Anand & Raghu

Anand and Raghu are the two quintessential larger than life characters ever created in the history of Hindi cinema and courtesy and encomium to the late timeless superstar Shri Rajesh Khanna who exhibited enormous acting ability while playing these characters on the silver screen. I must also revere Late Sri Hrishikesh Mukherjee who created the two flawless magical characters and molded them with utmost exquisiteness thereby creating two masterpiece of visual art viz Anand and Bawarchi.

While one romanced with death and taught us to live beyond the fear of death, the other restructured the pillars of a broken house and transformed it into a home. Anand believed in having a big life rather than a long one and Raghu attempted to rejuvenate the family affection and togetherness. They both depicted nothing new but simple things like sharing, spreading happiness and making an effort to be the reason for someone’s smile. The interesting thing is that the pain with the death of Anand was the same as that with the parting of Raghu from the Sharma family. They stand in parallel in their effort of restoring the emotions of life

Every time I watch the two characters, an ambience of vivacity and positivity surrounds me. They somehow soften my skeptical mind and enable to see the beauty of life in small things. They push me to introspection and prompt me to defuse all squabbles that are affecting my life without much of a reason. They instigate me to transform from a stolid being to an emotive one. They make me cry out of their goodness. I fall for the characters every time I see them on screen. I am sure everybody experiences the same flare of positive vehemence.

Anand and Raghu in real do not symbolize a human but a way of life. They try to imbibe in us the outlook to realize the colors beyond the despair and complexities of life. I wonder whether people like Anand and Raghu exist in real. They are the epitome of bonhomie. When I look back there have been moments when I have experienced traces of both in others, sometimes in complete strangers. The truth is that there exists an Anand and a Raghu in all of us. It is just our haplessness that we have suppressed them. We think we are more practical when we refrain from such simplicity and innocence. We are so much lost in our personal growth that we ignore and doubt the love, affection and generosity provided by our kin or folks. It is however a matter of complete choice to alive anand and raghu in our cognition. I wish things was that easy as I am writing and we could contemplate such a change and rejoice life like Anand and Raghu.