Anand(1970)

"Babu moshai!!!!zindagi aur maut to uparwale ke hath mein hai jahapanah!!ise na to aap badal sakte hain na main..Hum sab to rangmanch ki kathputliyan hain...jinki dor uparwale ki ungliyon mein bandhi hain...kab, kaun, kaisa uthega..yeh koi nahin bata sakta....ha ha ha ha ha""

These are the immortal words which capture the essense of life in such a opulent way...Released in 1970 and THE Movie which ushered in the era of the 'glorious 70s' in bollywood which saw many a talented directors ( Hrushikesh mukherjee,Gulzar saab,Raaj Kapoor Saab,Vijay Anand to name a few!!) catering out delicacy after delicacy for the audiences and bollywood has never had a better period.
Amitabh, a doctor who faces turbulent questions within himself when he is faced with the dark realities of life at the start of the movie,plays a subdued 'Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee' in the movie and for once, plays the character and not the star.Hrisikesh Mukherjee shows how to make 'Actors' out of 'Stars'.Fed up with the stark questions that his proffession is throwing up at him,Amitabh has compromised with life, or rather surrendered to 'death'.In one of his scenes Amitabh delivers the punchline for his character...

"Maut..tu ek kavita hai..mujhse ek kavita ka vaada hai..milegi mujhko!!
Doobti nabjon mein jab dard ko neend aane lage..jarrd sa chehra liye chand uffak tak pahunche..
Din abhi paani mein ho..raat kinare ke kareeb..na andhera ho na ujala ho..na abhi raat, na din...jism jab kathm ho..aur rooh ko jab saans aaye...
mujhse ek kavita ka vaada hai..milegi mujhko"

Anand , on the other hand plays a terminally ill patient (He has been diagonsed with lymphosarcoma of the intestine, a gift from hrishi da to bollywood and god knows how many times have we heard of this disease again and again..most recently in Munnabhai..),who has nothing in the life to live for,no relatives,no family.Even his love has left him and gone on to marry someone else(as it is reaveled later in the movie that he leaves delhi for bombay, the day his heartthrob gets married)..yet he enjoys each moment of his life with jest,picks his relationships,searches for his murarilaal and makes family out of utter strangers..As he says he has two hobbies in life...chattering and eating...He laughs,and perhaps some times even mocks at his own death,sometimes at the inability of the doctors to save him and sometimes maybe to God almighty on his ability of involving so many people with his death..
He takes on the responsibilty of people he has known only for a few days as if they were his blood relationships...
Every one around him knows ..knows that the laughing,jolly person they see is a living dead..slowly and slowly Anand is walking towards his death..but as the movie draws to it's climax...every single one (including the audience)hopes and prays for a miracle to happen..
Dr. Bhaskar, a staunch atheist is now a believer and a hardened physio,he resorts even to homeopathy in the end..esha bhai(Jhonny walker) prays to his Allah...mother matren(Lalita Pawar) kneels before Jesus..and Suman(Seema Deo) hopes for a miracle from Sai baba...but as Anand had once said..no one can stop him...when his turn comes...he leaves..
Performance wise...Rajesh Khanna has delivered a powerhouse performance..and has done full justice to the character...Amitabh..though subdued and controlled..shows signs of the rebel in him...and the angry young man image in him..which shall lead him to the peaks of bollywood in days to come...add to that a string of brilliant guest appearances ( johnny lever,dara singh,Durga Khote, Lalita powar)..and you have got a dynamite of a movie....
Music by 'Salil Chaudary' and the beautiful lyrics by Gulzar saab are a different review in themselves..which i don't and admittedly won't be able to review and do full justice to..
If you wish to feel the power of Bollywood..watch Anand 10 times on a trot..and i can bet my last piece of penny that..your eyes will betray you the whole ten times...however 'manly' you may be...
The movie has 'Silence' as a mojor protagonist and it's use within the dialogues is superb...finally when the magnum opus draws to a close...Dr. Bhaskar says..

"Anand mara nahi...
Anand marte Nahi.."

and all one is left with is...Silence!!

PS:- This Day, as hrishi'da struggles with the ventilator he has been put onto..to hold on to his life...this is the movie which shows us how ahead of his times he was..