What is common to the following characters?
? An eccentric company owner who hates clean shaven people and believes work is worship.
? A man fated to die, but who believes in living every single moment of his life, spreading joy everywhere around.
?. A teenage girl besotted with her screen idol, and wants to marry him.
?. An old man imprisoned and shunned by society, wanting to bless his daughter on her marriage to the very doctor who treated him in prison.
?. A young girl shunned by her father who thinks she is the cause of her mother?s death.
?. A man whose uncompromising honesty and idealism costs him his life.
Well a certain gentleman called Hrishikesh Mukherjee , or more commonly Hrishida. A man who weaved stories about ordinary people, their lives and their frustrations. In a career span of 20 years Hrishida could make you cry with movies like Aashirwad, Satyakam, Anupama he could make you laugh with movies like Golmaal, Chupke Chupke or he could transport you into a level of thinking so high in a movie like Anand.
Hrishida?s movies didn?t have larger than life settings, exotic locales, larger than life characters or dramatic scenes. What they did have were characters who were not two dimensional cardboard cut outs, but wonderfully etched flesh and blood characters. They had scenes which all of us must have experienced in our day to day lives at some time or other. Watch Hrishida?s movie and the reaction is ?Hey I know that guy, he stays in my neighborhood? or ?Hey this happened to me too?. That was the magic of Hrishida, of reaching out to the common man.
Hrishida started his career as an editor to Bimal Roy and was later assistant director to Bimal Roy on Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas. The influence of Bimal Roy is felt a lot in his movies.
Hrishida started his career with Musafir in 1957. Starring Dilip Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Nirupa Roy and Suchitra Sen, the movie was about 3 different stories occurring in a chawl. Hrishida got this idea while during the shooting of Madhumati, he chanced upon a home and felt how it would be like if he were to make a movie based on people living there. Unfortunately the movie was way ahead of its times and failed at the box office. His first major commercial success came with Anari starring Raj Kapoor which was a conventional mainstream product dealing with the age old divide between the rich and the poor. But the movie was a huge success at the box office and earned Raj Kapoor the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
The 60?s : This was then followed up with Anuradha (1960) starring Balraj Sahni and Leela Naidu, about a lively vivacious woman who is frustrated because of her husband?s pre occupation with his work. Great performances by Balraj Sahni and Leela Naidu, and superb direction by Hrishida earned it a President?s Gold Medal.
His next major release Asli Naqli (1962) starring Dev Anand and Sadhana was again a conventional Bollywood movie about the rich vs poor angle. However the songs by Shankar Jaikishan were a major hit and both Dev Anand ?Sadhana hit it off well on the screen. By the way the song in this movie ?Tujhe Jeevan Ki Dor Se ? was used by Hrishida again for Guddi.
Anupama (1966) starring Dharmendra and Sharmila Tagore was again a very sensitive piece of movie making about a girl who is hated by her father as he believes she was the cause of his wife?s death. Sharmila shed her masacra lined look and puffed bouiants in favor of a simple look and gave a superb performance.
Ashirwad (1968) is one of the most poignant and memorable movies, and marked by an outstanding performance by Ashok Kumar. As the man who goes to jail and is shunned by society, and comes back to bless his long estranged daughter on the eve of her marriage and ultimately dies, Ashok Kumar tugs at your heart strings with one of the best performances by an actor in Bollywood.
Satyakam(1969) is marked by one of Dharamendra?s best performance ever as the arrow straight idealistic hero, who ultimately dies for his ideals. Matter of fact Dharam Paaji gave his best for Hrishida in movies like Anupama, Satyakam and Chupke Chupke.
1970 saw Hrishida making a movie which would claim to be a masterpiece of Indian cinema. A movie never before and never again. A movie about a man called Anand who laughs at his death and is determined to spread joy till the end of his life. Great performances by Amitabh Bachan as Babu Moshai and of course Rajesh Khanna in one of his finest performances makes this an unforgettable classic. Anand was the crowning glory of Hrishida?s career but certainly not his last one. The 70?s was a period when Bollywood patronized the middle of road movies and that?s where Hrishida flourished like nothing. Just see the range of his movies in this decade.
Guddi(1971) about a teenage girl?s infatuation for her screen idol Dharamendra and her return back to normalcy.
Abhimaan (1973) about how a failed singer?s ego almost destroys his marriage. Amitabh Bachan once again excelling in the role of the egoistic husband with Jaya matching him scene for scene.
Chupke Chupke (1975) One of the greatest comedies of all times. Based on the comedy of errors, Amitabh and Dharam Paaji have you rolling over the aisles with their brilliant comic timing.
Mili (1971) Story of Anand in reverse with Jaya Bachan again excelling as cancer patient and Amitabh as the lonely brooding individual who has a tragic past.
GolMaal(1979) Can any one ever forget this comedy about Bhawani Shankar the eccentric guy who hates clean shaven people? Utpal Dutt one of the finest actors of India is just brilliant in this movie and so is Amol Palekar.
Unfortunately Gol Maal seems to have been the peak of Hrishida?s career. Most of his later movies in 80?s with the exception of Khoobsorat to some extent were no where near his earlier classics. They were good, but having been used to the high standards of Hrishida they were quite disappointing. Also with the quality of movie making deteriorating in the 80?s, Hrishida wisely bid good bye to movie making before making a failed comeback with Jhoot Bhole Kauv Kaate(1998) which was a very pale remake of Gol Maal.
Anand, Babu Moshai, Bhavani Shankar, Guddi, Mili, Ram Prasad urf Laxman Prasad are just some of the memorable characters created by this great man who will live in our hearts forever.