Anand (2004 film)

Last updated

Anand
Anand2004film.jpg
Directed by Sekhar Kammula
Written bySekhar Kammula
Starring Raja
Kamalinee Mukherjee
Satya Krishnan
Anish Kuruvilla
Cinematography Vijay C Kumar
Edited by Marthand K. Venkatesh
Music by K. M. Radha Krishnan
Production
companies
Distributed byAmigos Creations
Release date
  • 15 October 2004 (2004-10-15)
Running time
180 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageTelugu
Budget₹30 Lakhs [1]

Anand [lower-alpha 1] is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language drama film written and directed Sekhar Kammula. [2] Produced jointly by Amigos Creations and National Film Development Corporation of India, the film stars Raja and Kamalinee Mukherjee. The film begins with the death of the family of a young girl as a result of a character's drunken driving. The film sketches the path of the young girl growing up into a woman who lives her life independently and with self-esteem. How the male protagonist enters the woman's life and how they fall in love with each other forms the rest of the story.

Contents

The film's basic story was also chosen as the subject for Sekhar Kammula's thesis screenplay, which was a requirement for his Master of Fine Arts at Howard University. [3] [4] The film was screened at the International Film Festival of India in the mainstream section. [5]

The film was well received by critics and became successful at the box office. It was remade in Tamil as Ninaithale . [6] [7] The film went on to win the Nandi Awards among several other prominent awards. If the award-winning Dollar Dreams (2000) set the tone, then Anand introduced the legacy of successful films made with simple stories. [8] [9] The film's soundtrack was well appreciated for its soft melodies. [10]

Plot

Roopa is a woman with self-respect, determined at her decisions, and yet lovable and sensitive. She works in an ad agency along with teaching classical music part-time. Along with Anita, she also works on weekends at a nursery. After losing her parents at a young age, she fends for herself.

She is engaged to Rahul, a rich Marwari whom she fell in love with. On the night of the wedding, she is confronted with Rahul's mother who insists Roopa to wear a North Indian dress. Roopa, however, has always desired to wear her mother's sari for her wedding. The argument turns ugly while Rahul keeps mum tacitly supporting his mother. Roopa finally decides to call off the marriage after realizing that her freedom and individuality are not being respected by them.

Anand is the son of a rich industrialist who unintentionally killed Roopa's parents in a car accident, thereby losing mental stability. Anand brings his father to Roopa's wedding hoping that his blessings for the wedded couple would bring solace to his soul. At the wedding, however, Anand witnesses the turn of events and finds that Roopa is the woman for him. In order to try his luck in wooing Roopa, he drops his studies in the US and decides to move into a room next to her house. They frown, fight, argue with each other all through his stay there. Anita who is aware of Anand's love for Roopa helps him by giving tips to get closer to her.

A few months later, Rahul's mother dies and Roopa is the one he approaches to seek solace. She gives all the support as a friend to Rahul during his difficult days. On the other hand, the affection between Anand and Roopa is on and off, with arguments on trivial issues. Anand continues to put in his efforts till one day drunken Rahul appears at Roopa's house only to forcibly convince her to marry him. Anand gets frustrated and kicks him out of the house and blames her for choosing Rahul over him. Trying to win back the love of Anand, she cooks for him. Anand rejects and leaves the house. After a few days, they both meet again at a Dandiya night, where Roopa confesses her love to him. Later, Anand reveals that his father is responsible for her parents' death. Though she was shocked by learning this, she decides to forgive that event and move on with her life and agrees to marry Anand.

