45 Years of Anand

 

On March 5, 1971 Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand hit the screens. The movie starred Rajesh Khanna who was the reigning superstar of Bollywood. Along with him starred a scrawny young actor Amitabh Bachchan. This was his third acting job. Little did anyone know that Anand would be a life changing movie for not just Amitabh Bachchan but would also be a landmark event for Bollywood.

 

Anand went on to become a huge hit thanks to the wonderful writing, memorable performances by the lead actors and of course the soul stirring lyrics of Gulzar and Yogesh set to music by Salil Chowdhury. Anand won the National Award for the best Hindi movie. It also won the Filmfare awards for best film, editing and story (Hrishikesh Mukherjee), lead actor (Rajesh Khanna), supporting actor (Amitabh Bachchan), dialogues (Gulzar). 

 

Interesting facts about Anand

 

The opening credits of the movie dedicates the movie to the city of Bombay and Raj Kapoor. 

 

Hrishida lost the best director Filmfare award to Raj Kapoor who got it for Mera Naam Joker.

 

The movie was originally planned with Mehmood and Kishore Kumar. Raj Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor were also offered the lead role of Anand.

 

Babumoshai is the first name that comes to mind when Anand is mentioned. In real life Raj Kapoor used to call Hrishikesh Mukherjee Babumoshai.

 

Before Salil Chowdhury, Hrishikesh Mukherjee approached Lata Mangeshkar to compose music. But Didi politely refused and said that she was happy being a singer.

 

Kishore Kumar was the musical voice of Rajesh Khanna post Aradhana but for this movie Salil da insisted that Mukesh sing for him the song ‘Kahin Door Jab Din Dhal Jaye’, Rajesh Khanna considered this his favourite song. Mukesh also sang ‘Maine Tere Liye Hi Saat Rang Ke Sapne Chune’.

 

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My favourite song from the movie is ‘Zindagi Kaisi Hai Paheli’ sung by Manna Dey. Yogesh penned the lyrics.

Zindagi kaisi hai paheli haaye Kabhi ye hasaaye, kabhi yeh rulaye

 

Kabhi dekho nahi jaage, peeche peeche sapnon ke bhaage
Ek din sapnon ka raahi, chala jaaye sapnon ke aage kahaan 

 

Jinhon ne sajaaye yahan mele, sukh dukh sang sang jhele
Wahi chunkar khamoshi, yun chale jaaye akele kahaan