Hrishikesh Mukherjee Options

[deewani]

He will live on through his films, a legacy to be cherished. Thank you for the news and the articles, a sad day for the industry and the fans.

[mmuk2004]

What a huge loss to the Bombay film industry and us movie lovers. I have so many cherished memories of scenes from his films where he has captured some nuance of Indian life so aptly and with such a light yet assured touch.

[Nimii]

The classic no one remembers

February 12, 2004
by Sukanya Verma

It may have the makings of a classic. A cult subject. An ensemble cast. Superior technical quality and inspired direction. Yet, sometimes, a film fails to receive the recognition it deserves for inexplicable reasons.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Musafir is one such film.

Musafir opens with Balraj Sahni's voiceover and the camera shifting to a scruffy blockhouse: "Lakh lakh makaan aur inmein rehnewale karodon insaan. In karodon insaan ke sukh dukh, hasne rone ke maun darshak hain yeh maun makaan. Theek musafiron ki tarah yahan log aatein hai, rehte hain aur chale jaatein hain. Yahin janam hota hai, vivah hota hai aur hoti hai mrityu. Musafir teen kirayedaron ke jeevan chakron ki kahani hai jo ek ke baad ek is makaan mein rehne aate hain [Scores of people live inside these houses. They are mute spectators to the ups and downs of their lives. People come here like travellers and leave. Some are born here. Some get married here. And some die here. Musafir is the story of three such tenants who came to live in this house]."

Story # 1: A young unmarried couple elopes and rents this house. Their conversation reveals that the girl's uncle was planning to marry her off to an old man. The two marry the next day and begin their new life. But both Ajay (Shekhar) and Shakuntala (Suchitra Sen) wish to be accepted by the former's parents who are against this union. One day, Ajay's parents (Bipin Gupta, Durga Khote) come to the house to disown him. To their surprise, Shakuntala turns out to be an ideal daughter-in-law. All's well that ends well.

Story # 2: An old man (Nazir Hussain) arrives with his widowed pregnant daughter-in-law (Nirupa Roy) and youngest son, Bhanu (Kishore Kumar). The old man is struggling to make ends meet, having just lost his eldest son. All hopes are set on Bhanu. Bad luck continues as Bhanu fails to find employment. In a fit of frustration, Bhanu consumes poison. The next morning when he wakes up, he is alive and kicking. The poison was adulterated. More good news follows: he has a job and his Bhabhi delivers a baby boy.

Story # 3: The third tenant is a crabby barrister (Paul Mahendra), his widowed sister Uma (Usha Kiron) and her handicapped little boy (Daisy Irani). In the previous two episodes, the mention of a mysterious violin player keeps coming up. Here, his identity is finally revealed. Pagla Babu, as the nearby tea vendor calls him, is a homeless wanderer who plays the violin for his own satisfaction. Pagla Babu aka Raja (Dilip Kumar) turns out to be Uma's ex-flame. Raja is dying of a fatal disease but he gives hope to Uma's son, also named Raja. He promises that the day a red flower blooms outside his window, the boy will begin to walk. And walk he does.

Although episodic in nature, the stories of Musafir are interrelated. A set of characters like the landlord (David), the teaseller (Mohan Chhoti), the neighbouring housewife and her daughter (Baby Naaz) and the postman are common to all the stories. The house itself is an important character playing a pivotal role.

The narrative is rich with motifs. The seed that Shakuntala sows in the first story germinates in the second and flowers in the third. As does life which runs full circle -- marriage, birth and death.

For his debut film as director, Mukherjee assembled quite a cast. Right from the main leads to the smaller characters, he extracted a controlled and convincing performance. The characters are normal and perform naturally without being unnecessarily melodramatic or gregarious.

Also evident is the Bimal Roy school of thought. Mukherjee had assisted Roy in films like Devdas and Madhumati.

If you notice, Dilip Kumar's character is an extension of Devdas. Devdas promises to come to Paro so she can take care of him one last time before he dies. Unfortunately, Devdas dies at her doorstep. Here, Devdas is reborn as Raja and stays with Uma when she insists.

Also, the scene where Shekhar lights a candle to look at Suchitra Sen's face is clearly reminiscent of Devdas and Paro's first encounter as grown ups under a dim lantern.

Technically and creatively, Musafir bears the same aura as Bimal Roy films. The two employed the same technicians like cinematographer Kamal Bose, art designer Sudhendu Roy, writer Ritwik Ghatak and Rajinder Singh Bedi.

But Hrishikesh Mukherjee's own style evolved brilliantly. Instead of dwelling on darkness and hopelessness, Mukherjee saw the lighter side of despondency. His characters could laugh in the face of adversity. They saw humour in dejection and searched for strength in failure. His stories, just like his characters, were warm, believable, human and identifiable. That is what makes him a master storyteller.

Musafir was released in 1957, decades before Ram Gopal Varma's Darna Mana Hai was promoted as a film with six stories and one ending. Musafir boasted of a house as protagonist years before Nikhil Advani declared New York plays one of the key characters in Kal Ho Naa Ho. This is not to belittle either of the latter films. It is just a statement of the fact that a gem like Musafir was ignored.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee is most known for films like Satyakam, Anuradha, Anand, Guddi, Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke, Bawarchi, Mili , Golmaal, Khoobsurat. People always overlook Musafir.

Musafir came before its time. It didn't work. It should have because it was unique and timeless. This two-and-half-hour film is a must-see. It is a film that should be viewed by upcoming filmmakers to learn the art of storytelling and technique, and film buffs to appreciate and understand cinema better.




source: Rediff.

[parag_sankla]

An excellent article on "Musafir". A rich tribute to the debut movie of one of the greatest film makers of Hindi Cinema !

