Anari

Anari," the 1959 film, served as an unflinching mirror to society, confronting themes that remain unsettlingly relevant even today-innocence in a world of cunning, truth in the face of manipulation, the corrupting influence of greed, and the cruel irony of wealth built upon the suffering of the powerless. Decades later, its questions still echo: Will the romantics-those who value integrity, empathy, and human connection-ever triumph? Or will the world continue to revere the 'smart'-those who commodify every aspect of existence, reducing meaning to monetary value, measuring success solely by wealth, and idolizing fortunes over virtues?

Beautiful. This movie is pure form of art. This movie is pure art. It is beautifully explained and show us the harsh reality of world. It has comedy, drama, music, love, vengeance, regret. This movie is described by one word "beautiful.".

Anari is the story of Raj (Raj Kapoor) a poor 'anari' (simpleton) who rents a room with Mrs. D'Sa (Lalita Pawar). Raj and Mrs. D'Sa have a strange relationship. They love each other dearly but choose to show that love in unique ways. Raj makes mischief and jests with Mrs. D'Sa while she constantly yells at him.

Raj is a painter who doesn't make enough money. One fine day he meets Aarti (Nutan) a rich man's daughter. But Aarti, afraid of class differences coming in the way of their friendship/budding love tells Raj that she is actually a servant in her own house. Gullible Raj believes her and they begin to fall in love.

They sing a few songs around town and then things get serious when Raj discovers who Aarti really is. Saddened at being lied to, Raj wallows in his misery and sings a few sad songs. His life gets even more complicated when Mrs. D'Sa falls sick and eventually dies. The police find that her demise was caused by the medicines she took. Raj is accused of poisoning her.

What really happened? Is Raj guilty? Was he just pretending to be an anari? Watch the movie to find out!

Overall this is a good entertainer. Coming from the likes of Raj Kapoor and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, we don't expect any less. The performances are also very good. Raj Kapoor is perfect in his now famous role of a naive village boy. Nutan is charming and Lalita Pawar is fun to watch.

Music is excellent, simple tunes set to some wonderful lyrics.

Definitely recommended.

sings Mukesh in the lively and entrancing "1959" cabaret scene, but you'd never guess it if you only listen to Western pop music! This was not only Raj Kapoor and Nutan at their peaks but also singers Lata and Mukesh too, in a typically moralising tale from RK with plenty of social instructions expertly delivered as pills in the jam.

Whilst happily cycling and singing the catchy Ban Ke Panchhi lovely Nutan literally bumps into simple guy Raj - after many tribulations they eventually fall in love. Along the way he forms a son/mother relationship with his loud landlady Mrs D'Sa which is pivotal to the plot – he's utterly traumatised when she dies, but still has more trouble to come. Great songs: the jaunty Kisi Ke Muskurahaton, the poetic duet Dil Ke Nazar Se and the astoundingly simple Woh Chand Khila in the "radiantly moonlit" garden – Lata surpassed her usual high standard with that one!

Overall, enjoyable as usual and with the usual RK messages that love is better than money and ingenuousness is better than being a man of the world it's always worth watching.

Anari (1959) : Brief Review -

A Superb triad of Romance, Comedy and Emotions in-essentially went for over analysing social climax. Anari begins on a high note with engaging and entertaining love story, it stays on high level with comedy and adds enough essential social issues such as differences between poverty and wealthy life but then goes on to have overdose of it. The climax doesn't look on same level to what narrative was before that hence, reducing the impact of a potential Classic. Rajkumar is poor jobless guy gets a job for his honesty from a rich businessman Seth Ramnath. His niece Aarti falls in love with Rajkumar but lies to him about her Identity. Ramnath is against their relation and Rajkumar stands up against Ramnath for murdering his supposed mother Miss D'sa. Anari somehow fails to justify it's title despite several attempts in the climax and over analysed vision. However, it a fantastic ride from the beginning and every minute adds something more beautiful and important in the film. It was just a matter of simple climax in mainstream flow which could have easily made it a Claasic Rom-com and Emotional film. The relationship between Rajkumar and his supposed Mother is so beautiful and heart touching. A catholic woman and a Hindu Son, this trick was excellent and highly admirable. Rajkumar and Aarti's relationship was looking fascinating in the start untill the fiasco took place in the pre-climax scene where she couldn't chose him against her uncle. May be that trick was on hold to get typical happy ending but by that time film loses it's main theme of Rom-com and becomes a dark satirical on Rich vs Poor fight. Raj Kapoor as Rajkumar is deservingly known as one of his finest performance. His variable accents from Catholic Hindi to regular Hindi are invulnerable. I always say Nutan just can't go wrong with her acting skills and Anari is yet another complimentary performance of her career and not to forget it came in the same year of Sujata which is One of the Greatest performance her career. Lalita Pawar gets a positive role and how. She is Lovable and kind like never before. Crunchy and Clapworthy dialogues are impressive such as, "Ehsaan to Amir log karte hai, hum garib log to sirf ek dusre ki madad karte hai." Music by Shankar Jaikishan is overall good but could have been better considering thier own high standard but the Maestros didn't fail to deliver an Iconic song. "Jeena Isika Naam Hai" is that only Iconic song in Anari. This was only 2nd directorial for Hrishikesh Mukherjee and he did great as far as his early days are concerned. May be he learnt from this film what he missed and then he didn't repeat those mistakes in his next films. His next film was a Masterpiece 'Anuradha' and i am glad he didn't do the same mistake as Anari. Anari is a Great Rom-Com, a Fantastic emotional story but I wish only if it had that high level climax. Nevertheless, its a sure shot Super Hit formula and box office numbers proved it. I was just me, expecting too much from quality trio of Raj Kapoor-Nutan-Hrishikesh Mukherjee which doesn't come frequently.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest