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Notion Press

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First Published by Notion Press 2018 Copyright © Rammesh 2018 All Rights Reserved.

ISBN 978-1-64324-954-4

This book has been published with all efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. However, the author and the publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

All photos in this book are screenshots from the DVDs/VCDs of respective films. Contents

Acknowledgments �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vii Author’s Note ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ix

Part 1

1. The Human Cinema: Hrishikesh and His Films ���������������������������������� 3 2. The World of Hrishida ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 15 Humans and Interdependence �������������������������������������������������������������������������� 16 The Poor Are Rich at Heart While the Rich Are Poor at Heart ���������������������������� 18 Playing Against Type ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 19 Truly Wacky Eccentrics �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 22 Female-Centric Films ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 23 Redemption �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23 Passing the Torch/Values ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 24 Masquerade/Deception �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 25 The End: Is It Really the End? ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 26 The Same Set of Artists and Team �������������������������������������������������������������������� 27

Part 2

3. The Early Years Till 1958 ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 31 4. The Films: 1958–1960 ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 35 1957: Musafir ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 35 1959: ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 41 1960: Anuradha �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 46

PART 3

5. The 1960s: A Snapshot �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 55 6. The Films: 1960–1970 ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 59 1961: Chhaya ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 59 1961: Mem-Didi �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 62 1962: Aashiq ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 66 iv Contents

1962: Asli Naqli �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 69 1964: Saanjh Aur Savera ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 75 1965: Do Dil �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 78 1966: Gaban ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 81 1966: Anupama �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 84 1966: Biwi Aur Makaan �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 89 1967: Majhli Didi ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 93 1968: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 96 1969: Pyar Ka Sapna ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 100 1969: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 102 1970: Anand ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 108

PART 4

7. The 1970s: A Snapshot �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������117 8. The Films: 1971–1980 �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 121 1971: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 121 1971: Guddi ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 124 1972: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 130 1972: Sabse Bada Sukh ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 135 1973: Abhimaan ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 138 1973: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 144 1974: Phir Kab Milogi ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 151 1975: Chaitali ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 153 1975: Chupke Chupke �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 156 1975: Mili ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 161 1976: Arjun Pandit �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 166 1977: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 170 1977: Kotwaal Saab ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 175 1978: ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 177 1979: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 181 1979: Jurmaana ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 185 1980: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 188

PART 5

9. 1980s: A Snapshot �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 195 10. The Films: 1981–1998 �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 199 1981: Naram Garam ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 199 1982: �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 202 Contents v

1983: Achha Bura �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 206 1983: Kissi Se Na Kehna ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 207 1983: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 210 1985: ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 215 1988: ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 217 1998: Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaatey �������������������������������������������������������������������� 220

Epilogue ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 223 Appendix A �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 227 Appendix B �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 235 Appendix C �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 245 Bibliography ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 247 Websites ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 249 Part 1 The Human Cinema: and His Films

