Now Reading: Anand film showed Rajesh Khanna’s last superstar days before Bachchan’s rise
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Anand film showed Rajesh Khanna’s last superstar days before Bachchan’s rise
Anand film showed Rajesh Khanna’s last superstar days before Bachchan’s rise
Hrishikesh Mukherjee's classic film Anand, starring Rajesh Khanna in the title role, marked the end of his reign as Bollywood's biggest star before Amitabh Bachchan emerged as the new superstar. The 1971…
Hrishikesh Mukherjee's classic film Anand, starring Rajesh Khanna in the title role, marked the end of his reign as Bollywood's biggest star before Amitabh Bachchan emerged as the new superstar. The 1971 film shows Khanna as a terminally ill man who chooses to live joyfully, with Bachchan playing his doctor. "Anand" is widely seen as Khanna's last major hit before his popularity declined in the mid-1970s.
Director Frank Capra once said tragedy is when the audience cries, not the actor. The audience wept for Anand, a character who laughed through his cancer diagnosis. The film remains a landmark in Hindi cinema for its emotional depth and Khanna's performance.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Rajesh Khanna's superstardom in the 1970s was a cultural phenomenon unique to Hindi cinema, with fans queueing for days to watch his films. But by the mid-1970s, the industry was shifting towards Amitabh Bachchan's angry-young-man persona. Anand, released in 1971, is widely seen as Khanna's last significant hit before Bachchan's Zanjeer (1973) changed the box office. The film's emotional weight, a cancer-stricken man celebrating life, was a risk that paid off critically and commercially. Today, Anand remains a benchmark for the "dying man" trope in Indian cinema, remade or referenced multiple times. The question is whether any actor today could carry a similarly low-action, high-sentiment role to a blockbuster result.
Source: ndtv.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
