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 Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
 Raju Bharatan Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He had already notably directed two of The Triumvirate in Dilip Kumar (Musafir) and Raj Kapoor (Anari) and was working with the third, Dev Anand (alongside Sadhana), on Asli Naqli (1962), when I ran into Hrishikesh Mukherjee to ask how far he was through with the film.  The Asli part of it is over, only the Naqli portion remains!" came back Hrishikesh Mukherjee. By this, what the 2000 AD winner of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award meant was that the true directorial part of Asli Naqli shooting was complete, only the songs remained to be picturised! Such songs as Shanker’s Tera mera pyaar amar (Lata) and Jaikishan’s Chheda mere dil ne taranaa tere pyaar ka (Rafi)! It is not that Hrishi does not love music. It is that he always discerned a touch of artificiality inherent in the way songs had to come across on the mainstream screen. Yet, for all his reservations here, Hrishi usually did a good job on the song picturisation in his films ranging from Anupama to Anand. And this is what makes Hrishikesh Mukherjee a cineaste with a difference: his capacity to deliver while functioning, at all times, on the artistic fringe of commercial cinema. IN debuting as a director with the 1957 Musafir trilogy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was ahead of his times in the matter of introducing ‘parallel cinema’. But it was, antithetically, with Anari (1959) and Anuradha (1960) that this thinker-craftsman found his directorial feet. Contrary to popular view, Anuradha was a disaster at the box office -- Leela Naidu in the title role appealing only to the cognoscenti. Hrishi, therefore, had belated reason to feel fulfilled when Anuradha won the National Award as the Best Film of 1960.  Those days it was called the President’s Gold Medal -- something that sounded much more impressive and impactive. And Hrishi, in Anuradha, showed himself to be a noteworthy disciple of Bimal Roy, coming up with a touching tale, still remembered for the way he got an Indo-Anglian, in Leela Naidu, to look the Indian part. Plus how memorably Hrishi, as the film’s director, interacted, in Anuradha, with Pt Ravi Shankar as music director. Saanwre saanwre kaahe mose karo joraa joree baiyyan na marodon moree (in raga Bhairavi); Jaane kaise sapnon mein kho gayee ankhiyaan (in Tilak Shyam); Haaye re woh din kyun na aaye (in Jansamohini); and, clinchingly, Kaise din beete kaise beeteein ratiyaan piya jaane na (in Maanj Khamaj) gave virtuoso credence to Hrishi’s claim that "Lata is Saraswati" -- a claim made when this diva was the theme-song of our discussion. FIRST Anuradha and then Anupama -- with Sharmila (Kuchch Dil Ne Kaha) Tagore in the name role -- won high critical acclaim for Hrishi, as did Satyakam (drawing out of Dharmendra a performance of unsuspected sensitivity and refinement). Hrishi himself regards Satyakam (1969) as his best film, the most satisfying in all respects for the way he got Sharmila, too, to act rather than play act. "With Satyakam," Hrishi told me, "I came as near perfection as I could possibly hope to do in mainstream cinema." That the lay public viewing Satyakam let him down at the counter was something for Hrishi to regret. He realised anew, following Satyakam, that quality is the first casualty on the all-India Hindi screen. It was this realisation that had prompted Hrishi to be prolific as a filmmaker. Before Satyakam, Hrishi (in 1967) had had Meena Kumari playing Majhli Didi -- the first time he turned to his mentor Bimal Roy’s favourite author: Saratchandra. But Meena Kumari, by that stage, had a face so filled out that the mobility of visage distinguishing Parineeta was missing altogether, so that the show came a cropper. So had Hrishi’s Meena Kumari-Guru Dutt starrer, Saanjh Aur Savera, been a total non-starter at the turnstiles. 'Triumph of Style Over Substance' ran The Times Of India heading in the case of this 1964 film -- for the flair with which a delicate subject had been handled by its resourceful director. This tribute, coming from the most fastidious of our reviewers, Bikram Singh, was a balm for Hrishi, but his dread of the box-office abided. P1
Last edited by Music on 28 Jun 2007 23:35; edited 1 time in total
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#1 28 Jun 2007 23:26
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| Thanks for the useful Topic Music : |
| king12 (29 June), |
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Music
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Raju Bharatan
 BY 1977, as his Aalap hit the screen at a time when the Rekha-Amitabh pairing represented a spot celebration for the gossip glossies, it was a distinctly nervous Hrishi I encountered at the press show. "You know, Raju, there are no fewer than nine songs by Jaidev in the film -- each a poetic gem. Yet I just don’t know what’s in store!"