A small musical note. There is a song in which Dilip Kumar sang with Lataji. "Laagi nahi chhoote rama"

Thanks Nimmiji...

Best Regards
Parag

[ashgupta3]

He was one of my all time fav director. Another big loss to HFM this year after Naushad. Some of my fav movies r (and I have still to see many of his other movies) Anari, Anupama, Aashirwad, Satyakam, Anand, Guddi, Bawarchi, Abhimaan, Namak Haram, Chupke Chupke, Mili and Golmaal.

May his soul rest in peace.

[Reeth]

I generally am not very fond of watching hindi films.........though i love the music and some older ones........ i think Hrishikesh Mukherjee like Bimal Roy and Gurudutt was very good.He was excellent in directing comedies,simply loved his 'Chupke Chupke', and ' kisise na kehna'......
Other movies i liked are 'Anupama', and 'Abhimaan'....
I doubt if there can be another one like him or the others? definitely not among the newer lot of directors........

[deep750]

it made me sad to hear this

Veteran Indian filmmaker and legend Hrishikesh Mukherjee passed away on Sunday at Leelavati hospital in Mumbai. He was 84.

Hrishida as he was fondly known in the industry had been suffering for quite some time. He had been hospitalized for the past couple of months following chronic renal failure, pneumonia and sepsis.

Hrishida made some of the best known films known to Indian cinema including Anand, Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke, Khoobsurat, etc. His last film was the Anil Kapoor-Juhi Chawla starrer Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate in 1998.

Producer Romu Sippy who was associated with Mukherjee in movie like Sadma, Guddi and Golmaal said, “He was like a member of the family. So just for the film industry, it is a personal loss as well. Our association goes back as far as 1964. He was like a member of the family. I was there in the evening with Gulzar when he passed away.”

Veteran actor A. K. Hangal who worked with Mukherjee in films like Bawarchi, Alaap and Abhimaan was quite upset over the incident. “He was a progressive man of the Indian film industry. He gave birth to the excellent comedy films. It's because of him I am here in the film industry. He gave such roles and made me what I am today. He used to call me Munna and when I went to meet him at Leelavati Hospital, I cried as I felt bad to see him in that situation. I think it's not just a loss of Indian film industry but also a great loss of a wonderful era.”, said he.

Funeral details are awaited as Hrishada’s son is supposed to arrive from the U.S. soon.

[desai2rn]

One of the films I've watched a numerous times is Raj Kapoor-Nutan
starer Anadii, directed of course by the late Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
It was superbley directed movie with superb performance by Raj saab
and well supported by Nutan, Lalita Pawar, and Motilal. Sadly almost
everyone associated with movie including SJ, Shailedra and Mukesh
who combined to give great music for the film.
It was after Anadii that Hrishikesh Mukherjee wanted to make Anand
with Raj Kapoor, which was eventually made with another RK and AB.

Hopefully the new generation of directors will take some inspiration from the greats of bollywood rather than just copy average western movies.

Ramesh

[shaibaal]

Tribute to Hrishikesh Mukherjee by Amitabh Bachchan

'We just followed what he said'
By Amitabh Bachchan


I worked with Hrishikesh Mukherjee a lot before the 1973 film Zanjeer in which my so-called image of Indian cinema's "angry young man" was seemingly established.
I have never worked for an image. I continued working with Hrishida, as we all fondly called him, after working with other directors like Salim/Javed, Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai, in a variety of roles.

Hrishida was like a father figure to me and my wife, Jaya. Working with him was an unbelievable experience because his style of film-making was never to compromise on quality and on the story ideas.

He never pandered to any baser instincts, and he set his own path which was neither too artistic nor too commercial.


'Interesting characters'

I will have to admit that most of the interesting characters that I played have been in films that were made by him - be it Anand or Mili or Chupke Chupke, or Bemisal or Namak Haram, or Jurmana.

They were all exceptionally well-etched and, of course, the greatest opportunity to perform for me has been in his films.

His knowledge of the craft was so immense that we just left ourselves in his hands.

We never heard any scripts, never heard any stories - we just came on the sets.



He told us to stand there, walk here, say it in this manner, speak like this - that's how he used to direct all of us.
So our input was nothing at all. All that you see in his films is entirely his input.


If it was a complex character like in Mili, we would sit together and he would give a one-line description and then guide us as the scenes came.


You actually saw your character unfold before you. It felt good - I felt that I had left myself in the hands of a master. One really didn't have to worry because one knew that Hrishida was going to mould you.

He was a master editor and knew his craft incredibly well - he would shoot a scene and you would know nothing about it till you saw it.

And yet when you saw it finished, it was amazing how well he had actually conceived the thing. He could do the last shot first and could put something in the middle days later and it was just marvellous to see a person so gifted.


'Close to reality'

He was the one who used to spot talent, and the one who used to challenge and he's the one who used to guide and direct, we were just followers.

His characters were close to reality, and certainly the scenes that were written and the situations that we were put in, were so genuine and real and realistic that they gave great opportunities to actors.

His films were full of delightful subtleties and became great cinema.

It is difficult to pick one character and say that's the best - there was Anand and Abhimaan, Mili too - all of them unbelievable moments in film-making.

I am often asked whether it is true that in the last shot of Anand I was laughing when I was supposed to cry.

There is hardly any difference in sound when one cries and when one laughs and our faces were not seen in this top angle shot - we were both laughing because my chin was tickling my co-actor Rajesh Khanna's stomach!

The largest number of films that I did with one director was with Hrishikesh Mukherjee. It's a fallacy that it's Prakash Mehra and Manmohan Desai.

They don't create people like Hrishida any more. I think it's wrong to say his kind of cinema doesn't work any longer. I'm sure if Hrishida were to make those kinds of films again, it would certainly have an audience.

As told to Lata Khubchandani

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/5291914.stm