''Anand Math'' is a 1952 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

-language

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romance film, romances, adventure f ...

film directed by Hemen Gupta, based on the famous Bengali novel '' Anandamath'', written by

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (also Chattopadhayay) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian novelist, poet, Essayist and journalist. Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The Daily Star'', 30 June 201 ...

in 1882. The novel and film are set in the events of the Sannyasi Rebellion, which took place in the late 18th century in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

. In a

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

poll conducted in 2003 across 165 countries, the Vande Mataram song written by

, composed by

Hemant Kumar Hemanta Mukhopadhyay (16 June 1920 – 26 September 1989), known professionally as Hemant Kumar and Hemanta Mukherjee, was a legendary Indian music composer and playback singer who primarily sang in Bengali and Hindi, as well as other Indian ...

, sung by

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her con ...

was voted 2nd in the "World's Top Ten" songs of all-time. It stars

Prithviraj Kapoor Prithviraj Kapoor (born Prithvinath Kapoor; 3 November 1906 – 29 May 1972) was an Indian actor who is also considered to be one of the founding figures of Hindi cinema. He was associated with IPTA as one of its founding members and establis ...

, Bharat Bhushan,

Pradeep Kumar Pradeep Kumar (born Sital Batabyal; 4 January 1925 – 3 November 2001) was an Indian actor who is recognized for his work in Hindi, Bengali and English-language films. Career When Kumar was 17 years old, he decided to take up acting. He st ...

, Geeta Bali and Ajit in the lead roles. Pradeep Kumar made his debut in

Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, as did the film's music director

.Pradeep Kumar
'' Rediff.com'' Hemant had already worked in Bengali cinema for a while, but then shifted to Mumbai to start a career in Hindi cinema. With this film, Hemant Kumar took a staff position as a composer with S. Mukherjee's Filmistan Studios. The film was dubbed into Tamil with the title Ananda Madam (āṉanta maṭam) and was released in 1953.

Cast

as ''Satyanand'' * Ajit as ''Bhavanand'' * Geeta Bali as ''Shanti'' *

as ''Jeevanand'' * Bharat Bhushan as ''Mahendra'' * Ranjana Deshmukh as ''Kalyani''

Soundtrack

Music and Background score for the film is composed by

, which is also his debut film score in

. Notable songs included '' Vande Mataram'', based on the song written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. This song played an important role throughout the

Indian Independence Movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

and was eventually declared the "National Song" at the time of

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the s ...

in 1947. Kumar's tune for ''Vande Mataram'' is still considered an important version of this popular and widely interpreted song.Post Independence era
Vande Mataram, A most popular and evergreen Indian song.

Geeta Dutt Geeta Dutt (born Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhuri; 23 November 1930 – 20 July 1972) was an Indian playback singer and a famous Hindi and Bengali classical artist, born in Faridpur before the Partition of India. She found particular prominence as a ...

, one of the most eminent playback singers in Hindi cinema at the time since independence, rendered songs filled with pathos in this film.

and

started a fruitful musical collaboration for many years after this film.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0215515 1952 films 1950s Hindi-language films History of India on film Films scored by Hemant Kumar Films based on Indian novels Indian historical drama films 1950s historical drama films Indian black-and-white films Films directed by Hemen Gupta