Aalap collapsed on the opening night itself and I don’t think Hrishikesh Mukherjee was ever the same offbeat director again. This was in stark contrast to the confidence Hrishi had displayed in the wake of Aashirwad (1968). It was, critically viewing, not a great show by Hrishikesh standards -- the intellectual crowd around him told this stalwart director that he needed to watch his cinematic step. Yet Hrishi was confidence personified, believing that he had extracted, from Ashok Kumar (in Aashirwad), a performance of note. There were melodramatic overtones in the film and Hrishi’s mindframe was a pointer to how the best of them view things in a lopsided light at some point or other in their career. But mainstream cinema is a great leveller. And, inside a year, Hrishi had taken fresh stock of himself and was back – as the darling of the critical fraternity, following Satyakam. That the film failed to find public acceptance is at once the triumph and tragedy of Hrishi. FEAR of failure always haunts a cine person of ’s vintage. Wind back to the era in which he came up with a remarkable comedy in Memdidi (1961) – with Lalita Pawar in the title role. Tanuja here was the blithe spirit; and there were cameo characterisations forthcoming from Jayant and David. Yet Memdidi bombed so resoundingly that Hrishi, disheartened, said to me: "I don’t think comedy is my scene, I shouldn’t be straying into this area of cinema ever again." To think that the man speaking was one who was going to come up with such featherweight themes as Bawarchi, Khoobsurat, Golmaal, Naram Garam, Guddi and Chupke Chupke! His Mili (with Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri) swung to the other extreme and this is a measure of the man and his oeuvre. His Abhimaan (1973) had given the lie to the notion that he had problems fitting songs into the narrative. "Abhimaan was based on the life of Kishore Kumar," Hrishi told me. "As you know, Kishore’s wife Ruma (Amit’s mother) was no less talented. Since Kishore had a bit of a struggle, early in his career, he was always conscious of Ruma’s gifts as a performer." Hrishi certainly wove an effective tale in Abhimaan. But then, an engaging storyteller Hrishi always has been. Weigh the superstar-metamorphosing way he ‘reversed the roles’ of Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Haraam after Anand. I pointed out to Hrishi that the punchline in Namak Haraam was Gulzar’s pithily politicised dialogue. "But I always get the dialogue written in Bengali first!" Hrishi startled me by observing. "Only after that is it transliterated into Hindi." CONSIDER the irony inherent in the fact that Hrishi’s political thinking flies in the face of the BJP-oriented NDA dispensation through which such high Phalke recognition has come his way so late in his life and times, when he is rising 79! As one who started out editing the classy films of Bimal Roy, brevity is the soul of Hrishi’s width. His grip on the grammar of cinema is exemplified in his shot composition. As colour came to the Hindi screen with Junglee (1961), the impression was that directors of Hrishi’s generation would not be able, mentally, to break with black-and white. "On the contrary," clarified Hrishi to me, "colour gives the director in me so much more depth and dimension – so much more scope to underscore my point. Take the bindi or the sindoor on the Indian woman's forehead in our cinema. Black-and-white can never bring out the true effect of the bindi or the sindoor. Whereas, with colour, the director drives his point home straightaway." Has the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for a lifetime of achievement, come too late to Hrishikesh Mukherjee? At a time when, given his health, he is weary of life and has almost broken with cinema? Well, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, in the case of the Phalke Award, is (for him) in the dream company of Nitin Bose (1976), Satyajit Ray (1985) and V Shantaram (1986), not to speak of Raj Kapoor (1988). It was Raj Kapoor, playing Anari (1959), who had helped make Hrishikesh Mukherjee a cinematically viable proposition at the box office. Hrishi shared a special rapport with Raj and regrets the fact that they came together, afresh, too late in the careers of both.. TODAY, Hrishi is at peace with himself, having accomplished it all, seen it all. Seeing cricket on TV, he was supremely happy till recently. As percipient a thinker on cricket as on cinema, Hrishi but recently rang me in agitated tones, as the match-fixing scandal broke. "Is it really