ‘Maut – tu ek kavita hai ’. And, Mukesh’s beautiful songs and music has effectively glorified the movie.
This movie has proved itself by winning a collection of awards. The film won several awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Film in 1972. In 2013, it was listed in Anupama Chopra‘s book 100 Films To See Before You Die.
Anand is one of the top 10 movies by Rajesh Khanna. It was a Blockbuster at the time of its release and hit the Box office collection up to 1.75 crore INR (equivalent to 65crores and US$8.8 million in 2018). It is considered to be one of the best classic movies in Indian Cinema.
Both audiences and critics appreciated the performance of Rajesh Khanna in the lead role. It became revolutionary in the history of Bollywood when the newer generation started adding more heaps of praises for such a heart-touching story.
This is a movie that tickles you to laugh out your breath in a moment. And just the other moment you might find your eyes wet with a drop of emotion.
Awards won:
| 1971 | Best Feature Film in Hindi: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, N. C. Sippy |
| 1972 | Best Film: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, N.C. Sippy |
| 1972 | Best Actor: Rajesh Khanna |
| 1972 | Best Supporting Actor: Amitabh Bachchan |
| 1972 | Best Dialogue: Gulzar |
| 1972 | Best Editing: Hrishikesh Mukherjee |
| 1972 | Best Story: Hrishikesh Mukherjee |
More Crew Details:
| Screenwriter | Bimal Dutt |
| Story Writer | Hrishikesh Mukherjee |
| Composer | Salil Chowdhary |
| Lyricist | Gulzar |
| Singer | Manna Dey |
| Singer | Lata Mangeshkar |
| Singer | Mukesh |
| Cinematographer | Jaywant Ramarao Pathare |
| Editor | Hrishikesh Mukherjee |
| Editor | Shankar Pradhan |
| Art Director | Ajit Banerjee |
| Choreography | Suresh Bhatt |
Did You Know?
Trivia:
19 Interesting Facts about movie Anand (1971):
Fact 1:
Hrishikesh Mukherjee informed his writer Gulzar to open the film in such a way that the audience knows in the first scene itself that Anand (played by Rajesh Khanna) is dead.
He did not want the audience to be in a state of suspense until the end and keep guessing whether Anand will survive or not. By doing that Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted to concentrate on the essence of the film on how Anand wants to live life fullest and make the best of the time he has.
Fact 2:
Originally, Hrishikesh Mukherjee had envisioned Shashi Kapoor, the brother of Raj Kapoor, for the role of Anand. He wanted Raj Kapoor himself, but he had just recovered from his illness, and Mukherjee couldn’t bear to see him die on the screen since he had almost died in real life.
In any case, Shashi Kapoor was not eager for the role, so Rajesh Khanna got it – it remains his most memorable role with Aradhana (1969) and Amar Prem (1972).
Fact 3:
Mehmood advised Amitabh Bachchan to grab a secondary role alongside the then heartthrob Rajesh Khanna in the film, saying, “All you need to do is feed off Khanna, the rest will take care of itself.”
Fact 4:
Hrishikesh Mukherjee brought back Salil Choudhury, whose career had reached a cul-de-sac in Bombay due to lack of commercial acceptance, and Yogesh, a then-forgotten lyricist. Their careers revived significantly after the film.
Fact 5:
Since Anand was a low budget film, Rajesh Khanna waived off his remuneration and accepted only 7 lakhs INR for this film.
Fact 5:
The term “Babu Moshai” means “a great gentleman.” Raj Kapoor often affectionately addressed Hrishikesh Mukherjee with this term, just as Anand addresses Banerjee in the film.
Fact 6:
The song “Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli” was originally proposed as the background song for the title. After listening to the song, Rajesh Khanna thought that it would be a waste to use such a nice song as the background song for the title.
He suggested Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Director, to create a situation for this song. In those days songs played in the background for the title were less played on the radio.
Fact 7:
Raju Hirani in an interview said that during a conversation with Hrishikesh Mukherjee he was told by Mukherjee that Anand was completed in only 28 days.
Fact 8:
Hrishikesh Mukherjee went to sign Kishore Kumar for the film after discussing the project with him. But Kishore Kumar’s watchman did not allow him to enter the bungalow.
Kishore Kumar had instructed him not to allow a Bengali man inside the bungalow who would come to meet him. Kishore Kumar had done a musical concert for a Bengali organizer who did not pay him and they both had a fight. His watchman mistook Hrishikesh Mukherjee of being that Bengali man.
When the shooting for the film started, Kishore Kumar came to know about it and went to meet Hrishikesh Mukherjee and asked him why didn’t he come to sign him when Hrishikesh Mukherjee told him the reason. Kishore Kumar went and blasted his watchman.
Fact 9:
Director Hrishikesh Mukerji has dedicated this film to the city Mumbai. (Bombay at that time). He, in an interview mentioned that the liveliness of Mumbai city is very much like the liveliness of the main character – Anand.
Fact 10:
Seema Deo was very upset to give her the first scene opposite Rajesh Khanna due to his stardom. When Rajesh Khanna entered the sets he looked at Seema Deo and said Aap Toh Wohi Hai Jinhe Dekhne Ke Liye Hum Girgaum Mein Line Khade Rehte The. (You are the same female, and I would wait in Que to see you outside your house in Girgaum).
Seema Deo was a top Marathi actress in the 60s during the struggling days of Rajesh Khanna and would stay in Girgaum a place in Bombay with the Maharashtrian population. As he knew Marathi very well he would go to watch her films.
Fact 11:
The film was loosely inspired by the Akira Kurosawa film Ikiru (1952).
Fact 12:
Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s first choice for the roles of Anand and Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee were Bengali matinée idols Uttam Kumar and Soumitra Chatterjee.
Fact 13:
Dedicated to Raj Kapoor with whom Hrishikesh Mukherjee started his movie career as an editor.
Fact 14:
Rajesh Khanna did not have any dates to shoot for the song Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli. Hence director Hrishikesh Mukherjee decided that the song would be played in the background. Whereas Rajesh Khanna will be walking in by lanes of Juhu beach.
Fact 15:
Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaaye. Hrishikesh Mukherjee was so happy with Lyricist Yogesh that he asked him to write another song and Yogesh came up with the even better Zindagi Kaisi Yeh Paheli Hai.
Fact 16:
Although Kishore Kumar had become the voice of Rajesh Khanna since the success of Aradhana, in this film, music director Salil Choudhury insisted that Mukesh’s voice would give the required pathos to Anand’s character.
Rajesh Khanna readily agreed to the suggestion. Once when asked which song was his favorite, Rajesh Khanna said it was Mukesh’s song ‘Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye’ from Anand.
Fact 17:
The climax of the film when Rajesh Khanna dies was frequently played on news channels when Rajesh Khanna died.
Fact 18:
This film is counted among the 17 consecutive hit films of Rajesh Khanna between 1969 and 1971, by adding the two-hero films “Maryada” and “Andaz” to the 15 consecutive solo hits he gave from 1969 to 1971.
Fact 19:
Amitabh Bachchan’s first hit.
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