Whenever an someone hears the word Bollywood, flashes of images of overdressed and over acting actors come to mind dancing to a song that doesn’t make any lyrical sense. But, there was a time when there was a golden age in the history of Bollywood cinema when content was the king. The movies that had content grabbed more seats than the ones that didn’t. “Anand” is one such movie that brings me and millions of Indians joy after watching it after 30 years of its initial release. It fills my heart with a lot of enthusiasm and gives me hope to look forward in life. It is number 1 in IMDB best Indian movies list, calling it number 1 is still an understatement.
“Anand” is a story of a young man suffering from a terminal disease and is looked after by a doctor in his later stage of life. The diseased person, Anand and the doctor Dr. Bhaskar K. Bannerjee. Anand, though in his last few days of his life seems to be more enthusiastic and energetic than the people who has more years in their lives than him. Bhaskar who is treating Anand will be a serious man who will have seen hundreds of people die because of diseases and poverty, he has all the reasons to be sad. But, when he meets Anand as his patient he will be surprised after seeing the energy this person possess.
Anand played by on of India’s celebrated actors Rajesh Khanna is brilliant at what he is doing. Knowing that death is somewhere in the corner waiting can be a little hard to digest. But, here we see a man who thinks its a boon to him. He is now free of all the stress the life would have given him and does things that matters than the things he is supposed to do.
“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” - Steve Jobs
A strong friendship will be formed between Dr. Bhaskar and Anand, Anand being a complete extrovert and Bhaskar being a complete introvert is something that you will enjoy seeing. Their friendship will be remembered by everyone who has seen this film. Anand will change Bhaskar’s life. Bhaskar will see the goods things in life and starts to regret about the years in his life that he spend being sad and hopeless about the things around him.
I want to talk a little bit about Hrishikesh Mukerjee the director of the film. He is one of the most talented director Indian cinema has ever produced and his legacy will be cemented in the history of Indian cinema. While writing this film, he ordered his writer and friend Gulzar to make sure that audience don’t have any hope that Anand will live in the end, he wanted to make the death inevitable. He wanted this story to be a triumph of a man’s joy and happiness, even when death is days away from him.
One of the quotes of this film is “Life should be big, not long”, which interestingly summarises the entire movie in one sentence. The years in your life doesn’t matter if you don’t do anything with them. If you want to recharge yourself with full of life, then this film is a no brainer. Watch it and watch it again. Because, this film is worth every single second of your time. Thank you for reading this post. For more posts and reviews on movies follow me. Cheers!
