Rarely do we find Indian directors who can make movies on diverse subjects. Most of the directors their fixed genre and rarely do they try to move away from it.
What I love about hrishikesh mukherjee is the fact that he can make you cry your eyes out with Anand and Mili and make your stomach hurt with laughter with chupke chupke and Golmal. Hrishikesh Mukherjee is a master story teller.
His movies not only have an intrinsic plot but it is so well etched that one just gets sucked into it. Classic example for superb plots:
Chupke Chupke: An entire team of people scheming and planning to pull off a joke on Poor? Hassled Om Prakash.
Hilarious scene of my choice: The poor hassled Amitabh Bacchan tries to explain his situation to Asrani and Dharmendra
Golmal: Utpal dutt?s obsession for the moustache and Amol palekar working hard to keep up with being a ?muchad? and not being a ?mucchad? to win his lady love.
Hilarious scene of my choice: When the trendy Dina Pathak enters the house through a window and convincingly becomes the demure widow in front of Utpal Dutt
Kisse Na kehna: Utpal Dutt again is obsessed with getting his son married to an illiterate but the son loves a doctor and there begins again all the planning???
Hilarious scene of my choice: The cute old man (I don?t know his name but he plays deepti naval?s uncle) with his gende ka phool and all the scenes when he pretends he can?t hear properly
Ran Birangi: This one was about the husband loosing interest in his gorgeous wife (Praveen Babi) and just beginning to look around, but then of course the planning begins and with an extensive, well planned action plan, things always work out.
These are just examples of few of the gems, of course you have Khoobsurat, Jhooti and Jhoot bole kauva kate
But Hrishikesh mukherjee is not just about fun loving plots and laughter, this same man made movies that could move you to tears, the classic examples being Anand and Mili. Handling complicated issues was a piece of cake for him.
A crush on a hero and wanting to marry him in the 70s was not a very spoken about topic but Guddi gave the ?matinee idol crush? a new meaning. Abhimaan was a lovely portrayal of ego clashes in a marriage.
Though I have not seen most of the movies Hrishikesh mukherji made in the 60’s I have heard and read they are great. It is a pity that he has not made more movies.