Anand (and War & Peace)

Last night I watched

Anand (1971) Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Written by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Bimal Dutta and D.N Mukherjee

This is, once again, a wonderful film by Mr.Mukherjee. I have seen his film Abhimaan and loved how it is directed simply but with finesse and a sensitivity to details of ordinary gestures and conversations we have in life. As a lover of melodrama, I still like it very much when the film avoids it. Anand tells the story of, well, Anand (Rajesh Khanna) who is a terminal cancer patient but tries to face it bravely and gives happiness to the people whose lives he touched. These include Dr.Banerjee (Amitabh Bachchan) who is discouraged by all the misery, poverty and hopeless cases around him.
I highly recommend this film as an example of telling a story without the usual button pushing but still making the viewer care about the characters and their outcome. I have cried buckets but my heart was duly warmed.


Meanwhile War and Peace is still going strong. It is amazing how wonderfully written this novel is.

Pierre tries to do good but he is weak and easily swindled by people who work for him. He has gone to see his business and tries to improve himself and his serfs in compliance with the principles of the masons. Returning to Petersburg, he dropped by to see his old friend Prince Andrey and managed to thaw his frozen heart a bit.

Rostov is back in the army and pretty happy about it but the Russian army does not have enough supplies and the soldiers are undernourished and fall sick. Denisov forced an infantry supply carriage to leave its cargo with his division (Pavlogard Hussars) and he found himself being accused of thievery and courtmarshalled because of this. Then the poor man was shot in the leg and tried to use this small injury as a means to get hospitalised and avoid court. But when Rostov visited him he found that the hospital is a horrible place and Denisov tried to do his best to avoid it. Even though this means going against his beliefs since he doesn't think what he did was thievery but helping out his poor soldiers.

New shipment arrived from India and I'm looking forward to watch Akshay Kumar tonight, insaallah.