‘Anand’ film begins with Dr. Bhaskar ( Amitabh Bachchan) being felicitated at the launch of his successful book titled ‘ Anand’ . Dr. Bhaskar is a cancer specialist who writes this book based on his true experience from his diary and from here on the story goes back into a flashback.
Bhaskar who is trained as an oncologist treats poor with no charge. But he becomes very disheartened and pessimistic seeing the sufferings and illness and the poverty. His colleague and Doctor friend Kulkarni follows slightly different path, who introduces Bhaskar to Anand ( Essayed by Rajesh Khanna) , suffering from Lymphosarcoma of the intestines , a rare type of cancer disease. Anand is however least bothered by his terminal illness and is cheerful by nature despite knowing that he has not much years or months to live. The cheerfulness and the contrasting vibrant nature of Anand brings about a change in Bhaskar’s pessimistic thinking.
Renu, whom Bhaskar had once treated becomes close to him and he starts loving her but is not able to express to her. Anand helps Bhaskar to express his feelings for Renu ( Sumita Sanyal). Anand as the months go by , his health starts deteriorating and he knows his end is near . Instead of confining to the bed he wants to visit the beaches, the open air. He tells Bhaskar that he should not be remembered as a cancer patient who suffered the illness but should be remembered as the ever smiling and lively person that he is.. His end comes and he dies in his last stage of cancer . Bhaskar pens down his experience with Anand and becomes philosophical and the film ends with Bhaskar and Renu continuing to help the needy and helpless with more maturity and empathy.
