Anuraag (1972)

Anuraag is one of the lesser known films of Shakti Samanta today, and I don't know how to explain it. This is generally a very typical movie of its sort, but it's quite watchable in spite of its flaws. Anuraag starts off as quite an ordinary family drama which at first does not seem to be going anywhere. There wasn't anything that I particularly found wrong, actually it was quite enjoyable despite the misgivings, but everything looked so dormant. The surprise, an unpleasant one should I say, comes in the form of some very tragic and sudden news concerning the little kid of the family. From then on we can see a rather predictable development, which still manages to engage the viewer until the expected ending. Anuraag is not the best film dealing with the subject, but something about it, and I somehow could not figure what exactly, does the job. The story is of course a big strength, although the execution often is lacking and the script is underwritten, particularly towards the second half when everything is presented and developed far too quickly and leans on convenience too much. At times I felt the only reason behind the making of this movie was just to forcibly wring tears from the viewers and nothing else.

Having already brought out all the negative comments, I must say that this movie does have its own uniqueness. Although there are too many songs for my liking, they are all very nice, and along with the many characters and sub-plots, create a colourful picture. The movie may be melodramatic, but some sequences really manage to move you, at times more than expected. This may be mostly due to the light mood and the very good cast, who rise above the weak writing. Ashok Kumar plays the leading role, and he's good. Nutan, in a role that was strangely labelled "special appearance" in the opening credits, looks very beautiful and shines with her natural acting. Vinod Mehra is adequate, and so is Moushumi Chatterjee, who is beautiful and graceful, but not particularly impressive where acting is concerned. Other cast members include Rajesh Khanna, an actor I personally am not a fan of, doing pretty well in a tiny little role. To sum it up, Anuraag is worth a watch. Movies with similar subjects, like Anand (70, Mukherjee), Mili (75, Mukherjee), and above-all, Kaash (Bhatt, 87), are of course much better, but it's not bad at all, and fans of the genre would certainly enjoy watching it with their families.