ANAND

Anand

Synopsys: The movie is about a young man named ‘Anand’ who suffers from a deadly incurable disease and how he end up becoming the best friend of a serious and practical doctor. In spite of suffering from such a disease, he simplifies the life of the doctor and teaches others how to live. 

Entire Story: The film begins with an award ceremony where Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee (Amitabh Bachchan) wins a respectful award for his first written novel. In the novel he describes about a character named ‘Anand’ which he claims to be the pages of his diary where he used to write his entire days experience. He describes Anand as a very friendly person who was always in search of a friend.

          The story then shifts to few years ago when Dr. Banerjee used to be a very frustrated doctor and was suffering from bad mental conditions. He says that a doctor can fight against diseases but how can he fight against poverty which has shattered all his hopes of curing and treating his patients. He says how can a person who doesn’t have enough money to buy food, will be able to buy medicines and maintain proper health condition. Then he visits a patient where he simply refuses to treat him which shows his frustration towards his profession. While going a woman offers him sweets as a lady (Laxmi) has given birth to male child. Just then he thinks that one is dying of poverty and another is born to die after him. This shows his bad mental condition where instead of being happy by the good news, he have such negative thoughts.

          During diagnosing a patient (Ranjit),  Dr. Banerjee tells him to perform an X-ray of his throat. To this the patient enquires if doing the X-ray is necessary or not as he doesn’t have enough money for the X-ray and tells Dr. Banerjee that his throat may be bleeding due to excessive practice of singing. Dr. Banerjee suggests Ranjit to do the X-ray from Dr. Kulkarni without any cost as he will  refer him to Dr. Kulkarni. Then a fat, old man enters the clinic whom Dr. Banerjee had told to wait. Dr. Banerjee tells him that he is totally fit and has no diseases. Hearing this the man becomes upset as he believed that Dr. Banerjee would give him medicines for his problems. Hearing this Dr. Banerjee gets annoyed and shouts at him telling him that all he wants is medicines and tablets and a doctor is specialist only if he gives medicines to his patients. Dr. Banerjee didn’t give him any medicines so he leaves saying that there are enough good soctors in the city other than him. From here we see the honesty of Dr. Banerjee and his straight forward speaking capability to his patients. He is an honest doctor, who treats his patients and not use them as a profit making tool.

          Now the story shows Dr. Kulkarni prescribing various medicines and tests to a wealthy and rich woman who came to visit him. After the woman leaves the clinic Dr. Banerjee asks the reason behind fooling that woman as according to Dr. Banerjee, the woman was totally normal. To this Dr. Kulkarni says that if proper suggestion is given to all the patients then soon there will be no patients to treat, so he did all this to keep his patients visiting him. Dr. Banerjee says that if he has to fool people like this then he should have chosen some other profession. Dr. Kulkarni replies that just like a milkman mixes water to his milk, a lawyer fights to save a killer in the same way he fools his patients to earn some profit and feels no guilt in doing this. On the other hand, he also treats needy patients like (Ranjit), absolutely free of cost. From here we come to know that Dr. Kulkarni is a person who believes in making profit from his profession and help the needy even if he has to earn money by fooling other patients.

          Then he talks about Anand who is suffering from a deadly disease which has no cure. He will be coming from Delhi to Bombay to meet Dr. Kulkarni, and also see the city of Bombay. Just then Anand (Rajesh Khanna) arrives with a blast of happiness and evergreen smile in his face. He addresses Dr. Banerjee as ‘Babumosai’ and tells him that he has heard a lot about him. Asking about his disease he comes to know about the name of his disease as ‘ Lymphocircoma of the intestine’. Hearing the name Anand jokes telling what a great disease he is suffering from. Seeing Anand joking about such a disease, Dr. Banerjee gets annoyed and asks Anand if he knows what disease it is and what it will do to him. Anand replies that there is a tumour in his stomach due to which he will not be able to llive more than 6 months. Hearing this Dr. Banerjee gets shocked. Anand then tells him that he Babumosai will also die in 70 years and his disease will be his body. Anand tells that “life must be big and not long”. He tells that he may die within 6 months but he will live thousands of moments in this interval of time. He tells that there is no use of living with the fear of death. He will not fear death till he lives.

          Anand then shifts to a special cabin assigned to him for living with his bag and tape recorder. There the head nurse strictly orders him to keep quiet and rest in his bed. Soon Anand runs away from the hospital to Babumosai’s house. There he tells Babumosai that he wants to live with him in his house. Babumosai suggests him that living in the hospital is essential for him to which he says that he cannot stay in a lonely lace like that. Anand tells that he has not come to Bombay for treatment as he knows that his disease is incurable, so all he wants is to meet new people and be happy. Dr. Banerjee had a habit of writing his diary describing his entire day activity but from then it included a lot about Anand.

