Aanchal

Aanchal is a village story of two brothers. It stars Super Star Rajesh Khanna with Amol Palekar, Raakhee and Rekha. The movie revolves around these four characters and with a bit of Prem Chopra related confusions which are sorted out in the end. It is a typical village story which is memorable because of great performance by Super Star Rajesh Khanna and very good music by R D Burman. The reason one should watch the movie is for its simplicity and the way it has been mounted. Rajesh Khanna is as usual good with a little bit of comedy, romance, action and drama. He pulls this average character as the main character of the movie. A must see family drama and a must for Rajesh Khanna fans.

Confession: I have a soft spot for this one - I first "saw these songs" on a friend's videotapes back in the '90's as part of many Dubai TV compilation programmes. I hope you're behaving yourself nowadays Ritaji! The music was uniformly marvellous and I've been tracking down some of those full length films ever since.

Aanchal itself though, um… The IMDb plot summary contains everything you need to know about the plot except the unexpectedly swift ending and that R. D. Burman's 6 songs also make the plot worth sitting through. However there were some nice pungent colours and atmospheric rustic or pastoral backgrounds enhancing what was a very honest simple tale with plenty of slapstick moments; and the usual romantic traumas and bone-crunching fight scenes. Entertaining the non-cynical is an artform that Hollywood started to lose sight of decades ago. There's the mesmerising song Paise Ka Kaajal at the fairground sung by Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar, but it's really the wondrous Jaane De Gaadi Teri that takes the biscuit for me – such an astounding twisting and turning melody pouted by Rekha (and playfully sung by Asha) about the rather staid Rajesh Khanna's tractor! I defy anyone with a musical ear to rid their head of the tune afterwards. It's the main reason I like this film; unfortunately the soundtrack quality has been allowed to deteriorate since 1980 – I've never heard a clean version in any format.

It's probably not the best introduction to Indian cinema for Westerners, but then again neither is Pather Panchali. Overall this is an enjoyable 2 hours, with nothing heavier to ponder on than the vanity of love, how many times you've seen it before, and will you ever be free of that damn tune!

Anchal is one of those village based themes which makes for pleasant viewing. It is basically about the happenings in a happy family which undergoes some problems because of the antics of the villain.

Amol palekhar plays rajesh's elder brother who suspects the relationship between his wife raakhee & rajesh. This should have been given greater emphasis by the director but thrust has been given only towards the last few minutes of the film.

The pivot of the film is Raakhee & she has given a memorable performance. Rekha plays rajesh's love interest & this is a routine role for her. Prem chopra is his typical self as the villain.

Now, coming to the hero Rajesh khanna. He plays the innocent villager with aplomb & his romantic skirmishes with rekha are delightful. His emotional scenes with raakhee could have been shown with more punch.

R.D.Murman is the music director. He has given good songs but except for the opening song "Bhor Bhaye Panchi", the rest are average. Maybe it is also because we have come to expect superlative songs from the RD-Kaka combine.

Thge production values are good, the village locales are pleasing to the eyes & it is a clean entertainer without a trace of double meaning dialogue/vulgarity.

A film for the family.