true, Raju?" he sought to know. And when I confirmed his worst fears, Hrishi felt outraged, remarking: "But this is betrayal of the nation, how could any one of our players possibly bring himself to do it?" The idealist in Hrishi is what has kept him going. He found himself a generational misfit on the sets of Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kaate, as everyone around concentrated on the cellphone rather than on the megaphone. Hrishi still did demand, and get, unwavering attention from Juhi Chawla and Anil Kapoor. But the very fact that he had to demand such attention saddened Hrishi no end. "WHAT have you to say about emerging a ‘Phalke’?" I asked, as I phoned Hrishi to offer my cordial felicitations. "What’s there to say now?" shot back Hrishi. "I have nothing, absolutely nothing, to say." Yet he had plenty to say on the big screen in his time, that is why you feel happy that the Phalke Award came to Hrishikesh Mukherjee at a point when he had reached that dangerous stage of being passed over forever. Take a bow, Hrishida. Gout or no gout, you always did put your best directorial foot forward! P2
____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#2 28 Jun 2007 23:31
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Music
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Gulzar remembers Hrishikesh Mukherjee Friday, September 01, 2006 Source: IANS
Image Source: Indiafm.com
Together they worked to bring to life some of Bollywood's most loved movies. 'Anand,' 'Guddi,' 'Khubsoorat' and 'Namak Haraam' are only some of the gems that Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed and
Gulzar wrote the dialogues and the screenplay for.
Today, just a few days after Mukherjee's death, Gulzar remembers the late director and describes himself as his mentor's best pupil.
"Hrishi-da was the master and I was one of his better students. Some of his most major works as director featured with me as his writer," Gulzar told to sources.
"Our first film together was 'Biwi Aur Makaan' for which Hemant Kumar sent me to Hrishi-da. It was the first film where even the dialogues were in song form.
"Hrishi-da was always playing around, kicking the ball around. He knew the medium so well. He started his directorial career with the experimental 'Musafir'. It had three separate stories in one film. He was so much ahead of his times."
Gulzar says Mukherjee pioneered the concept of parallel cinema.
"He started the trend of parallel cinema much before it actually started. His early films like 'Anari', 'Anuradha', 'Musafir' and 'Mem Didi' were not boy-girl stories.
"He often gave me literary short stories to adopt. He made 'Mem Didi', which has Jayant in the lead. 'Ashirwaad' had Ashok Kumar in the lead. And in 'Bawarchi' he cast Rajesh Khanna without a heroine. Jaya Bhaduri played his sister!"
He discloses that Kishore Kumar was Mukherjee's first choice for the main lead in "Anand", which turned out to be a landmark film in Rajesh Khanna's career.
"In 'Anand' Kishore was supposed to play the lead but he opted out at the last minute. I asked Rajesh if he'd be interested. He jumped at it. 'You take me to Hrishi-da.' Later Hrishi-da and I designed 'Mili' as the female version of 'Anand'."
Gulzar says that the 1970s were the golden period of his life as he ended up writing all of Mukherjee's movies.
"In the 1970s I virtually wrote all of Hrishi-da's films. It was the golden period of my life. We'd often argue about our scenes. But I always listened to what he said.
"I remember we had argued about a scene in 'Guddi'. Hrishi-da had wanted a dialogue, which I didn't. He was right. The audience broke into applause during that dialogue. I think I bloomed as a writer with Hrishi-da. Most of the time I wrote the screenplay and dialogues.
"In 'Guddi' I wrote the story as well. Among my lesser-known films for Hrishi-da were 'Alaap', 'Arjun Pandit' and 'Sabse Bada Sukh', which was a very innocent film about two young men who wanted to experience S**. It was not successful. In 'Namak Haraam' we had to change the end because Hrishi-da had promised Rajesh the death scene."
Gulzar says the maverick director had a good sense of humour and it was fun working with him.
"He had so many jokes to tell. Shooting with him was like a picnic. A few months back I met him. He had grown his beard. And he started telling his jokes.
"Nobody could make light-hearted film like Hrishi-da. 'Chupke Chupke', 'Golmaal', 'Khubsoorat' were all written by me. He made humorous films -- I won't demean them by calling them comedies-consistently.