To an ordinary filmgoer, the name Hrishikesh Mukherjee means the 1979 comedy, Gol Maal, or the 1970 film, Anand or even the rollicking comedy of 1975, Chupke Chupke. Connoisseurs of films, however, usually remember Mukherjee for his warm human characters, sensitive performances from artists and topical films such as Anupama, Anuradha, Namak Haraam and the morbid, yet morally uplifting Satyakam. Mukherjee’s artistic and commercial success seems improbable, if not impossible, since he worked mainly within the framework of ‘mainstream’ and ‘commercial’ cinema. Given Mukherjee’s early apprenticeship under one of the giants of Indian cinema, , it wasn’t a surprise that Mukherjee turned out to be an auteur, responsible for the final look and feel of the film, very much like his mentor and Guru. We all know the ‘Hrishida touch’, a sincere and penetrating look at the travails of humans, simple but morally uplifting themes without chest thumping lessons, a lyrical pace to the story combined with high-quality music and the inevitable humor. Inevitable, because very much like the man’s sense of humor, the films, made a statement about human foibles as well as made light of grim situations. For example, ’s Essabhai Suratwala partakes of Jaichand’s prank and joins in the game. When Amitabh’s Dr. Banerjee corrects him by saying “Inka naam Jaichand nahin, Anand hai (His name is not Jaichand but Anand),” he replies saying, “To mera naam, Murarilal nahin, Essabhai Suratwala hai, yaad rakhna (Then, my name is not Murarilal, but Essabhai Suratwala, remember)!” He goes away, stops, returns and asks Amitabh, “Aap ka naam to Bhaskar hai na (Your name is Bhaskar, isn’t it)?” A real life example is journalist Namrata Joshi’s experience of meeting him in 2004. In her tribute in Outlook magazine, she recollected an incident when she enquired about directions to his home. Finally, she ended up at his home, explaining her difficulty in searching for his place. He asked her, “How did you 4 Human Cinema inquire?” She replied, “Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s home!” He jested a response, “You should have asked for Hrishi. There is no longer any kesh (hair)!” pointing at his bald pate.1 One also wonders what was the inside joke by Mukherjee in choosing the name of his ‘Sound In-Charge’ Essabhai Suratwala.2 The strength of his films lies in the fact that, as viewers, we feel that what’s happening on screen is not a story, but our experience of life. The characters are entirely believable because Mukherjee’s cinematic world was inhabited by ordinary people whom we, the audience, could identify with. Such a fine balancing act speaks of a sensibility that mixes the best of commercial mainstream cinema and the ‘parallel’ cinema. At times, we end up wondering whether we are seeing a movie or whether we are really seeing a slice of (our) life. Stars lost their “Star” identity and became characters. Mukherjee, the auteur, had an uncanny ability to see the ‘actor’ inside the ‘Star’, who was usually caught up in a particular box- office ‘image’. Time and again, Mukherjee would break this ‘Star’ image, resulting in some of the finest performances by the leading actors, that would not have otherwise been possible. One of the best examples is Mukherjee going beyond ’s ‘tough guy’ on-screen image and extracting a performance of a lifetime in Satyakam. , ‘The Phenomenon’ and ‘The Superstar’, was thoroughly deglamorized and became the cancer-stricken hero in Anand, winning both audience sympathy and a Award, not to speak of setting the box-office on fire. Time and again, proved that he was the character rather than the megastar, in his various roles under Mukherjee’s baton. Bachchan had the maximum number of films under Mukherjee’s baton, and perhaps the most varied roles than under any other director. Subtlety is a characteristic, even a virtue, of most if not all of Mukherjee’s films. Mukherjee’s films gently showed us what was happening and left the meanings and interpretations to us. Anand can be termed as a ‘Male Weepie’, yet, it is about one man, the cynical Dr. Bhaskar Banerjee, finding faith in himself after meeting a doomed cancer patient and growing as a man, a Human and perhaps, even as a

1 https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hrishikesh-mukherjee-1922-2006/232336 2 Sound in charge for Musafir, Asli Naqli, Anupama; he also worked with Bimal Roy and . http:// www.imdb.com/name/nm0839547/?ref_=nv_sr_1 The Human Cinema: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and His Films 5

doctor. In Anuradha, Mukherjee makes one of the finest low-key statements about a woman’s desire for freedom to do what she excels at. Such subtlety is uncommon in the world of commercial cinema where everything is literally ‘larger- than-life’ and ‘in your face’. As with most directors, Mukherjee is also guilty of some outright cinematic disasters. His unnerving thematic flip-flops can leave us wondering, What on earth was he thinking when he made this movie! Otherwise, how does one explain that the man who made the low-key, and some would say even feminist Anuradha, the woman who takes all the life changing decisions herself, follow it up a couple of years later by Saanjh aur Savera, the female ‘weepie’, where the heroine, , is dependent on the whims of a male world? Yet, the same Meena Kumari, after a few years, is back as a feisty woman in Majhli Didi who will not let any injustice go unpunished, especially those doled out to a helpless orphan boy. Within two years, it was back to the perennially weeping heroine with in Pyar ka Sapna! Such thematic flip-flops seem quite like the behavior of one of his eccentric characters who populate what we can term as ‘the Hrishida World’. (More on that later.) Mukherjee always kept a finger on the audience’s pulse and on the producer’s money. Never known for taking an extra shot, or wasting raw stock, his shot planning and division ensured that most scenes were completed in one or two takes. Almost every star who worked with him has said more or less the same thing, about not wasting raw stock, editing the film in his head, and completing the film on time.3 But this frugality extended to a quirk of repeating the same background music in some of his films, giving us the feeling of ‘being cheap’ and needlessly ‘cost conscious’. Background scores from as far back as Anari kept appearing again and again in various films, much later. Yet, all the discipline would sometimes fail when confronted with the caprices of a Star-dominated film industry. There is a wonderful video on YouTube, titled ‘Bombay Superstar’, made by the BBC. This is about Rajesh Khanna in his heydays in the early 1970s as the superstar. The first ten minutes

