Hrishikesh Mukherjee-The Common Man of Bollywood

Sushmita Dutta Hrishikesh Mukherjee, lovingly called Hrishida, was perhaps the only movie director who could easily be referred to as "the middle class` director". Mukherjee, in his stint as a director, perhaps captured the nuances of the middle class mentality and its eccentricities at its best. Few films have touched our lives as closely as that of Hrishida.Mukherjee`s career started with a film laboratory and then in the editing room in New Theaters, Kolkata. In 1951 he moved to Mumbai, where he got associated with his mentor, the exceptional Bimal Roy. There he assisted Bimal in his two landmark films, Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas. His first directorial was Musafir in 1957 which did not get much recognition. But with the Raj Kapoor and Nutan starrer Anari(1959), Hrishikesh Mukherjee received both commercial and critical acclaim. And there was no looking back for Hrishikesh Mukherjee. His next film Anuradha in 1960 won a President`s Medal. The film dealt with a lively, vivacious woman who gets frustrated due to negligence of her husband. Then came more of his wonderful movies like Asli Naqli, Ashirwad, Anupama and Satyakam. Hrishida had mastered the art of story telling in a simple yet effective way. The stories were all about simple people who taught something to the audiences who watched his movies. But his masterpiece came in 1970 with Anand, a story about a person with cancer and still enjoying his life to the fullest. This was perhaps Rajesh Khanna`s best performance till date. With Anand, another association began to evolve which was to give us finest of cine experiences- the association of Amitabh Bachchan and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Mukherjee was the only director who got Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna together for two of his films- Anand and later for Namak Haram. The 70’s saw Hrishida direct some of his best works. Guddi, Bawarchi, Abhimaan, Namak Haram, Chupke Chupke, Mili, Golmaal and Khoobsurat showcased Hrishikesh Mukherjee`s immense talent and understanding of the human psyche. His films showed that he understood the middle class mentality as few others did. He made subtle fun at the worn out values of society and made the audience think. Hrishida`s movies produced a multiple emotions. It could make you cry as when Sharmila Tagore`s emotionally withdrawn father surmounts his long-festering resentment towards his daughter and comes to the railway station to secretly rejoice in her eloping with her lover in Anupama. He could make you laugh uncontrollably which as in Chupke Chupke when Amitabh, posing as a professor of Botany, grapples with the word `corolla` or in Golmaal when a truant moustache leads to many a-merry muddles. Some of his films give the audience a sense of hope even when in tears like in Anand. Mukherjee`s simple story-telling techniques attracted the critics and audiences alike. Most of his captivating characters inhabit a middle-class, urban, educated milieu and lightly wear an air of high morality and intrinsic geniality. Hrishida also brought out some of the best talents in the industry. He made the macho man Dharmendra a brilliant comic actor. Jaya Bachchan made her debut in Guddi, and then went on to become his favourite. So was Sharmila Tagore, whom he cast in quite a few of his movies. But his representation of the middle class, literate person came with the hugely talented Amol Palekar with whom he gave the comic riot Golmaal. Another aspect of Mukherjee`s films is his heart touching music. Be it `Sab kuch seekha humne` from Anari, `Ya dil ki suno duniyawalon` from Anupama, `Zindagi kaisi hai paheli` from Anand, `Aanewala Pal` from Golmaal, every song is a musical experience. Even today after so many years, music of his films are still very fresh. After a successful career in films, Hrishikesh Mukherjee left the mortal world on August 27, 2006.This immensely talented person who has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, can afford to rest easy on his many laurels. We have moved on, putting on layer upon layer of the materialistic madness and driving on a never ending journey towards that pot of gold which Hrishida had, time and again, showed is just an illusion. The real gold rests in our very own hearts, a place we would be never looking into until brought to notice… by good hearted souls such as… Hrishikesh Mukherjee, a genius forever.