Me Remembers - Hrishikesh Mukherjee

From the 1960s to the late 1980s, Hindi cinema was fraught with clichés. So there would be fairy tale romances unfolding between boy and girl, where they would run around trees and sing songs, and the end was always sugar coated. Or you had the hero, who finding himself wronged at the hands of somebody, set about annihilating everything that stood in his way to seek vengeance. The heroes were always larger than life, a kind of alpha male that men in the audience could only aspire to be. The women, with their chiffon saris and bizarre coiffures, were a far cry from the women we knew our mothers, wives or sisters to be. The movies themselves either represented an overt sense of hedonism (those zany Shammi Kapoor musicals) or were emotional roller coasters (Aradhana – 1969, Bobby – 1973 and Yaadon Ki Baarat - 1973). Here reality was sacrificed for the surreal.

Hrishishkesh Mukherjee’s films, though, remained an exception.

Finding his bearings

Hrishikesh could not have asked for a better apprenticeship at the beginning of his career when he served as an understudy to the legendary director Bimal Roy. Mukherjee edited some of Roy’s best works, which included the iconic Do Bigha Zameen (1953) and the hugely successful Madhumati (1958). Fittingly, Mukherjee’s stature at the end of his own career would rival his mentor’s and it was one of those few occasions where the pupil had done his teacher proud.

Hrishida, as he was affectionately called in later years, first tasted commercial success as director in 1959 with Anari. Yet, 50 years down the road, if one looks back, the film did more to further Raj Kapoor’s persona as the loveable tramp than give any immediate reason to celebrate Mukherjee’s coming of age. The same could be said of his next film Anuradha (1960), which although it won a National Award for Best Film, did not push the envelope on any cinematic front. Yet, to Mukherjee’s credit the fact that he managed to get the late Leela Naidu to star in the title role, remains a coup of sorts.

However, with Anupama (1966) Hrishida finally upped the ante. There was an element of remarkable restraint to the film and it is said that Dharmendra was so delighted with the surge in his reputation after Anupama that he brought Hrishida, Sharmila Tagore, character actor David, dialogue writer Rajinder Singh Bedi and lyricist Kaif Azmi – the same team as for Anupama - for Satyakam (1969). The result was a film, which preached a kind of morality that tugged at the collective conscience of Indian society.
1970 saw him direct Rajesh Khanna in the title role of Anand, a film that left even the most stone hearted misty in the eye. Khanna delivered the performance of a lifetime and with a tight screenplay and dialogue that tugged at the heart, Hrishikesh had created an eternal classic. Even now, sometimes when the lights go out, one can hope to hear Khanna break into that famous monologue, “Babomoshai, zindagi aur maut uparwaale ke haath hai jahaanpanah….”

Championing the Indian middle class

While this decade saw the genesis of the ‘Angry Young Man’, with almost any director worth his salt waiting to cast Amitabh Bachchan as the answer to all evils prevalent in society, Hrishikesh steered clear of the stereotype. Where audiences were being serenaded by the hyperbole (Zanjeer - 1973, Muqaddar ka Sikandar – 1978 and Mr. Natwarlal – 1979) in these films, he decided to make movies based on characters from amongst the great Indian middle class. And in doing this he reached out to you and me. Guddi (1971), Bawarchi (1972), Mili (1973) and Khubsoorat (1980) all had characters that were entirely relatable, while the stories themselves had an unmistakable air of familiarity.

But the true genius of Hrishida is best understood by his two films – Abhimaan (1973) and Chupke Chupke (1975). Abhimaan threw light on the chauvinistic psyche of the Indian male when his wife begins to court success much faster, while Chupke Chupke spoofed the Hindi language, without actually disrespecting it. Abhimaan left us with tears in our eyes, while Chupke Chupke had us in splits till our tears came out. Through them Hrishida conquered the two ends of the emotional spectrum.

With having proven his mettle for comedy in Chupke Chupke, Hrishikesh’s next successes came largely within the confines of this genre. Golmaal (1979), a parody on the generation gap, had a young Amol Palekar juggle a double role to outwit a quixotic ‘Bhavani Shankar’ (Utpal Dutt) who believed in the sanctity of the moustache over everything young and trendy. The movie remains a cult classic to this day. Then there were Naram Garam (1981), Kissi Se Na Kehna (1983) and Rang Birangi (1983), all of which tickled the funny bone without indulging in any of the double entendres that were to characterize the David Dhawan comedies of the 1990s.

All in all Mukherjee’s films, comedies or otherwise, had a distinct sensibility which were in perfect harmony with the values of the Indian middle class. It was a self imposed ‘lakshman rekha’ he never crossed.

Legacy

It is hard to think of an A list film director in Indian cinema, who directed as many films as Hrishida (43 in all). Yash Chopra directed 21 while Subhash Ghai called the shots for 18 moviess. And yet Hrishida never sacrificed quality for quantity. His characters ‘Anupama’, ‘Anand’, ‘Guddi’, ‘Raghu Bawarchi’, ‘Mili’, ‘Bhawani Shankar’ or ‘Durandhar Bhatavdekar’ (Rang Birangi) all endeared and made as laugh as well as cry. Seven Filmfare Awards that ranged from Best Editing (Naukari - 1954, Madhumati, Anand) to Best Screenplay (Anokhi Raat - 1968) to Best Story (Anand) and Best Movie (Anand and Khubsoorat) were proof of his versatility in several aspects of film making.

Long before the metro-sexual male became the flavor of the 21st century, Hrishida turned established stereotypes on their head. His lead actors, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan were never too far away from shedding tears and giving a glimpse of their softer side (Satyakam, Anand, Mili). And he was one of the few directors in Hindi Cinema, like his mentor Bimal Roy and then his peers Gulzar and Yash Chopra, who put the woman at the centre of most of his films (Anuradha, Anupama, Guddi, Abhimaan, Mili and Khubsoorat).

And he was a very kind man, a patriarch to those working on the sets with him. For as Manju Singh, Amol Palekar’s sister in Golmaal, once said of Hrishida, "I remember him as a warm and caring person. I never felt intimidated despite being new on the sets. When I was working in Golmaal, I was a mother of two young daughters. He used to tell other senior artistes, 'I will finish her scenes first so that she can go home and be with her children'."

Hrishida’s last film as director - Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate (1998), failed to create much of a buzz at the box office. The story though, was in keeping with Hrishida’s school of cinema, its characters entirely likeable, with a strong moral coming across the film’s storyline. Clearly, audiences and their value systems had changed, he hadn’t.

This column first appeared in the August 2010 edition of ME