Cast

Production

Financing

After Sekhar Kammula's first venture, Dollar Dreams (2000), he began meeting producers with his stories. When he initially told them a story, they felt that it was too simple. Then, he began giving them a bound script of Anand. Unfortunately, none came forward to produce it. Upon someone's suggestion, Kammula approached National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and they came forward to fund a part of the project. [11] This set a precedent because it was the first time that NFDC entered into commercial Telugu cinema. [12]

Anish Kuruvilla, who played Anand's cousin in the film, was the executive producer for the film and Kammula's following film, Godavari (2006). [13]

Casting and locations

Kammula preferred actors who suit the roles than writing characters for established actors. Hence, the choice of the cast were non-established actors. [14] The search process lasted 3 months. [15] The casting for Raja was simple. Kammula wanted someone without melodrama in acting and it just came as a plus when Raja appreciated Kammula's directorial abilities. [15] The choice for an actress made Kammula visit Mumbai and Bangalore, but he could not get the appropriate one. On knowing about Kamalinee Mukherjee, he subjected her to a screen test. After the test, he selected her as the actress in the lead role. [15] The choice of location was first thought as Ramoji Film City and Nanakramguda in Hyderabad. So, these thoughts were quashed because the need was for a suitably big house and an outhouse situated adjacent to it. Since Kammula stayed in Padmarao Nagar, a prominent locality in Hyderabad, a location there made it all the more accessible for him. [15]

Miscellaneous

Kammula's primary inspiration came from the Indian middle class. He was of the thought that this section of people were wrongly represented in films. He wanted to represent them appropriately and this was achieved with Anand. [16]

Kammula sat with Veturi for writing songs for the film. Kammula said that he could see thousands of expressions expressed as a couple of words in lyrics. Eventually, they ended up with six beautiful songs penned by Veturi. For Anand, Veturi took a month to come up with the lyrics as against his usual penchant of coming up with lyrics spontaneously. [15]

Being a Bengali, [17] there was a need for someone to dub Kamalinee Mukherjee's voice for the film. [18] This was provided by a well-known singer and television host, Sunitha. The voice of Sunitha blended so well with the screen presence of Kamalinee that she went on to win an award for it. [19]

With most of the cast not well-versed in speaking Telugu, Kammula faced challenges in their dialogue delivery. It just happened that most of the cast couldn't speak Telugu. The crew had to face a slight loss of the performance owing to this fact. To overcome this handicap, the dialogues were altered slightly to improve the actors' diction. [16]

Release

Critical acclaim and reviews

Anand had a relatively low-profile release unlike the huge banner releases of the Telugu film industry. It was made with a modest budget of less than 1  crore. [1] Kammula wasn't sure of the outcome of the film and said "I knew that it would either be a huge hit or a huge flop". [20] It evoked a decent response from the critics. Idlebrain.com gave the film a 3.75/5. [21] The website review goes on to recommend this film to the film-going audiences. On the other hand, IndiaGlitz said that the film was "good, but could have been better". [22] It also figured among the top five grossers in the Telugu film industry for the year 2004. [23] The success of the films in India being measured in the number of days the film has been screened in the theatres, Anand completed 100 days of screening on 28 January 2005. [24] Another website says that the film was realistic in its depiction and goes on to given instances in the film that do happen (unlike some of the fictitious and dreamy Indian films). [25]

Home media

DVD

The DVD Release is a Special Edition 2 disc pack Released by KAD Entertainment. [26]

Disc 1 contains the theatrical version of the film primarily with subtitles in English, both in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS. As an add-on, it also contains the Director's Cut, 35 minutes worth of deleted scenes.

Disc 2 contains a trivia game about the film, the saga of the film, that is, from the film Dollar Dreams where it all began to conceiving Anand, raising of finances for the film, selection of the cast and location, dubbing, choice of the music director, lyricist, cinematographer and choreographer. It also has a brief informational biography about the director, actors, about the choice of the caption, the encountered pre-release blues, the day of release, the best scene from the film, favourite song, memorable moments during the film, the post release scenario and the Director's Cut. It also contains the 100 days celebrations of the film with Dr. Dasari Narayana Rao's congratulatory speech. The film trailers are also included in this disc.

This film possibly is the first Telugu film to be released in a 2-Disc Special Edition DVD that also features the director's cut version of the film. KAD also won the best DVD award for this special edition.[ citation needed ]

Soundtrack

The film has six songs composed by K.M. Radha Krishnan, [27] [28] and according to one repository of Indian songs, "all the songs but for one assume classical and Carnatic music in it.". [28] All songs were written by Veturi.