3 www.kavitachhibber.com – interviews with , Amitabh Bachchan, , Farooque Sheikh, , Rakesh , Nitin Mukesh; Author’s interview with Samir Chowdhury 6 Human Cinema of the documentary were shot during the making of Namak Haraam.4 We watch a helpless Mukherjee and the entire unit waiting for the grand arrival of Rajesh Khanna. After waiting for two-and-a-half hours, Mukherjee cools himself with a game of chess with a unit member while Khanna has to wait for Mukherjee to cool down. Mukherjee bounces back and tells Khanna, “I get upset and don’t want to waste time playing chess or doing some nonsense. Forget it and just give a good shot!” Before Khanna’s arrival, Mukherjee explains to the interviewer, “Our film stars work simultaneously in many films, about ten films together!” On being pushed by the interviewer about how he feels, Hrishida replies, “I feel upset if I don’t get my artist on time and I make it a precondition to the artists that they have to be on time.” Perhaps this is one reason why he didn’t repeat Rajesh Khanna in future ventures except in Naukri (1978). Commercial pressures always prevail. As with most directors, the hit-to-flop ratio kept varying. Yet, every time the media or the paying public ruled him out, Mukherjee bounced back with a surprise hit. In the late 1970s, Gol Maal sealed his reputation forever as the torchbearer of the light comedy, which in my opinion, is a bit sad as his films are much more than that. Working within the confines of the commercial cinema system, Mukherjee seemed to have found the perfect balance between art and commerce, and is always credited as the author of any such work, with most of his films being announced as ‘a Hrishikesh Mukherjee film’. Mukherjee knew that the commercial fortunes of a film were usually dependent on one of the key ingredients, namely, music. Music was a must, and most of the time, they fulfilled the idea of making the film appeal to the masses and the classes. This tightrope act is something that only very few of his contemporaries or film makers after him have managed in ‘mainstream commercial’ cinema. As a result, in most of his films, there are memorable songs and some truly outstanding soundtracks. In the larger context of talking about his films, this is never discussed. So, I have discussed this in detail for every film as the music in most of his films up to the late 1970s is usually of high or excellent quality.

4 Part 1 of this 9 part video has been unfortunately deleted which contains excerpts of Hrishida and his mounting exasperation at Rajesh Khanna’s late arrival. Only part 2 onwards, is available http://bit.ly/2v1xMfs The Human Cinema: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and His Films 7

