Thursday, 16 April 2015

Anand: An emotional ride



As far as reviews go, this one was tough. In the end, you will remember Anand (1971) for the final scene. More particularly, this dialogue


Babumoshai, zindagi aur maut uparwale ke haath hai jahanpanah. Usse na toh aap badal sakte hain na main. Hum sab toh rangmanch ki kathputhliyan hain jinki dor uparwale ki ungliyon main bandhi hain. Kab, kaun, kaise uthega yeh koi nahi bata sakta hai.”- Anand


Anand follows the emotional journey of Anand's (Rajesh Khanna) life. He's diagnosed with cancer and lives his last few months trying to spread as much joy as he can. He meets Dr. Bhaskar Bannerjee (Amitabh Bachchan), a workaholic who learns to appreciate all aspects of life from Anand.

The text-book straightforward storyline is helped by Khanna's presence. His whole-hearted performance gets you invested in the story. The bonding scenes of Bachchan and Khanna is hard to ignore.

But it is obvious that the movie is set up for the finish. You can see the ending from a long way out but it doesn't matter. You watched the movie through Anand's eyes and you want to see it through with him. With moving dialogues and heart-felt delivery, the movie manages to keep your interest together until the ending, when the emotion takes over and elevates the movie to another level.

Bachchan is solid. This is before he exploded as India's biggest movie star yet his delivery is on point for most of the movie. You can sense he's not reached his A-game yet but he's getting there. Khanna is the soul of the movie. He is the ultimate protagonist who keeps you hooked. His story arc is the crux of the movie and he does not disappoint.

As far as early 70's movies go, this one is up there in and around the top 3.

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