No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Vachhe Vachhe" Shreya Ghoshal 4:37
2."Yamunatheeram" K.S.Chithra, Hariharan 4:10
3."Nuvvena Naa Nuvvena"Shreya Ghoshal, K.M. Radha Krishnan4:54
4."Charumati I Love You" Lucky Ali 4:09
5."Telisi Telisi"Shreya Ghoshal4:28
6."Yedalo Ganam"K.S.Chithra, Hariharan4:55

Awards

Nandi Awards - 2004 [29]
Filmfare Awards South
CeremonyCategoryNomineeResultRef.
52nd Filmfare Awards South Best Film Sekhar Kammula Nominated
Best Director Sekhar Kammula Nominated
Best Actor – Female Kamalinee Mukherjee Nominated
Best Music K. M. Radha Krishnan Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Satya Krishnan Nominated

Notes

  1. Taglined Manchi Coffee Lanti Cinema (transl.Film as good as a coffee)

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Veturi</span> Poet

Veturi Sundararama Murthy, known mononymously by his surname Veturi, was an Indian poet, lyricist and journalist who is popular for writing Telugu songs. His career in Telugu cinema spanned more than four decades.

<i>Arjun</i> (2004 film) 2004 film by Gunasekhar

Arjun is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language action drama film co-written and directed by Gunasekhar and produced by G. Ramesh Babu. The film starred Mahesh Babu as the titular character along with Shriya Saran, Keerthi Reddy, Raja, Prakash Raj, and Saritha. The music was composed by Mani Sharma with cinematography by Sekhar V. Joseph and editing by A. Sreekar Prasad. The film released on 18 August 2004 and was successful at the box office. It was later dubbed into Hindi as Maidan-E-Jung and in Tamil as Varenda Maduraikku. The film was screened at the International Film Festival of India in the mainstream section. This was Keerthi Reddy's final acting performance prior to her retirement from the film industry. The film won three Nandi Awards.

<i>Takkari Donga</i> 2002 Indian film

Takkari Donga is a 2002 Indian Telugu-language revisionist western film produced, written, and directed by Jayant Paranjee. The film starred Mahesh Babu, Lisa Ray, Bipasha Basu, and Rahul Dev in pivotal roles. Shot entirely in the United States, upon release, Takkari Donga received mixed reviews, and went on to gather a cult following over the years. It won five state Nandi Awards including Best Audiography, Best Cinematography, and Best Action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamalinee Mukherjee</span> Indian actress

Kamalinee Mukherjee is an Indian actress. She has predominantly appeared in Telugu films as well as Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Kannada language films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sekhar Kammula</span> Indian film director, screenwriter and producer

Sekhar Kammula is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works in Telugu cinema. He has garnered two Filmfare Awards South, and six state Nandi Awards for his directional works. Sekhar Kammula was among the director's delegation to represent South Indian Cinema at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

<i>Godavari</i> (2006 film) 2006 Indian film

Godavari is a 2006 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy drama film written and directed by Sekhar Kammula, and produced by G. V. G. Raju. Sumanth and Kamalinee Mukherjee played the lead roles. The film was a commercial success at the box office in addition to receiving unanimous critical acclaim. It won several Nandi and Filmfare awards. The music of the film was composed by K. M. Radha Krishnan. There is a similarity in the names of the protagonists and the cruise boat on the river Godavari. This film was later dubbed In Hindi as Jheel Se Gehra Pyar. The film was an above average grosser in India but was successful in the US. Godavari is considered a modern day classic by some critics

<i>Okariki Okaru</i> 2003 Indian film

Okariki Okaru is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film that was directed by cinematographer Rasool Ellore in his directorial debut. The film stars Sriram and Aarthi Chhabria, and was a box office success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">K. M. Radha Krishnan</span> Musical artist

K. M. Radha Krishnan is an Indian music composer known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. Some of his most notable works are Anand (2004), Godavari (2006), and Chandamama (2007). In 2006, he received the state Nandi Award for Best Music Director.

<i>Neeku Nenu Naaku Nuvvu</i> 2003 Indian film

Neeku Nenu Naaku Nuvvu is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film starring Uday Kiran and Shriya Saran, directed by Raja Sekhar. It is produced by D. Suresh Babu on Suresh Productions banner. Krishnam Raju and Suman play supporting roles in this film.