Mukherjee’s cinema banked on characters being identifiable like every other man or woman. This resulted in Mukherjee being given the title ‘God of middle- class cinema’. It would be much better to term it simply as ‘Human Cinema’, where the inhabitants are neither residents of the dream factories of commercial cinema nor the perennially struggling citizens of the harsh realities of parallel or art cinema. They are ordinary human beings, struggling with everyday realities. Some quick examples would suffice: a cynical doctor regaining his humanity, thanks to a man dying of cancer; a man sticking to his convictions in an inconsiderate world dies in a truly tragic manner, but sets in motion the genesis of something new; a cinema-mad teenage girl discovers the harsh reality of the cinematic world at close quarters. All these and more make Mukherjee, the Master of the Human Cinema. In an era when fluffy romances, Kashmir locations and (later) foreign locales were the rule than the exception, Mukherjee’s heroes and heroines looked ordinary and dressed ordinarily. But, they behaved in extraordinary ways. They were not heroes with chocolate boy looks and holier-than-thou ‘heroines’, although there were some exceptions. We too have grown up with our confusions like Guddi, and so, we can easily identify with the on-screen characters. Though Gol Maal is a bit too far-fetched, in terms of its on-screen shenanigans, we can always feel and relate to the hero’s predicament at his boss’ quirks, a very indirect form of “Yes Boss” and even the quirk of one of the employees, whose main preoccupation throughout the movie seems to be plucking out the hairs in his nostrils! So, who is the Namak Haraam of the title? The rich man who is oblivious to the class divide, or the poor man who has suddenly woken up to his class origins and his own humanity? Subtle, yet unanswered! Mukherjee’s films show, but leave the rest to your imagination. He never preached or talked down to the audience. He simply showed. The moral statement is in our minds, not on screen. That is the biggest strength of Mukherjee’s films. I had the fortune of talking to Samir Chowdhury (brother of Music Director ), who was Hrishida’s Assistant Director till 1971. He explained, “Hrishida commanded so much respect because of his talents that sometimes major stars would simply say yes without even looking at the script.” He continued, “He was an extremely disciplined filmmaker. Since he was an editor, he could visualize 8 Human Cinema the shot in his mind, the camera angle would be perfect, and there would never be more than three takes. Five or seven takes was very unusual. He didn’t believe in wasting raw stock. He didn’t believe in grand sets and was very economical in his whole approach to filmmaking, always respectful that it was the producer’s money at stake.”5 Both Khubsoorat and Gol Maal were shot in Mukherjee’s own bungalow, ‘Anupama’ (which has since been demolished), but because of the way it was shot, one ends up thinking that they are two different locations. Nitin Mukesh, who used to be Mukherjee’s assistant director, and , also confirm that just by changing the furniture around a little, you had two different ‘bungalows’!6 Hrishida’s disciplined approach to filmmaking also meant that no Star could show off his stardom. Dharmendra was at the receiving end of an on-screen rebuke in Chupke Chupke. Some of his portions, including his part in the song Sare Gama where Rafi sings for him, were edited out because he was late.7 Rakesh Roshan also experienced Mukherjee’s anger during the making of Khubsoorat. When he reached the sets late, Mukherjee politely and firmly told him to “… enjoy the holiday today.”8 In the case of Anand, The Superstar agreed and finished the film in one month flat, which was Mukherjee’s precondition. But for Namak Haraam, all the discipline crashed and he ended up as helpless as any other filmmaker in front of The Superstar. Mukherjee preferred to work with more or less the same team throughout his career. These included the character actors and even bit role players. Sometimes, the costumes were also repeated. On this topic, there is a famous joke.9 A.K.Hangal, who was making his fourth or fifth appearance in a Mukherjee film, refused to wear the same costume that he wore in the previous four films. The costume man joked that Hangal’s was the only costume that still fit, as compared to what the other performers wore.

5 Author’s interview 6 www.kavitachhibber.com 7 https://youtu.be/6PIsrN8K21M - KBC 2010 episode where both Amitabh and Dharmendra say that they were scared of him like a school headmaster. See also chapter on Chupke Chupke 8 www.kavitachhibber.com 9 www.kavitachhibber.com – narrated by Farooque Sheikh The Human Cinema: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and His Films 9

Mukherjee sometimes didn’t explain the shots to the characters. Samir Chowdhury recalled this incident from Anupama, “Once, he told Sharmila Tagore to just stand near a fish tank and look at it. She asked what she was supposed to do and he told her to just stand and give the shot. When it was edited in, it was a beautiful shot of the lonely Anupama who has only the fish tank for company and has no other human contact.” Another experience is as shared by during the making of Chupke Chupke where the assistant directors also were under strict orders not to tell the actors (Dharmendra and Amitabh) what they were supposed to do.10

Rehearsing the ‘kotha’ scene in Namak Haraam Source: https://bit.ly/2kgYES2

I asked Chowdhury about the inconsistencies in his work, and he said that sometimes Mukherjee would start a project and lose heart halfway through. Chowdhury explains this as “losing internal belief that the film would make any

