Hrishi Da

I am sure movie goers of the present generation know about Munnabhai. The bhai, with a soft heart, who believes in treating his patients with love rather than affection. However how many remember the innocent Anand of the yesteryears. The terminally ill patient who chose to live his life with a smile and spread happiness all around him. For those who remember him must be sharing the sense of loss that Hindi cinema lovers are feeling at the moment. The legendary Hrishikesh Mukherjee is no more.

It is tough to put Hrishida into a genre of film making. Should we say he was into light comedies, but then he made intense movies like Anand and Abhimaan. If we say that he liked to talk about human relationships and tragic lives, do we forget that he directed some of the most memorable comedies like Golmaal and Namak Haram. And somewhere he did a suspence thriller in Budda Mil Gaya. His movies talked about the middle class, set in spartan surroundings and everyday situations (punctuated with the otherwise missing hilarity, of course). He examined the lives of celebrities in Guddi and Abhimaan yet saw it from the perspective of a common man. Namak Haram, an ode to friendship portrayed the unrest among the youth at that time. They had a charm similar to the Panchatantra Tales that we read in our childhood.

Hrishida was instrumental in building the careers of wonderful actors like Amol Palekar and Jaya Bachchan. In fact he was like a mentor to the latter giving her a platform with Guddi, a challenging act in Mili and a mature performance in Abhimaan. He lent respectability to theatre actors like Utpal Dutt. Many of these actors, including Amitabh Bacchan have since remembered him as a beautiful person but a tough taskmaster.

Through his movies he also tried to capture the Indian middle class family in Bawarchi and Khoobsurat. However he showed that it was ok for the family members to not love each other all the time. His comedies left you rolling with laughter rather than cringing. I remember in an interview, he said that he could not subscribe to the slip-on the-banana peel type of humour. This belief gave us classics like Golmaal, Chupke Chupke and Rang Birangi.

As I pen down these thoughts, memories of my childhood come back; the times when we sat together and watched a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film. Thank you Hrishida for all the good times you gave us.

- Suprateek Sinha