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Original name: Anuradha
English name: Anuradha
Year: 1960
Run time: 141 mins
Language: Hindi
Type (Colour/ Black & white): Colour
Country: India
Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Producer: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, L. B. Thakur
Cast: Balraj Sahni, Abhi Bhattacharya, Leela Naidu, Baby Ranu, Nasir Hussain, Hari Shivdasani, Mukri, Rashid Khan, Asit Sen, Ashim Kumar, Madhav Chitnis, Bhudo Advani
Screenplay: Sachin Bhowmick
Cinematographer: Jaywant Pathare
Editor: Das Dhaimade
Music Composer: Pandit Ravi Shankar
Costume Designer: Mamu
Production Company: L. B. Lachman Films
World Sales: Shemaroo Films Pvt. Ltd.
World Sales Phone: +91-2240319911
World Sales Email: shemaroo@shemaroo.com
By no means is he any glamorous director, yet Hrishikesh Mukherjee is one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema. His magic lay not in the glamor or largeness so often associated with cinema, but in its simplicity and warmth. He began his career in Bombay, 1951, as an editor and assistant director to Bimal Roy, another great director himself. His first directorial venture, Musafir (1957), centering on an old house where three unrelated stories dealing with birth, marriage and death occur in a series, was a disaster. But director Raj Kapoor was impressed and strongly recommended Hrishida as director for Anari (1959). Starring Kapoor himself and Nutan, the film was a critical and commercial success.His next film, Anuradha (1960), about an idealistic doctor who neglects his wife to focus on his work, got him the President's Medal Award. But from then on throughout the 1960s decade, none of Hrishida films were particularly distinguishable, barring Asli-Naqli (1962), a Muslim melodrama; Anupama (1966), which was based on a true incident; Aashirwad (1968), a family drama; and Satyakam (1969), about an idealist seeing his dreams crumble after Indian independence.
A sentimental variation on Madame Bovary: Anuradha Roy (Naidu), a lively and successful singer, marries a dull but idealistic country doctor (Sahni) and soon gets bored. Her former lover, who has an accident while passing through her village, ignites memories of her past and persuades her to return to her former profession. However, a timely visit by a famous and worldly-wise doctor, who recognises her sacrifice as more praiseworthy than the genius of her husband, reconciles her to her new life. Some poetic shots in the film play on life’s ironies: while Anuradha looks at palm trees in the moonlight, the doctor gazes at wriggling worms through his microscope. Imaginative cutting (the director is also an expert editor) creates effective narrative ellipses, as when the newly married bride eagerly awaits her husband and he bursts in, years later, tired and irritable. Mukherjee’s traditionally conservative fable about marriage is well served by Sahni’s underacting, the subtle play of shadows suggesting the flavour of Anuradha’a nostalgia for her former success, and Ravi Shankar’s music, including popular songs like Kaise din beete and Hai re woh din kyon na aaye (sung by Lata Mangeshkar).
