Tuesday, April 29, 2008

ANAND - The Movie


I was impressed by the caption of the movie that says “Manchi Coffee ala cinema” (A movie like a Good cup of Coffee). I felt the movie might have been titled “RUPA” as the whole movie revolves around the heroine. The story starts with Rupa’s childhood, who loses her parents and brother in a fatal car accident. She believes that she is responsible for the accident as she was stubborn and made their parents delayed that night. She grows up independently without the support of her relatives. Her only support is her neighbour Maa amma (Grandma), her friend Anita.

After 8 yrs, she is shown as a soon to be bride who is engaged to Rahul, her colleague in an Advertising agency. Rahul is a marwari guy whose mother is strict and orthodox. She is very dominating and wants to decide each and everything of her son and would be daughter-in-law (from dress to Friends)

Anand is a millionaire but very kind towards poor. He is continuously being insisted by his mother to get married. His father is mentally challenged, because of whom Rupa’s parents met with the accident. He loses himself from that night. He remembers only the name “RUPA” which was uttered by Rupa’s father before his last breath.

On the wedding eve Rupa wears her mother’s sari for the wedding. But Rahul’s mother insists her to wear the traditional marwari sari in their style. First she refuses and enrages her in front of everyone. She pleads Rahul and his mother to allow her to wear that sari only that night. But the stubborn mother of Rahul tells that Rupa has to wear the Marwari sari and has to beg for her pardon in front of everyone. On Maa amma’s advice, Rupa agrees and wears the other sari. But she overhears the conversation of Rahul and his mother where Rahul’s mom tells him that she accepted the marriage as Rupa is an orphan and would be obedient to her words. Rahul tells his mother to take her control over Rupa after the marriage. When Rupa apologizes, Rahul’s mother assaults her verbally. On hearing this Rupa gets humiliated and decides not to marry Rahul. She is a self esteemed independent girl and doesn’t want to be like a dog in Rahul’s house. Anand and his father are also among the attendants of that wedding and Anand decides Rupa is the girl of his kind and wants to win her heart.

He soon shifts to the out house of Rupa’s home. He befriends Anita and the kids. Slowly he enters Rupa’s friends group and slowly becomes Rupa’s friend too by helping her in the Nursery, in the old-age home on her parents’ death anniversary. Mean time Rahul comes to Rupa and tries to convince her. But she tells him not to meet her again. Anand gets a job in Rupa’s office. Rahul gets angry of their friendship. One day Rahul’s mother expires due to massive heart attack. Anand takes Rupa to Rahul’s house late in the night. Rupa convinces Rahul. The next day Anand tells Rupa that Rahul would come with a marriage proposal as his mother is no more. Rupa also tells that now no problem would be there as her only problem was Rahul’s mother. On hearing that Anand gets angry and Rupa recognizes his jealousy towards Rahul. But she develops Love for Anand without her knowledge. Rupa wants to be away from Anand and so she starts moving with Rahul again in spite of the warning given by Anand

One night a drunken Rahul came to Rupa’s home and tries to molest her. Anand came for her rescue and thrashes Rahul out of the house. Then he reveals the truth about himself and left the out house. Rupa feels for Anand and misses him a lot. She meets him in a Dandia party and expresses her Love for him. Anand introduces her to his Mom. She also likes Rupa very much. She tells Rupa about Anand’s father that he is the reason for the accident and has got the punishment for that by losing himself. Rupa forgets the past and gets into Anand’s family.


The story may seem so simple. But the screenplay and direction stand unique. The characters are portrayed wonderfully. Kamalini Mukherji and Raja justifies the characters of Rupa and Anand. There are a lot of cute scenes like when Samanta gets a dog as a surprise gift by Anand, when Rupa’s friends help Anand to repair her Scooty which was damaged by Anand, when Anand’s cleans his greased hand with Rupa’s Dhuppatta and the following scene, the Venkatalakshmi episode and many. But the reason for Rupa’s love for Anand is not so strong. Also there is no twist at the climax. It is so simple and plain which is predictable.

Hats off to the director Shekhar Kammula, who strongly believed in his story instead of stars. It’s an unconventional movie without any fight, glamour, and unbearable noise as songs. There is only one Navel show of the heroine’s friend Anita that too is not vulgar instead gives a flow to the story. The biggest asset of the movie is its Music composed by the. The song “Yamuna theeram…” sung by Hariharan and Chitra is very soothing and so as other songs which include 3 songs sung by my Sweet heart Shreya Ghoshal.




Trivia:

The director told the story to many producers but everyone told the story is very simple. Later it was produced by NFDC. This is the first Telugu Commercial film that is produced by NFDC.

This is Kamalini Mukherji’s first film as a leading actress. She has previously played Shilpa Shetty’s sister role in “Phir Milenge”, directed by Revathy.

This is the biggest hit of Raja after some flops in the previous

This movie was released on the same date of the release of Shankar Dada MBBS, starring the Mega Star Chiranjeevee in the remake of tremendously successful of Munnabhai MBBS. Still it is a BO Hit of the year 2004.

The film was awarded with 7 Nandi Awards by the State Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2004. The awards that were won are Best Film, Best Director, Best Producer, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Satya Krishnan), Best Child Artiste (Bakhita) and Best Female Dubbing Artist (Sunitha).

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