          Anand meets Dr. Kulkarni and his wife and occupies a lot of space in their heart. He shows his incredible singing capability to all his new friends (family). Whenever Anand sees an unknown person he calls him by the name of “Murarilal” and starts a conversation with him. This is his way of making new friends and knowing them. Anand goes for dinner at Dr. Kulkarn’s house on the occasion of his marriage anniversary. There Dr. Kulkarni’s wife addresses Anand as brother and tells him to meet a ‘baba’ who may cure him of his disease by his blessings. Anand agrees and goes to meet that ‘baba’ and wishes that he must always speaks good and not even a single bad word should come out from his mouth for others. This shows how great and pure heart Anand has.

          Anand comes to know that his Babumosai loves a girl named Renu who was once his patient. From then Anand sets on his mission to get Renu and his Babumosai to marry each other. As his Babumosai was a very shy person so he knew that Dr. Banerjee will never say about his feelings to Renu so he helps Babumosai in this matter.

          After the two shares their feelings about each other Anand sets on his way to Renu’s house to finalise  the marriage of Dr. Banerjee and Renu. Renu’s mother happily accepts the marriage but the marriage has to be delayed due to Renu’s father’s death and according to the tradition, a marriage can occur only after 1 year of the death but only 9 months have passed. Anand gets upset as he doesnot have that much time and will not be able to be present in the marriage ceremony. Renu’s mother calls Anand as his son by the happiness and good behaviour of Anand.

          Anand also shows his clever intellect by scaring some roadside men who used to disturb Renu and claimed themselves as Renu’s lovers. He takes the help of a nearby wrestler to scare those men away. This shows Anand’s capability to make friend with new persons and share a strong bond with them in a very less time.

          Then Anand again tries to make new friend by calling a passerby as “Murarilal”. Everybody answers negatively to his approach but this person was clever enough and answers his call positively. After knowing the person has caught that Anand was trying to fool him, Anand likes him much more and walks with him to a Theatre where he practices his drama.

          Everybody related to Anand was unhappy and praying their best so that Anand may get cured from his disease. Anand was like a family to all of them. Anand had the capability of making strong bonds with whoever he meets.

          Then Renu comes to know about a girl Anand liked through his tape recording. Anand didn’t marry her because of his disease and inevitable death. This shows the greatness of Anand. He didn’t want his love to suffer from the pain of remembering and missing him after his death. So he allowed her to marry someone who loves her a lot. He says that if Anand married her then she would also die along with him.

          Anand’s condition is becoming worse day by day and he was very unhappy by seeing the sympathy for him on Babumosai’s  eyes. He says that he sees his death at Dr. Banerjee’s eyes and this causes him more pain than the thought that he will die in few days. Anand says that he will leave Dr. Banerjee’s house as he couldn’t take the guilt that Dr. banerjee felt whenever he sees Anand. Hearing this Dr. Banerjee gets serious and tells that he will not let Anand to go anywhere and if Anand dies then he will die in his arms, near him. Listening to this Anand smiles and goes with Dr. Banerjee to create a recording of a poem recited by Dr. Banerjee.

          Anand is now in his last few moments. Everyone comes to meet him and pray for him. Even the servant of Dr. Banerjee takes a leave and goes to his village to pray on behalf of Anand in a temple. During the last few moments Anand was suffering from severe pain. Seeing this Dr. Banerjee rushes to bring a homeopathic doctor to treat Anand believing that a miracle might happen. A practical doctor like Dr. Banerjee was so attached to Anand that he starts to believe in miracles.

          Anand dies in Dr. Banerjee’s house crying by hearing the poem recorded by his Babumosai. He knew that his Babumosai was an emotional person and will be very broken by his death. Dr. Banerjee arrives after Anand’s death and cries aloud and tells Anand to talk one last time but  just then a call saying  “Babumosai” came out from the tape recorder and all kept crying by the loss of their friend Anand.

What to learn from the movie:

·       Value of money – In the movie we see how poor people are unable to treat themselves due to lack of money. Thus we must respect our money and use it in a proper way and help others with money just like Dr. Kulkarni did by helping the poor from the profit he earned from the rich people.

·       The positivity in Anand - We must be positive and happy with our lives only then can we make others happy. Here we see Anand as a storm of happiness and all those who meet with Anand got attached to him and were happy to see the positivity in him.                                                                                                                                                

   - It was also the positivity of Anand that he was enjoying his life, meeting new people while others in same situation would be lying in the hospital bed waiting to die.

·       Caring about our friends – Here we see dying Anand, helping Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee to tie up with the girl he loves and does all arrangements so that they can get married.

·       To speak good – In the movie when Anand goes to a sadhu (baba), he tells the baba to bless him so that he always speaks good and not even a single bad word should come out from his mouth for others.

·       Life must be Big, not Long – This was a very meaningful dialogue in the movie which says that life must be big with lots of happiness, good deeds and memories. A long life without those things is not worthy. Enjoy every moment of today and don’t bring the pain of tomorrow into today and become sad from before.