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Ikiru Ka Anand
First of all let me tell you I am not a film reviewer.. I don’t want to be one as I believe all the reviewers have their own biases and preferences like any other audience watching the film. I also believe most of the great films have boring reviews and sometimes the greatness of a film is beyond the reach for many of the reviewers.. of course all badly made films provide much better opportunity to have the most entertaining reviews on them..
On the following lines, you will not find a review but a reaction and its a reaction to a comment I read sometime back, by a person I admire to a great extent Javed Siddiqui saab. A comment that set me to a journey to find answers and made me to actually review a film.
It was about a film that is one of the most inspiring one of my life so far.. He once quoted “Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anand was inspired from Kurosawa’s Ikiru”.. Reading the line caused a mild heart attack to me.. Anand has been so dear to me for its characters, screenplay, dialogs, direction, acting, music.. for everything it had.. It is The Film which laid foundation for my castle of admiration for people like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Gulzar, Bimal Dutt, NC Sippy, Amitabh Bachchan and The Cinema ofc.. a movie I have seen hundreds of times and can still watch it for all my life.. “Waise bhi Meri judwaan hai ye.. hum dono 1971 ki paidaaish hain”… When 20-25 years later you come to know from a respectable name that it was not original, you are bound to find a few cracks in the castle.. and the cracks got wider when a reliable friend confirmed me that Anand was a remake of Ikiru..
To save my castle I started the hunt.. I could find the DVD of Rashomon in the process but not of Ikiru..but thanks to the magical glove of internet, I could finally get the film a few months back…and it was the beginning of the next challenge.. to find time (with time I mean dedicated quality time for film viewing, which is very very difficult to people like me who runs a small company with different clients from different time zones US East Coast, West Coast, India (subah se lekar shaam tak, shaam se lekar raat tak.. raat se lekar subah tak, subah se phir shaam tak.. bas kaam karo, bus kaam karo) and above it a demanding 3.5 year old son ..)… So only after a wait of about 4 months I could find an opportunity when I got a chance to travel and I didn’t missed the opportunity.. With the help of my laptop (what a great asset to have) and a set of headphones, I got transmitted in to the world of Ikiru… and a wonderful world it was…
[Spoilers Ahead.. not many and am sure not to the extent of ruining the chance of your future watching]
Ikiru (To Live) is a simple and heartwarming tale of the main protagonist of the film Mr. Watanbe, a widower living with his son and daughter-in-law (To what I have seen of Mr. Kurosawa, This hero is most unspectacular ordinary human being than the heroes of Rashomon or Seven Samurai).. Leading a robotic life in a government public works department doing absolutely nothing.. He is as good as a dead man, just killing his time and the most important job he does (as per the dialogs) is to keep his chair warm.. Just after introductory scene, you come to know that Mr. Watanabe is representing the system how Japan functions.. whole system is dead like him, killing time and doing nothing.. a group of female petitioners from a basti files a proposal to office to develop a public and park playground for their children instead of polluted water pool, and they are sent from one department to another, from there to another in a masterly crafted sequence… when they reach Watanabe Seat, the audience is made aware that something unusual has happened today.. Mr. Watanabe is not on the seat for the first time.. Actually he is meeting the doctor and faces the fact that he is going to die soon due to a cancer.. He has at the most 3 months to live…
3 months to live and he want to LIVE… A brilliantly crafted scene that takes you back to his past and you know how and why he spent his last thirty years working like a robot and doing nothing, for his son.. His relationship (or the failure of it) with his son is brilliantly handled and Mr. Watanabe realizes that he has been a complete failure on both family and office fronts.. and the failure of relationship with his family also poses a big question how and where is he going to find happiness for the rest of life.. he has money but no idea how to spend it to Live.. He visits a bar, interacts with a stranger novelist (very interesting interaction) who takes him for gambling and dance bar.. The dance bar scene provides another great moment when Watanbe sings “Life is short.. fall in love”
In search of Life To Live, he starts interacting with a subordinate girl in his office, who had earlier nicknamed him as “The Mummy”.. Watanbe want her to help him to live.. he is jealous of her for her energy and vibrance.. The family (Son and D.I.L) suspects him of having illicit relationship and think that he is spending all the money on the girl.. but the duo have a different kind of relationship.. still in the company of the girl, Watanbe tries to extract too much out of her in too short a time.. It fails eventually but finally he gets an answer of his search.. how would he like to spend his rest of life.. we are just two third in to the film and we find Mr. Watanbe is no more. Rest of the film takes the film to another interesting direction where people from family and government office are gathered to pay tributes to Mr. Watanbe and they start discussing all the changes in his behavior, all the gossips surrounding him in last few months and the mystery of his death..