He was like my father. I'd run to him with my problems." ____________ Music forms a part of me again It gives Shape to my faceless Expressions...To my Thoughts. {Alochana}
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#3 29 Jun 2007 20:48
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king12
Joined: January 2007
Posts: 1035
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee
____________ Katra katra milthii hain, katra katra jeene do,
zindagi hain, behne do, pyaasi hoon main pyasi rehne do
from the movie Ijaazat.
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#4 30 Jun 2007 08:20
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Raja
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 912
Location: USA
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Date of Birth30 September 1922, Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Date of Death27 August 2006, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. (renal failure)
Awards:7 wins & 1 nomination
Mini BiographyBy no means is he any glamorous director, yet Hrishikesh Mukherjee is one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema. His magic lay not in the glamor or largeness so often associated with cinema, but in its simplicity and warmth.
He began his career in Bombay, 1951, as an editor and assistant director to Bimal Roy, another great director himself. His first directorial venture, Musafir (1957), centering on an old house where three unrelated stories dealing with birth, marriage and death occur in a series, was a disaster. But director Raj Kapoor was impressed and strongly recommended Hrishida as director for Anari (1959). Starring Kapoor himself and Nutan, the film was a critical and commercial success.
His next film, Anuradha (1960), about an idealistic doctor who neglects his wife to focus on his work, got him the President's Medal Award. But from then on throughout the 1960s decade, none of Hrishida films were particularly distinguishable, barring Asli-Naqli (1962), a Muslim melodrama; Anupama (1966), which was based on a true incident; Aashirwad (1968), a family drama; and Satayakam (1969), about an idealist seeing his dreams crumble after Indian independence.
Then Hrishida made what is considered his masterpiece - Anand (1970). This classic film gave a complex but compassionate look at the balance between hope, fear, life and death and saw Rajesh Khanna's greatest performance as a terminally ill man who wishes to live life to the full before he dies. It was an auspicious beginning to the 1970s, for that time proved to be an exceptionally good time for Hrishida as he gave the public excellent films like Guddi (1971), a semi-satiric look at the film industry and generally considered as Jaya Bhaduri's debut film; Abhimaan (1973), the Bachchans' greatest ever performance together; and Chupke Chupke (1975), a comedy about a newlywed professor's joke on his pompous brother-in-law. These films gave an extremely skilled and detailed look at the middle-class mentality.
Few people understood human nature as well as Hrishida - in all his films he examined their aspects, particularly their failings and foibles and the outworn values people always seem to hold on to. However in the 1980s, the advent of the superstar Amitabh Bachchan and of larger-than-life films saw Hrishida's brand of filmmaking die out. Recently he attempted a comeback with _Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate (1999)_ , but sadly it was a futile effort as the film was a commercial and critical failure. However, the magic of his films still lingers after three decades, and he will be best remembered for his film Anand (1970), which told that people who die but remain in heart and mind do not die, but become immortal. No one justifies this truth more than Hrishida.
____________ “Simplicity. What turns me on.” Please enlighten me.
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#5 01 Jul 2007 10:44
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Raja
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 912
Location: USA
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
 Jump to filmography as: Director, Editor, Writer, Producer, Miscellaneous Crew, Sound Department, Editorial Department, Second Unit Director or Assistant Director, Self ____________ “Simplicity. What turns me on.” Please enlighten me.
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#6 01 Jul 2007 10:47
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Raja
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 912
Location: USA
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
____________ “Simplicity. What turns me on.” Please enlighten me.
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#7 01 Jul 2007 10:49
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Raja
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 912
Location: USA
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
____________ “Simplicity. What turns me on.” Please enlighten me.
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#8 01 Jul 2007 10:50
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Raja
Joined: June 2007
Posts: 912
Location: USA
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
- Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate (1998) (producer)
- Khubsoorat (1980) (producer)
... aka Beautiful (India: English title: literal title)
- Gol Maal (1979) (producer)
... aka Hanky Panky - Alaap (1977) (producer)
- Chupke Chupke (1975) (producer)
- Mili (1975) (producer)
- Bawarchi (1972) (producer)
- Guddi (1971) (producer)
... aka Darling Child - Anand (1970) (producer)
- Aashirwad (1968) (producer)
... aka The Blessing (International: English title) - Anuradha (1960) (producer) (as Hrisihkesh Mukherjee)
... aka Love of Anuradha (International: English title)
- Zindagi (1976) (presenter)
... aka Life (International: English title) - Achanak (1973) (presenter)
- Do Bigha Zamin (1953) (assistant director)
... aka Do Bigha Zameen (India: Bengali title)
... aka Two Acres of Land (UK: subtitle)
- Guddi (1971) (uncredited) .... Himself (Hrishi Da, The Director)
