Review of Anand

Introduction

`Anand is joy, joy is life`

Dr. Bhaskar Banerjeet (Amitabh Bachchan), once cared about his profession and helping those in need of free medicine and service. But seeing poverty and people suffering has made him a hard man and he eventually began to look at life on a pessimistic level.

On the brink of depression Bhaskar comes across a man called Anand (Rajesh Khanna). Anand is a cheerful man who brings happiness and humour into his life and in others which he touches upon. But Anand`s reality is both grim and shocking as he is suffering from Hympho-Circoma which is in its last stage and cannot be helped. Even though Anand knows of his fate he doesn`t give up his hopes and happiness for him and others.

Anand changes Bhaskar`s life after an encounter and makes Bhaskar realize that life should not be taken for granted and that one should be happy with what they and you have got............

A wonderful film which really is one worth watching, and which has been released on DVD by DEI (Digital Entertainment Inc.) in a restored print.

Video

The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (fullscreen) which means all of the action does take place within the film frame displayed here and it is seen exactly like it was on cinema.

The sharp and crystal clear picture has no signs of any artefact nor of grain, delivering fresh crisp digital quality that only impresses for a film this age. There are no signs of shimmering and wear and tear are limited to a fraction of scenes. This clearly impressed everyone as the film is a little old and yet the print is in excellent condition.

The detailed picture on this DVD is due to the average bit rate which is very high, providing plenty of information to view never seen before at home. Skin tones and colour fidelity are outstanding giving a natural feel to the film. The colour saturation never appears to be worn off or distorted so for a film this age and creates a truly remarkable presence. The contrast and dark details also marvel brilliance.

Audio

The sound is mono and is near free from distortion, doing its job in giving clear and precise information that accompanies this film. A couple of scenes have low cracklings and sound dropouts, but this is due to the film`s original negative and doesn`t really affect viewing as it is expected from a older Indian film.

Features

The menus are impressively animated with soundtrack of the film being played. The menus are thematic in design and are very easy to navigate over. No extras are provided but space on the DVD is wholly given to the main feature and the high average bit rate seen during the main feature which helps with the feature to maintain perfect picture quality. The English subtitles are also well crafted in lexis and grammer (unlike me).

Conclusion

A wonderful film which shows that Indian cinema during the 1970`s wasn`t always about songs, dances and melodramtic romances. Here is a film which is both emotionally charging, and memeroble.

The DVD restores this title, which before was badly damaged due to lack of care on the 35mm print. Now in excellent digital condition.