10 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/How-Hrishikesh- Mukherjee-managed-to-silence-Dharmendra-Amitabh-Bachchan/articleshow/54581802.cms 10 Human Cinema sense.” It could also be due to the fact that Mukherjee was into it only for the commercial part or to complete it for the sake of the producer. This resulted in some shoddy films (in an otherwise illustrious career) such as Kotwaal Saab, which had to be reshot as per government diktats. Made during the Emergency, it was released thereafter and flopped miserably. Phir Kab Milogi was inordinately delayed for eight years and then released in 1974. Its only redeeming feature was R.D.Burman’s brilliant music. Pyar ka Sapna was also an insipid film where the discarded woman keeps falling at the feet of her husband. This is truly implausible from the man who gave us Anuradha and Anupama. It sounds contradictory that the man who disliked the song-and-dance part of the business actually incorporated some great, high-quality music in his films. (In fact, I was thinking of giving a different title to the book: ‘A Cinema of Contradictions!’) Here, Mukherjee’s training as a sitar player in his early years11 contributed to an overall excellent sense of music. As in most commercial cinema, the music came as a hindrance to the story but, at times, it told a story and even moved it forward. When music was the main theme of the film, as with Anuradha, Abhimaan and Alaap, the results were simply outstanding, thanks to his discerning ear. Though his films of the 1980s didn’t have great music, Mukherjee cannot entirely be blamed for that; it was just a sign of the times that ‘action’ and on- screen visuals were dominant as compared to themes. Filmmaking had changed as a whole in the 1980s. In fact, Mukherjee openly claimed in one interview, that ‘films have become about style and not content. Where do you see people doing PT exercises in real life?’ This was an obvious reference to the choreography of the 1980s and 1990s (and a comment that is still valid for 21st Century mainstream cinema). Senseless explosions and violent underworld stories dominated the 1980s. Dharmendra sadly went back to doing what he did best on screen by appearing in ‘Jalakar raakh kar doonga’ whose title was changed to ‘Paap ko jalakar raakh kar doonga’ after censorship objections. We can only speculate what he did in the unreleased Lathi. Even , the mainstay of many outstanding works of the ‘art cinema’ of the 1980s, was reduced to appearing

11 Amitabh Bachchan interview in www.kavitachhibber.com; Samir Chowdhury – personal interview The Human Cinema: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and His Films 11

as the lead character in a movie ‘Zinda jala doonga’ whose title was once again changed to ‘Zulm ko jala doonga’ following censorship objections. In this climate, it is no surprise that Mukherjee’s films of the 1980s were mediocre at best and his Human Cinema gradually faded away. There was a ray of hope in the form of one of his assistants Bharat Rungachary who directed a commendable Mukherjee-style comedy in Baat Ban Jaaye (1986)12 but played safe in his next venture with a crime drama, Khatarnaak (1990), with the posters of the film showing Sunjay Dutt toting an AK47, and presumably, living up to the title. Coming back to the music, he shrewdly used the most popular music director of the times, but sometimes changed the music director to suit the theme. A surprising fact is that R.D.Burman scored music in eleven out of forty-two films, the maximum by any music director.13 Clearly, Mukherjee saw beyond Pancham’s excoriation by the old guard, about being too ‘Western’ in his musical sensibilities. From their first collaboration, (Buddha Mil Gaya) to their last, (Namumkin), R.D.Burman’s music was always melodious and blended well in his films. Pancham gave some of his most wide-ranging scores in Mukherjee’s films. Pancham’s illustrious father, S.D.Burman composed only four of Mukherjee’s films, one of which was Abhimaan, which finally gave S.D.Burman his much deserved second Filmfare Award. Between S.D.Burman and R.D.Burman, they scored music for fifteen out of forty-two films, meaning approximately 30% or every third film, had music by one of the Burmans. Salil Chowdhury and Shankar-Jaikishan come a distant second with five films each, though it would be fair to say that Shankar-Jaikishan had five hit albums in Anari, Saanjh aur Savera, Aashiq, Asli Naqli and Gaban. Salil Chowdhury had a second innings in the 1970s with the outstanding Anand but sadly was not repeated again by Hrishida, except for the forgettable Sabse Bada Sukh.