... aka Darling Child
____________ “Simplicity. What turns me on.” Please enlighten me.
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#9 01 Jul 2007 10:53
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10619
Location: Virginia
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Farewell to Hrishikesh Mukherjee   Bollywood said goodbye to legendary director Hrishikesh Mukherjee who died in his sleep at age 84 in Bombay on August 27th. His biggest hits (Anand, Mili, Abhimaan & Gol Maal) are from the 70's and not well known to current Desi film fans. The films he made were deceptively simple in construction (no violence or silly song/dance routines) but rich in emotion. He was known as the common man's filmmaker because anyone could connect with the stories he told. However, the actors in his movies often gave career defining performances under his direction. Amitabh Bachchan stated "his knowledge of the craft (neither too artistic nor too commercial) was so immense that we just left ourselves in his hands. We never heard any scripts, never heard any stories - we just showed up." Amitji's 1st film with Jaya (after they were married) happens to be my favorite Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie - Abhimaan
He is a recipient of the Dadasaheb Phalke Award - an annual award given by the Indian government for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema. It was instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke, considered the father of Indian cinema. He is also a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India's 2nd highest civilian honor.
The 1st selection for today is from Kal Ho Naa Ho, which was a remake of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Anand (arguably Rajesh Khanna's finest role) - the song, Kal Ho Naa Ho. The 2nd selection is from Mili, Amitabh & Jaya's 1st movie after their marriage - the song, Maine Kaha Phoolon Ne. Ironically, both of these very upbeat songs hail from otherwise tragic movies. And therein lay the genius of Hrishidada - to get us to feel empathy for his characters - while the ordinary filmmaker would be satisfied with mere sympathy for them. ____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#10 12 Jul 2007 00:52
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10619
Location: Virginia
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
 Dinesh Raheja Hrishikesh Mukherjee's cinema could make you cry. You sniffle 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 or when Ashok Kumar opens his heart, overcomes his distaste and makes his daughter-in-law's son, the product of rape, light his son's pyre in Satyakam. Mukherjee's movies could make you laugh. You chuckle in the Wodehousian comedy of inconsequentialities, 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 merry muddles. Mukherjee's movies could make you laugh. You chuckle in the Wodehousian comedy of inconsequentialities, 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 merry muddles. | Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Landmark Films | | Year | Film | Cast | | 1959 | Anari | Raj Kapoor, Nutan | | 1960 | Anuradha | Balraj Sahni, Leela Naidu | | 1966 | Anupama | Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore | | 1968 | Aashirwad | Ashok Kumar | | 1969 | Satyakam | Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore | | 1970 | Anand | Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan | | 1971 | Guddi | Jaya Bhaduri, Samit Bhanja | | 1973 | Abhimaan | Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri | | 1973 | Namak Haram | Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan | | 1975 | Chupke Chupke | Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri | | 1979 | Golmaal | Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt, Bindiya Goswami | | 1980 | Khubsoorat | Rekha, Rakesh Roshan |
Sometimes, his films could make you laugh even while you were blinking hard to part the film of tears covering your eyes. Like in Anand, where Rajesh Khanna greets even death with a well-turned bon mot. Without being aggressively experimental or ostentatiously avant garde in form, theme or treatment, many of Mukherjee's 40-plus films have charmed audiences and critics alike because of their middle-of-the-road accessibility, heart-warming irony and literate sensibilities. Most of his captivating characters inhabit a middle-class, urban, educated milieu and lightly wear an air of high morality and intrinsic geniality. Amitabh Bachchan once said, "A director's films reflect his personality." Mukherjee was a soft-spoken, well-educated professional (he loves a game of chess), who learnt the ropes of filmmaking from venerable institutions like Kolkata's New Theatres and director Bimal Roy. He assisted Roy on classics like Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas. Roy's influence was evident in Mukherjee's choice of subjects. Mukherjee got to know Dilip Kumar during his stint with Roy and got the star to act in his directorial debut, Musafir (1957), an episodic ensemble drama about six characters and a house. Mukherjee had obviously made a name for himself as an editor because he got Kishore Kumar, Nirupa Roy, Suchitra Sen and Usha Kiron to costar in the film. At the box office, Mukherjee hit his stride with his second film, Anari (1959). Studded with hit Shankar-Jaikishen songs, Anari is the well-meaning point of view from a simple, but idealistic young man (Raj Kapoor) disillusioned with the rich (mainly heroine Nutan's uncle, Motilal). | Famous Songs from Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Films | | Song | Film | Singers | | Sab kuch seekha hamne | Anari | Mukesh | Haaey re woh din kyon
