He knew how to narrate the simplest of stories in the most enchanting way possible. But what made
Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s body of work resonate with critics and audiences alike was the fact that he used to bring common, ordinary Indians to life on the celluloid.
His biggest achievement is that the master filmmaker successfully uncovered the face of the vast Indian middle class with its virtues and foibles and made it universally appealing on celluloid. From the laugh-a-minute ‘
Chupke Chupke
’ and ‘Golmaal’ to the sensitive portrayal of a young couple battling their egos in ‘Abhimaan’, Mukherjee understood the nuances that characterized the middle class of the 1970s and depicted it with great skill mixing pathos, sarcasm and last but not the least, objectivity.
Shorn of the glamour and glitz that is so much a part of films in today's cinema, Mukherjee's films still manage to bring a smile tears whether it is ‘
Anand's (Amitbah Bachchan's) resounding Babu Moshai that echoes in the room minutes after the character played by
Rajesh Khanna is dead or Rekha's daring disregard for rules that results in disastrous consequences in ‘Khubsoorat’.
Born on September 30, 1922 in Kolkata, Mukherjee started his cinematic career as an assistant to his guru Bimal Roy in 1951 and made his directorial debut with ‘Musafir’ in 1957, a critically-accliamed film that strung together three stories in the form three sets of tenants that occupy a house at various points in time.
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Success however came with his next film ‘Anuradha’ (1960), a sensitive one about a doctor who neglects his family to focus on his work, winning him the President's Gold Medal.
From then on, there was no looking back for Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He made ‘Anupama’, a touching film about a daughter who yearns for her father's affection, a role that earned rave reviews for Sharmila Tagore. He followed it up with ‘Ashirwaad’ and ‘
Satyakaam
’ that saw macho man and action hero
Dharmendra in a completely different avatar.
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The golden phase of Mukherjee came in the 1970's, the first of which was ‘Anand’, a film that many still consider his best piece of work. Rajesh Khanna's unforgettable portrayal of Anand, who retains his joie de vivre despite his impending death of cancer and
Amitabh Bachchan's restrained depiction of the doctor who overcomes his cynicism after meeting him, touched many a heart. To this day, the film's songs and dialogues echo in the hearts of film lovers.
Some of his best loved films, including ‘Bawarchi’, ‘Abhimaan’, ‘Chupke Chupke’, ‘Golmaal’ and ‘Guddi’ also came during this phase and launched the careers of some of the biggest stars the industry has seen, including Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhadhuri--the big B in ‘Anand’ and Jaya in ‘Guddi’.
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Mukherjee also appreciated the acting skills of Sharmila Tagore and worked with her in ‘Chupke Chupke’ and ‘Anupama’. Later on,
Amol Palekar became a regular feature in his films.
A great friend of Raj Kapoor and Bimal Roy, Mukherjee admired the duo very much and the story goes that Anand was inspired by a grave illness Raj Kapoor was suffering from at the time.
Although Hrishida, as he was popularly known in film world, attempted to make a comeback with the 1999 film ‘Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate’, the film was neither a commercial nor a critical hit and it seemed his genre of film making had been buried under the avalanche of glossy, candyfloss romances that looked to dominate the Bollywood in 1990’s.
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The heart of his films and in the larger picture and his philosophy in life however remained relevant-that everything in life can be made easier with a bit of laughter and whether it is a comedy or a tragedy: life is best lived simple.
“Standing on your balcony, one can look down and see the dirty drains or can look up and see the beautiful sky and stars,” Mukherjee had once said in an interview. These words beautifully reflect the human condition that moves on through moments of beauty and darkness.