In the long long discussion during the homage the director discuss the events of last few months of Watanbe thru the eyes of his co-workers and associates.. The discussions, gossiping, arguments, counter arguments and fight, lead them to a realization the Mr Watanbe indeed achieved some thing in life and HE WILL LIVE ON.. the Climax is just fantastic will definitely leave you with a happy heart yet moist eyes.. In the end you feel really satisfied; you have seen a good powerful film…
and the best feeling for me was my Castle is saved…
(In case you are still reading and have enough strength left to read on)
honestly I never wanted to tell you the above story specially If you have not seen the film but later I realized I have to, to compare it with Anand… but I am sure the above paragraphs
wont spoil the pleasure of watching this film.. Now coming back to Siddiqui saab’s comment, I am not sure what made him comment that Anand is based on Ikiru.. Either he has not seen any of the two films and made his comment on what he has heard from some other sources.. ofc There is a similarity, infact a very thin line of similarity that the main protagonist is going to die soon and he knows about it.. The subsequent events to this realization in initial reels are handled totally differently in the two films.. Watanbe and Anand are poles apart as a character. You feel sorry for Watanbe all throughout the film but never ever for Anand, as he never lets you to do so..
Ikiru has a different class.. to me is not a single film but three films for the price of one.. It has three different segments connected yet independent that can inspire three different film makers to make three different films.. Infact I found films like Chhoti Chhoti Baatein (Moti Lal’s first film as director and eventually turned out to be his last film) and Annadata (OmPrakash) are inspired by the middle segment.. Another film was Mahesh Bhatt’s Kabza which could be inspired from another segment.. Baghbaan too.. much more than Anand.. but none of the other inspired ones could get any closer to Ikiru or Anand..
Talking of Ikiru and Anand, it could be possible that Hrishi da have seen the film, yet he created a totally different world of Anand. Anand has infact no similarity to Watanbe.. It still is the Unique most characters of all the films I have seen so far.. Infact the time spent with Ikiru has been instrumental in growing my admiration for Anand and its crew many more times.. It will Live On.. Anand Mara Nahin, Anand Marte Nahin..
and Thanks Siddiqui saab for introducing me to Ikiru!!!
17 Responses to “Ikiru Ka Anand”
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Pavan: Nice post,
Its possible that Hrishikesh Mukherjee had seen Ikiru before or he had read about the film. But except the idea of capturing the last few months of a dying person, there is no similarity.
Hrishi Da had mentioned it that he was scared by death when his friend Raj Kapoor fell seriously ill and he thought that he might lose RK.
He explored fear of death again in Mili.
Rather in his very first film Musafir some encounter with fear of death are present.
Many films are there where death as a subject has been explored, like Safar, Majboor, Dard Ka Rishta,kaash, Gitanjali, there was a hindi remake also perhaps with Aditya Pancholi.
By seeing a good thriller or biopic if someone thinks to make a thriller or a biopic then what would we say ?
Problem is : Inspiration word has been misused so we dont take it in right manner.
Otherwise creativity is heavily dependent on Inspiration. One thing affects a creative person, he gets inspired and this inspiration pushes him to create something of his own. Area of Subject can be same as original source like melancholy or comedy or whatever.
:)
it is possible that it was inspired , but nothing wrong in being inspired . the problem like RK said is that all these words
first it was inspiration
then it became refrences and now homages are increasingly being misused , so that genuine inspiration(if atall anand was)…its hrishikesh mukherjee’s own take on the subject…so i dont care if he got the story idea aftre watching a certain movie. everyone is inspired by something or the other , all creativity is …but the problem lies in misusing this word to hide the fact that you were lazy or incompetent andy ou copied.
Yes,
thats what I meant, if Hrishi da had actually seen Ikiru and then made Anand, my admiration for him has multplied by 100 times specially for creating the character of Anand…
Watanbe is in search of happiness.. Watanbe searches for it everywhere and didn’t find it until the end while Anand knows how to be happy (from the first frame) and he shares all his happiness with others (Dukh Apne Liye, Anand Sake Liye).. Ikiru poses a lot of questions on how to live but Anand has all the answers since the beginning..
One question that always troubles me is
“Was Anand had a changeover only after he realizes he is going to die soon? or he was the same happy Anand all though out his life”
Dear Pavan,
I enjoyed reading about Anand & Ikiru. The fact is that many of us Indians have lost the self confidence. We always think that nothing original can come from us. We are unable to believe in ourselves. However slowly but persistently this situation is fast changing. We are gaining that lost confidence which was ours in the times of Nalanda and Taxsila. When I started reading your article, I also had sinking feeling that Anand must be a copy. Thank God for the happy ending. I am very happy that Nagesh Kakoonur is keeping Hrishikesh Mukherji legacy alive through his brilliant films like Iqbal and Dor.
Bharat
mujhe aise comparison ki baat chalne par itna hi kahna hai ki agar koi dhang se adapt karta hai to kya bura hai.main doosri bhashaon se hindi mein anuvad karta hoon,,,apne pathkon ke liye.kuch log us se aage badh kar swaym likh bhi sakte hain prerit hokar.
comparison ka chakkar reviewers ne chalaya hai.woh jin filmon ki naqal batate hain,un filmon ko aam darshak dekh hi nahi pata.
Thanks for introducing Ikuru!
I agree to the opinion that there is nothing wrong in getting inspired in the real sense of the word. Dor was inspired from a Malyalam movie, both Maqbool and Omkara from Shakespeare, but the way these stories were adapted to a completely different setting while still maintaining the same protagonists with all their complexities makes them worthwhile.