Satya Krishnan is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Telugu films. She was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. She worked as a hotel management professional and entered the film industry with the film Dollar Dreams. Mostly starring in supporting roles, she is probably best known for her performance as Anitha in the 2004 Sekhar Kammula-directed Telugu film Anand.

<i>Chandamama</i> (2007 film) 2007 Indian film

Chandamama (transl. Moon) is a 2007 Telugu film directed by Krishna Vamsi and produced by C. Kalyan and S. Vijayanand. The film stars Navdeep, Kajal Aggarwal, Siva Balaji, and Sindhu Menon, while Nagababu, Satyam Rajesh, and Ahuti Prasad play supporting roles. The musical score is provided by K. M. Radha Krishnan and the base story by Akula Venkat. The film was released on 6 September 2007 to highly positive reviews and also garnered five Nandi Awards. The film was remade in Tamil as A Aa E Ee (2009) and in Kannada as Chellidaru Sampigeya (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunitha (Telugu singer)</span> Indian playback singer

Sunitha Upadrashta is an Indian playback singer and voice actor who primarily works in Telugu films. She is a recipient of nine Nandi Awards and two Filmfare Awards South in various categories. She also received a National Award from All India Radio under light music category when she was 15 years old. She received her first Nandi award in the year 1999 and bagged Nandi Awards in a row for the years 2002 to 2006 and again for the years 2010 to 2012. She was also honored with Lata Mangeshkar Best Singer Award for 2011 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

<i>Happy Days</i> (2007 film) Film by Sekhar Kammula

Happy Days is a 2007 Indian Telugu-language musical coming of age film written, produced and directed by Sekhar Kammula. The film features Varun Sandesh, Tamannaah Bhatia, Rahul Haridas, Nikhil Siddharth, Vamsee Krishna, Sonia Deepti, Gayatri Rao, and Monali Chowdhary in the lead roles. The plot explores the college life and experiences of eight friends.

<i>Avakai Biryani</i> 2008 Indian film

Avakai Biryani is a 2008 Telugu-language film written and directed by Anish Kuruvilla. Filmed in Telugu, it revolves around Akbar Kalam, a Muslim auto rickshaw-driver and Lakshmi Jandhyala, a traditional Hindu woman with a romantic backdrop. The film stars debutants Kamal Kamaraju and Bindu Madhavi as the lead pair.

<i>Aithe</i> 2003 Indian film

Aithe... is a 2003 Indian Telugu-language thriller film written and directed by Chandra Sekhar Yeleti, and produced by Gangaraju Gunnam under his studio Just Yellow. It stars several debutants including Mohit Chadda, Shashank, Abhishek, Janardhan, and Sindhu Tolani, while Pavan Malhotra plays a pivotal role. The film deals with underworld criminal nexus and hijacking. The film was shot simultaneously in Hindi as 50 Lakh (2007).

<i>Virodhi</i> (2011 film) 2011 Indian film

Virodhi is a 2011 Telugu-language film directed by G. Neelakanta Reddy. The film stars Srikanth, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Ajay and Kamal Kamaraju in pivotal roles. The film was showcased among the Indian panorama section, at the 2011 International Film Festival of India. The film won two Nandi Awards. The film was later dubbed in Hindi as Apradh Ke Aatank in 2013 by Goldmines Telefilms.

<i>Life Is Beautiful</i> (2012 film) 2012 Indian film

Life Is Beautiful is a 2012 Indian Telugu-language coming-of-age drama film written, produced and directed by Sekhar Kammula. The film features five debutante actors, Abijeet, Sudhakar Komakula, Kaushik Darbha, Shagun Kaur, and Zara Shah in lead roles with Shriya Saran, Anjala Zaveri and Amala Akkineni in key supporting roles. This film also features Vijay Deverakonda, Sree Vishnu & Naveen Polisetty. The film is produced by film maker Sekhar Kammula and Chandrasekhar Kammula under Amigos Creations banner. Soundtrack of the film was composed by Mickey J Meyer and the cinematography was handled by Vijay C. Kumar. The film received both mixed to positive reviews from critics and audiences with appreciation for the director's work.