na aaye | Anuradha | Lata Mangeshkar | Itna na mujhse tu
pyar badha | Chhaya | Lata Mangeshkar,
Talat Mehmood | | Tera mera pyar amar | Asli Naqli | Lata Mangeshkar | | Ya dil ki suno duniyawalon | Anupama | Hemant Kumar | | Rail gaadi | Aashirwad | Ashok Kumar | | Zindagi kaisi hai paheli | Anand | Manna Dey | | Hum ko man ki shakti dena | Guddi | Vani Jairam | | Diye jalte hai | Namak Haram | Kishore Kumar | | Aanewala pal | Golmaal | Kishore Kumar | | Sun sun sun didi | Khubsoorat | Asha Bhosle |
A certain sensitivity and a benign aura (Raj Kapoor sings Kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisaar, jeena isika naam hai in Anari), pervaded Mukherjee's cinema from the beginning. Anari featured Lalita Pawar as Mrs D'Sa, the sandpaper-tongued, but soft-hearted landlady. Mukherjee had such kindly character actors (often played by David) in many of his films. Witness 1971's Guddi where Sumita Sanyal plays Jaya Bhaduri's sweet but not saccharine bhabhi. When Guddi is adamant about wearing a miniskirt, the bhabhi placidly states, "Why would you listen to me? I am just your bhabhi, not your mother." With minimum fuss, Guddi establishes the depth of their mutual affection by changing into a sari. After Anari's success, Mukherjee bravely plunged into making small movies like Anuradha (which introduced the lovely Leela Naidu and harnessed maestro Ravi Shankar's composing talents), and Mem Didi (fuelled by Lalita Pawar's star power!) alongside Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand starrers. Anupama (1966), an intimate look at a daughter's unarticulated anguish at her father's rejection (he holds her responsible for her mother's death in childbirth), and her final assertion of her self, was a burnished gem. Mukherjee continued to take risks and cast Ashok Kumar, by then established as a character actor, as the protagonist of his Aashirwad (another poignant father-daughter tale) and steered him to a Best Actor Award win. Dharmendra produced Mukherjee's Satyakam and was rewarded with his best performance ever as the straight-backed soldier of truth. Mukherjee's fame as a director loved by actors was confirmed with two biographical classics in the early 1970s -- Anand and Guddi -- films which boosted Rajesh Khanna and Jaya Bhaduri's careers tremendously. His films were shorn of affectation so were his heroines. Mukherjee established the girl-next-door look with Jaya in Guddi but his heroines were archetypal even when he worked with glamour icons like Sadhana (sari-wrapped and beguiling in Asli Naqli), and Sharmila Tagore (no outlandish eyeliner in her Mukherjee films). Jaya continued her look in subsequent Mukherjee films like Abhimaan (1973), an astute observation of the attendant ego hassles which rise when a married couple is in the same profession. Namak Haram, released in the same year, boasted of an explosive performance from Amitabh as a man torn between his friendship with blue-collared worker Rajesh Khanna and his capitalistic ideology. Amitabh continued to work with Mukherjee over the next decade doing seven films in all. A certain prolificity in Mukherjee's career graph (he had three releases in 1975, Chupke Chupke, Mili and Chaitali), unfortunately led to his reworking several pet themes. Anand's dying male protagonist was transformed into a female cancer patient in Mili. Rekha's exuberant Khoobsurat persona found a faint echo in Jhoothi. His latest film, Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaatein was a tepid reworking of his Golmaal. After two sparkling comedies, Golmaal (1979) and Khoobsurat (1980), Mukherjee's career went into decline. He dabbled with television, was chairman of the National Film Development Corporation and, in 1999, attempted a comeback with Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaatein. Ill-health has increasingly curtailed his activities. But this 80 year old, who has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, can afford to rest easy on his many laurels ____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#11 17 Aug 2007 00:59
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10619
Location: Virginia
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee |  Yet, another banyan of Bollywood has fallen. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who spilled his genius onto the tinsel screen to make some of the greatest movies, is no more. This sun rose in the east—he was a Bengali by birth (born on Sept 22, 1922), shone in full glory over the length and breadth of the country and bade adieu to the mortal world, in Mumbai, on the fateful day of 27th of August 2006 in Mumbai’s Leelavati Hospital due to a fatal stroke. He was suffering for long from kidney trouble.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee used his films to vividly depict the ‘melodrama of life’ so intrinsic of our middle class lifestyle. Surely, we have not only lost a great filmmaker but a champion emoter of tragedy and comedy on the tinsel.