12 It even had Mukherjee regular appearing as yet another eccentric character who is hell bent on finding a suitable ‘poor’ groom for his super-rich niece , with predictably hilarious results. The first prospect (Amol Palekar), a poor TV mechanic becomes super rich because of an invention. The second poor prospect (Mithun Chakraborthy) turns out to be the long-lost son of wealthy man and the third one she ends up liking is a poor truck-driver () and therein hangs a tale. Very much reminiscent of Mukherjee’s style with no heroes or villains 13 With the unreleased Lathi, the count goes to 12 out of 43 films 12 Human Cinema

Though Mukherjee’s films had great music, he hated the entire process of song picturization. Rakesh Roshan and Nitin Mukesh confirm14 that while other directors would take five or six days, Mukherjee would finish his song picturization in a day-and-a-half. Nitin Mukesh, who was an assistant director to Hrishida before he became a playback singer, says that the philosophical ‘Zindagi kaisi hai paheli…’ from Anand was completed in just half a day.15 Cine historian, Raju Bharatan, credits Mukherjee with a statement during the making of Asli Naqli. “Raju, the Asli part, the story, is over. The Naqli part can now begin—the song picturizations.” Bharatan may not have been exaggerating here.16 There is an element of truth in this statement. Both the casual and discerning viewer can clearly see that the camera is like a disinterested observer. No flash pans, jump cuts or any of the other common techniques, which are so common with other filmmakers in song picturizations, were used. Mukherjee seemed to prefer a very relaxed and almost languid camera that merely observed what was happening. Most of the time, the camera remained more or less stationary. At times, this worked brilliantly – as in ‘Kuch dil ne kaha’ from Anupama, ‘Mai shaayar badnaam’ from Namak Haraam, and ‘Zindagi kaisi hai paheli…’ from Anand. At other times, it fails. When it comes to watching the story unfold on screen, the stationary camera works brilliantly, but not always for song picturizations. Yet if one looks at the overall track record, the songs and music in most of his films, till the early 1980s as mentioned earlier, are above average, if not downright outstanding. His editing skills were very much in demand. Professor Pyarelal and Coolie are two examples where inordinate lengths of the films were edited to a more manageable commercial length. Mukherjee edited some twenty-six films. These included such Hindi classics as , Ganga Jamuna, the cult Bengali comedy, Lookuchuri and the Classic, , the first Malayalam film to win a National Award. That in itself speaks volumes of his respect in the industry. shares that in their FTII days, Mukherjee would lecture that two things would decide the final look of the film: ‘the script and the editing table’. 17

14 www.kavitachhibber.com 15 www.kavitachhibber.com 16 http://in.rediff.com/movies/2000/sep/12raju.htm 17 www.kavitachhibber.com The Human Cinema: Hrishikesh Mukherjee and His Films 13

Mukherjee was always in poor health even in his younger days. He had a severe gout problem and was in constant pain due to arthritis.18 Mukherjee’s last years were not entirely trouble free, either. Confined to his home, the additional issue of dialysis also added to his infirmities. It ultimately resulted in his death in ’s Lilavati Hospital on August 27, 2006. As newspapers showed pictures of a teary-eyed Jaya Bachchan hugging an equally distraught Gulzar, one couldn’t help but wonder that an entire style of filmmaking had ceased with him. The final comment came up within a week in the Amul Butter hoardings. Witty and cheeky, and often poking fun at some present national or political calamity, the sober black-bordered hoarding repeated the eternal lines from Mukherjee’s Anand: ‘Zindagi Badi Honi Chahiye, Lambi Nahin’.

Amul Source: https://bit.ly/2s43HJK

An immortal line from an immortal cinematic character that summed up his style and cinematic vision and showed what it was to be a Human!

18 Samir Chowdhury said that he would take pain killers heavily; author’s interview Enjoyed reading this sample?

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