Thread by @IWTKQuiz

50 years ago, #OnThisDay a landmark Indian movie released.

Co-written and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Anand won several awards, spawned many parodies and added “lymphosarcoma of the intestine” to the lexicon of scary diseases. #iwtkthreads

Hrishikesh Mukherjee was very good friends with Raj Kapoor. Raj Kapoor fell seriously ill.

Hrishi da feared losing his friend and wrote the story of Anand. “Babu Moshay” was what Raj Kapoor called Hrishi da. (Pic courtesy @FilmHistoryPic)

This film is dedicated to the city of Bombay and Raj Kapoor. (Pics courtesy @sachdeva_pankaj)

Hrishikesh Mukherjee initially wanted to have Kishore Kumar play the role of Anand. But due to a misunderstanding, this didn’t happen.

Kishore Kumar was involved in a financial dispute with another Bengali man over a live show and had instructed his security guard not to allow “the Bengali”. Hrishi da, tried to meet Kishore and wasn’t allowed to meet.

How that movie would have turned out to be.. Who knows?

Gulzar wrote the screenplay and was instructed to let the audience know that Rajesh Khanna will die in the film and that not be a suspense. This ensured that the audience watched the film for its essence and its life lessons rather than the death of the central character.

Anand is remembered for its iconic ending scene - where once Anand breathes his last, after a momentary pause, we hear 'Babu Moshay' from the tape recorder.

@SrBachchan told on KBC that during this scene he was actually laughing on the shoulder of Rajesh Khanna.

Anand was the first major hit for @SrBachchan. The story goes that on 12 March 1971 morning, he went to a petrol station to fill petrol and nobody cared about him. But when he went to fill petrol again in the evening, everyone recognized him.

https://twitter.com/SrBachchan/status/1105345503414247425

The immortal music was given by Salil Chowdhary. But initially Hrishida wanted the music to be given by one Anandghan, a Marathi film music director.

Wondering who that is? It is Lata Mangeshkar, who composed with that pseudonym. She refused to compose but agreed to sing.

Some of the sad scenes in the film, the background music is the tune of the song 'Koi Hota Jisko Apna' from the movie Mere Apne.

Mere Apne released later that year, was directed by Gulzar and had music by Salil Choudhary.

This movie was a landmark movie for Amitabh Bachchan. In Shoojit Sircar's Piku, his character was named Bhashkor Banerjee as a tribute to his character Bhaskar Banerjee from Anand.

Anand gave us a life motto which we should all follow - "Zindagi Badi honi chahiye, lambi nahin!"

Thank You Hrishi da, Rajesh Khanna, @SrBachchan, Gulzar, Sumita Sanyal, Seema Deo, Ramesh Deo, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Salil Choudhary and many others for Anand.