For who else but he, could have created the Amitabh-Rajesh Khanna starrer, Anand (1970), where pain and jest vie with one another, till destiny announces its inevitable verdict— of death. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s journey into filmdom began with assistantship to famed director Bimal Roy in 1951. It, too, is common knowledge that he assisted legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, on sets of some classic movies and no wonder, a gleam of Ray’s artwork always stayed on with the illustrious disciple.
 Anari (1959) starring Nutan and showman Raj Kapoor was the first directorial hit of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Was it a sheer coincidence or a calculated jugglery of letters that his first five of his greatest films including, Anari and Anand, had names starting with letter A—Anuradha (1960), Anupama (1966), Aashirwad (1968). In the process, Hrisihda had the experience of directing stalwarts like Balraj Sahni, Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, and Ashok Kumar. Guddi (1971) the first known success of Sharmila Tagore, further won him critical claim. Abhimaan (1973) to this day is regarded as the greatest accomplishment of Bachchan duo. Chupke Chupke (1975) starring Dharmendera, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bahduri, and Sharmila Tagore is a family drama based on middle-class, basking in the warmth of new-fangled education and knowledge.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee never allowed real life emotions and human element to be subdued by histrionics in the forty odd films that he made. Aashiq (1962), Bawarchi (1972), Alaap (1977), Golmaal (1979), Khubsoorat (1980), are some other movies that bear the unmistakable Hrishida hallmark. Namak Haram (1973) another hit served as a precursor to the new genre of films that ruled the filmdom for the next twenty years.
 But he couldn’t change much with changing times and his creative genius remained at low ebb ever after prolific age of filmmaking of 70s, although he made films like Bemisal (1982) that stood by their name in box-office. From mid-eighties to mid-nineties, there is inexplicable vacuum in the career graph of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. He tried to stage a comeback in 1998 by making Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate, but the film failed. He tried his hand at small screen too but not without much success.
Hrishida was a versatile genius, who besides directing, wrote scripts, edited and produced a dozen or so films. In various phases of life, he was conferred with many titles like the President’s Medal (1960), Padma Vibhushan, and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award. He also served as the Chairman of National Film Development Corporation and Central Board of Film Certification.
Hrishida is survived by three daughters and one son. His son is settled in the US. His wife died thirty years ago. The common man’s filmmaker has left the mortal world but he will live on in his great works for ages to come. |
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#12 17 Aug 2007 01:05
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sur
Joined: November 2006
Posts: 10619
Location: Virginia
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Re: Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee on his life and work
In this rare interview Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who died on 27 August 2006, talks about his life and work. The interview was done at his home in Mumbai by Lalit Mohan Joshi, the editor of South Asian Cinema Foundation, in 2000, soon after Hrishi Da got the Dada Saheb Phalke award, the highest award in Indian cinema. When asked about the absence of violence in his films the maker of films like Anari, Anupama, Satyakam and Anand said "standing on your balcony one can look down and see the dirty drains or can look up and see the beautiful sky and stars." Hrishi Da always looked up to portray an idealistic, truthful, humane and joyous society.
____________ "I am a dreamer,I collect all the smiles from My yesterday,
Neatly pack them into words and hide them in my heart,
I call them "MEMORIES" Music has no boundary.
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#13 16 Feb 2009 00:20
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