A wholesome entertainer

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who migrated from Kolkata to Mumbai to find his footing in films, celebrates 100 years this year. Mukherjee began his career in 1945, where he learnt editing on the job at New Theatres in Calcutta (now Kolkata). “There was no FTII then and we learnt mostly through observing others at work, or while working ourselves. Those who could have taught us did not. World War II brought a slump in film production and then, those who were willing to teach, could not.” His first independent work as editor was for the Bengali film Tathapi. “I then came down to Bombay in 1951 to team up with Bimal Roy who too, had just migrated.” He edited films like Maa, Do Bigha Zamin, Parineeta, etc. By then, he was bent on getting into direction seriously and his first effort at producing and directing his own film was Musafir, composed of three short stories conceived by Mukherjee himself while Ritwik Ghatak collaborated on the script. 

“I think I am the only director to have directed the triumvirate of Hindi cinema – Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Raj Kapoor,” he would proudly recall. “My first film Musafir, shot in Black-and-White, released in 1957, was released all over India for a meager Rs six lakh. Today, the ambience has changed. Our times have come to an end. We must make way for the new generation of cinema culture being redefined by the new entertainment symbols like MTV, rap, uncensored video on which a child can watch a blue film for ten rupees. I am no part of this scene and I don’t wish to be one. Besides, in my seventies, I do not have the patience to work with an entire team that one needs to make a film. I am easily annoyed and irritated.” 

Following a chronic arthritis that restricted his movements severely towards the last years of his life, Mukherjee went on undaunted to work as long as he could and continued to entertain with wholesome family entertainment enriched by rich performances, beautiful musical score and a powerful story. 

He not only gave break to absolutely new faces, but he could also extract completely out-of-the-box performances from actors who already were slotted into their own genre of films. Dharmendra for instance, gave his best performance as a poet and a lover in Anupama opposite Sharmila Tagore. Sharmila too, had the rare opportunity of doing a very low-key character who hardly speaks. Dharmendra’s most outstanding performance was in Mukherjee’s film Satyakaam which, however, turned out to be a commercial flop. In Chupke Chupke, Amitabh Bachchan came out of his angry-young-man type and added spice with his comic take in an interesting role pretending to be a professor of Botany. Bachchan gave mind-blowing performances in Alaap and Namak Haraam. Alaap had flopped but it was one of Mukherjee’s best-made films exploring the multiple layers that make a father-son relationship. 

Khubsoorat gave a completely different perspective to the talents that lay hidden in Rekha while veteran Ashok Kumar marked one of his milestone performances in Aashirwad. Mili presented Bachchan as a character that evolves from a pessimistic, unfriendly man who hates kids and avoids socialising to an empathetic and enlightened lover while Jaya complimented him only as she could. Arjun Pandit presented Sanjeev Kumar in a very unusual role on the story based on a novel by the noted Bengali littérateur Banaphool. Rajesh Khanna could hardly repeat his performance in Anand where, dying of cancer, he spreads hope and cheer among people who have a long life ahead of them. Johnny Walker perhaps got his greatest break in a small cameo in the film. Rajesh Khanna did a completely against-the-grain character in Bawarchi adapted from Tapan Sinha’s Golpo Holeo Shatti. 

Like most talented filmmakers, Mukherjee had a wonderful ear and feel for music and chose his music directors and lyricists with great care. Almost all music directors of his time scored the music for his films. Alaap had music by Jaidev while Rahi Masoom Raza wrote the lyrics and the dialogue. Bawarchi’s music was scored by Madan Mohan while Chupke Chupke and Mili’s music was by S.D. Burman. Bemisaal which did not do well but had melodious songs had the score done by R.D. Burman. Naram Garam did not do well commercially but it was a hilarious film with a mind-blowing music track by R.D. Burman. Lakshmikant-Pyarelal composed for Satyakam while Hemant Kumar wrote the music for Majhli Didi and Anupama. Anupama was edited by Das Dhaimade instead of Mukherjee himself who is one of the best editors Indian cinema has ever produced. The best of all these is Pandit Ravi Shankar who wrote the music tracks for Anupama with lyrics penned by Shailendra. This film was also edited by Das Dhaimade. 

His first film Musafir, has Salil Chowdhury’s name as music director while Ritwik Ghatak is credited with the three stories in the film.  Dilip Kumar interestingly, sang his only song in Musafir lending his own voice. Salil Chowdhury is also responsible for several other films of Mukherjee such as Chhaya and Memdidi. Anari, Aashiq and Asli Naqli had music by Shankar Jaikishen. Incidentally, Motilal, one of the most outstanding ‘gentleman’ actors of Indian cinema, portrayed a memorable cameo in Asli Naqli. Vasant Desai scored the music for Aashirwad which has the unforgettable railgadi song – actually a poem – recited to rhythmic beats by Ashok Kumar to kids in a park. 

Among the younger generation of filmmakers, Hrishikesh Mukherjee admired the work of Gautam Ghosh. In television when satellite channels did not rule your daily time-table, he liked Nalini Singh’s Hello Zindagi. He admired Mani Ratnam and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.  

About the state of television in the country at the time, he said, “today’s television programmes are 90 per cent entertainment. It is a pot pourri of everything. There are current affairs, there is MTV, and there are chat shows, game shows, serials, and soaps. Television has offered me the opportunity of working with some of the best talents on the small screen from Neena Gupta to Alok Nath, from Pankaj Kapoor to Renuka Israni, from Rajendra Gupta to Harish Patel, actors from the National School of Drama I might never have got to work with had I not got into television. I might want to make a serial tomorrow. I might not want to; I do not know. I am too tired. There is talk about a feature film too. And at this point, all I can say is – let’s wait and watch.”

Honesty has marked all his works no matter whether it was a sentimental tear-jerker like Anand, or offered an interesting insight into adolescent hero-worship like Guddi. Neat entertainment with lovely music enriched with rich lyrics often penned by brilliant lyricists have been the hallmark of his films from Namak Haram to Khoobsoorat, from Abhimaan to Anupama.

He drew heavily from Bengali literature, which made his films very “humane”, as Gulzar puts it. Each film had a subtle of social message be it the neglect of the girl child in Anupama or the unscrupulous capitalist vs. the toiling, starving worker in Namak Haram. “Your art is your attitude to life,” he’d admitted once. But he always rated the national award-winner Satyakam as his best film, which was produced and acted in by Dharmendra who also rates it as his best.