Amigos Creations is an Indian film production company established by Sekhar Kammula in 1999. The company is based in Hyderabad. The first movie that was made under the banner was Dollar Dreams, which won the National Award for the Best Debut Film of a Producer/Director.

<i>Fidaa</i> 2016 film by Sekhar Kammula

Fidaa (transl.Spellbound) is a 2017 Indian Telugu-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Sekhar Kammula, and produced by Dil Raju under Sri Venkateswara Creations banner. The film stars Varun Tej and Sai Pallavi in the lead roles. The film marks Pallavi's debut in Tollywood. The plot follows a love–hate relationship between Bhanumathi (Pallavi), a strong-minded village girl, and her brother-in-law's brother Varun (Tej), an NRI from the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anish Kuruvilla</span> Indian actor and director

Anish Yohan Kuruvilla is an Indian actor and director who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Before becoming a director, he was an executive producer with Sekhar Kammula, played the lead role in Dollar Dreams (2000), and played a supporting role in Anand (2004). After taking a break from acting for 12 years, he played a crucial role in the 2016 film Pelli Choopulu. He also appeared in the biographical film of Indian cricketer M. S. Dhoni.

References

  1. 1 2 "When Tollywood tunes didn't mesmerise box-office". Business Standard India. 1 January 2005. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013. Retrieved 18 July 2022. One of the year's biggest surprises was Anand, a film made on a shoestring budget of less than Rs 1 crore.
  2. Kausar Alam, Hina. "I'm not here to transport people to fantasy land". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
  3. "Master of Fine Arts in Film Program". Howard University. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
  4. Farida, Syeda (3 August 2004). "A different reverie". The Hindu . Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 25 August 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2007.
  5. "Directorate of Film Festival" (PDF). iffi.nic.in. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 March 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
  6. "Love beats – Ninathale". Chennaivision.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
  7. "Ninaithale Movie Cinema Review". Musicmazaa.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 4 October 2007.
  8. "National Film Awards 2000". Research, Reference and Training Division. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
  9. Rajamani, Radhika. "Happy Days – Go for it!". Rediff.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  10. Sunil, Sreya. "Anand has soft melodies". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 26 October 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  11. Verma, Sujatha (10 November 2004). "Freshly Ground". The Hindu . Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  12. "About the Film". Amigos Creations. Archived from the original on 11 February 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  13. Jeevi. "Movie review – Godavari". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  14. Narasimhan, M.L. (23 August 2007). "Happy as can be". The Hindu . Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 Jeevi. "Interview with Sekhar Kammula by Jeevi". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 9 October 2007. Retrieved 9 October 2007.
  16. 1 2 Phani. "An exclusive interview with Sekhar Kammula". Totaltollywood.com. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  17. Jeevi. "Interview with Kamalinee Mukherjee by Jeevi". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  18. "Anand – Press Meet". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  19. "Nandi Awards 2004 Response". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  20. "Don't call me an NRI: Sekhar Kammula". Indo-Asian News Service. Archived from the original on 31 October 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  21. Jeevi. "Movie review – Anand". Idlebrain.com. Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  22. "Anand Movie Review". Indiaglitz.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007. Retrieved 11 October 2007.
  23. Pillai, Sridhar (31 December 2004). "Year 2004 – a flashback". The Hindu . Chennai, India. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
  24. "Anand 100 days – Celebrations". Totaltollywood.com. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
  25. Om. "Sekhar Kammula: Passion for cinema?". Passionforcinema.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 12 October 2007.
  26. "ANAND (DTS) Special Edition 2 Disc Pack". TeluguDVDShop.com. Archived from the original on 1 November 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  27. "Anand – Telugu Movie Songs". Raaga.com. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
  28. 1 2 "Anand (2004) Songs – Music india Online". Musicindiaonline.com. Archived from the original on 30 October 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
  29. "నంది అవార్డు విజేతల పరంపర (1964–2008)" [A series of Nandi Award Winners (1964–2008)](PDF). Information & Public Relations of Andhra Pradesh . Retrieved 21 August 2020.(in Telugu)