Pavan, post padhkar hrishida aur “Anand” ke prati mera maan aur badh gaya hai.
Agar Anand Ikiru ki copy bhi hoti to mein kehta “waah kya copy hai?”
@Pavan,Maine article me padha tha ki Movie Aanad ki story raj kapoor aur Hrishikesh Mukherjee ki dosti pe based thi. Search karne pe mujhe exact article to nahi mila par 2 related article mile hai …
http://sify.com/movies/bollywood/fullstory.php?id=14281243
http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2002/oct/11sld1.htm
@Shatrughan,
Though have no documentation in B&W, but it is a known fact the Hrishi da did based his Anand on Raj Kapoor.. (Hrishi’da’s first success was Anari with Raj K) infact he wanted to make Anand with Raj Kapoor but he didn’t wanted to see Raj Kapoor dying be it on screen.. Hrishida found his (Raj Kapoor like ) Anand in Shashi Kapoor.. but either Shashi refused to do a tragic hero or he had too many films.. Later Rajesh Khanna was approached by Gulzar who convinced him that its gonna be a role of lifetime.. Hrishi da was not sure if Rajesh Khanna would do his film as he was very busy.. infact on the set of Anand, Rajesh Khanna in one of the Scene addressed heroine “Renu” as “Madhu” quite a number of times.. when Hrishi da asked who is this “Madhu”.. he said its the name of his heroine in “Aan Milo Sajna”.. His secretary corrected “no sir, its Kati Patang”.. So busy he was… still he went on to perform one of the finest roles of his entire life..
In the credits you can find Anand is a Tribute to “Raj Kapoor” and “The City of Bombay”
@pavan, Thnaks for such beautiful reply… :):)
>Gitanjali, there was a hindi remake also perhaps >with Aditya Pancholi.
Yaad Rakhegi Duniya (can you forget Rukhsaar? not in YRD but totally forgettable in her New Avtaar at RGV Films)
For me the real hero of Anand was its dialogs.. Ikiru too has some good dialogs (ofc here lost in translation)
>> I dont hate them.. I dont have time to hate
>> Even to empty a vat in certain areas…
You need so many documents!And so many stamps!
We complain about corruption…It’s not as bad as all the time that we waste. ( Government officials talking in 1933.. 75 years later even worse!)
>> No Vacations.. are you that important..
No.. but I dont want them to think I’m not
>> Misfortune has its good sides. The man finds the truth in it. Cancer opened your eyes on life. Men only see the beauty of life when they are about to depart it! Even those are rare. Some die ignorant… You rebel against this idea…
This is a revealing story I read up on an article posted on the internet. (url: http://kavitachhibber.com/main/main.jsp?id=featured-Nov2007). It reveals that Sachin Bhaumick,, the famed Hindi film writer and one of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s favorite, was once encouraged by the great Satyajit Ray at a Berlin film festival where they met, to watch as many foreign films as he could at the festival. A film by Akira Kurosawa called Ikiru screened in the festival struck Sachin Bhaumick
the character anand lacks depth.
think of the time when anand came to know he is dying , what his reaction would have been.
if he was as a happy person as he is potrayed in the film. he must have loved life. so he must have felt very sad that he is not going to live long. and this sudden end of his tryst with life must have made him really sad.
if he was an average person before getting the news that he has just few days to live. than his reaction would have been average. a slow acceptance!
but he is shown as a brave man, going towards death dancing. accepting the ineabitable. how is this possible?
life must not have mean too much too him, to react that way.
the possible reason could be this, he was dying happy, becasue death has given him a escape route of his rotten life.
ikiru is in search of meaning, anand never confront that kind of quesition, even death staring at him!
Soujatya,
An authentic source earlier told me that it was Bimal Dutt not Sachin Bhowmik, who suggested the Story Idea to Hrishi da.. Infact when Bimal Dutt could not find his name in the credits for the Story in first release, he sued Hrishi da in the internal tribunal of film industry (something like IMPA) and after an internal trial won the case against Hrishi da and Hrishi da had to add his name to the credits..
@Pavan:
thanks for the beautiful article. Recently i am watchin Kurosawa only and finished IKiru the day before yesterday. Ikiru is really a joyful watch , a film which will really make you think about your life..and chances are you might save your future from being MUMMY.Movie rings an alarm in yor life…this is the time , gear it up !!
On the other hand,Anand … is an infectious movie about happiness in every moment of life.It gives audience a contrast in two protagnists ,Babu moshay and Anand, one is seeing death other only happiness.
the only similarity between the two leads is their enlightenment about Life. Kurosowa’s lead is carrying a feeling of life misssed (see how in the ends , lead says that evenings are so beutiful, i never knew) while anand is hardly worried about past!
Kurosowa gives you a picture what will happen if you cudn’t live your life fully. Hrishida tells you this is the way you shoud start living.
Both are classics in their own leauge!!
Thanks you’ve saved my ‘castle’ too!:) As Hrishikesh Mukherjee is my favorite Hindi film director!;)