Well and truly "Hatke". Review on Hrishikesh Mukherjee

In many ways the swinging seventies(as they are called now) changed and redefined Bollywood.Be it the now iconic Angry young man of Salim Jaaved, the unavoidable dishum dishum of the action oriented movies where our Hero could get the better of  any number of goons.

The timeless foot-tapping music of R.D Burman(no superlatives good enough for him), the super evil villains(Gabbar, Lion or No 11, Shakaal and many more)or even the inception of highly comical yet super duper hit formula of lost and found(the whole bees saal baad ka milan of the entire family).

Amidst all this high voltage and surreal, sensational drama Hrishikesh Mukherjee was one filmmaker who made huge impact on the audience and carved a niche for himself by churning out movies that were made for and (more importantly)on the great Indian educated middle class, movies that were  fine examples of highly simplistic yet impeccable story telling.

Hrishida started out in Bombay as an assistant to the highly acclaimed Bimal Roy(the maker of Devdas and Do Bigha Zameen)in 1951.After 6 years of working and learning from him he came out with his first movie as a director, Musafir in 1957 and tasted great success with his second movie,Anari in 1959 starring Raj Kapoor and the lovely Nutan.The sixties saw Hrishida scale some more heights withAnuradha, Anupama, Asli Naqli and last but not the least Satyakam.All of them intense, thought provoking movies which dealt with myriad human emotions.But it was the seventies which made Hrishida immortal.It all started with Anand(probably his finest masterpiece) in 1970.He went on to produce classics like Guddi, Mili, Abhimaan, Golmaal, Bawarchi, Chupke chupke, Namak Haram and Khoobsurat.

The most distinct element in Hrishida's movies were undoubtedly the chief protagonists who were endearing and hard hitting at the same time.A terminally ill person who has no hope of living a long healthy life, yet goes around spreading joy and affection in everyone else's lives(the unforgettable Rajesh Khanna in Anand & equally charming Jaya Bhaduri in Mili), An already successful singer who despite his good intentions can't escape the pangs of jealousy when he sees his wife scale greater heights than him and he goes on to make a mess of his hitherto happy married life(the truly superb Amitabh in Abhimaan), A teenaged girl(Jaya Bhaduri in her debut role in Guddi) who innocently not only adores a screen idol but actually loves him and thinks of nobody else, the unwavering adherence of a man to his lofty values and ideals despite huge sacrifices(Dharmendra in one of his finest roles in Satyakam), A subdued girl(the Gracious Sharmila Tagore in Anupama) who has grown up listening to her father blaming her for her mother's death finally finds some joy when she meets a young poet, An aged businessman who is angry and frustrated at the youth for becoming oblivious to our culture and who thinks any man without a moustache is not to be trusted(The absolutely terrific Utpal Dutt in Golmaal), A girl who just can't live with the restrictions in her sister's in-laws house and tries to break the rules in her own sweet way(The bubbly Rekha in KhoobSurat), A ghaas Phoos ka doctor, ahem sorry, a phool patte ka doctor(botanist) who dons a whole new look to cure his elderly borther-in-law's(Dharmendra and Om prakash in the memorably hillarious Chup ke Chup Ke) unreasonable fascination for people who don't mix English while speaking Hindi.

There were many things common to these characters.They were mostly middle class individuals who had their fair share of worldly problems to deal with, most of them had some kind of artistic inclination to music, poetry or fine arts where they found pleasure and departure from their mundane lives, most of them were at least a bit flawed(except for Anand though, can there be a real life Anand??) and hence all of these characters were very much real and believable from the audience's point of view where the viewer could easily identify with what's happening on the screen.

Hrishida's movies also had some of the best music ever composed in Bollywood(most notably in Abhimaan by the legendary S.D.Burman).

He could make us laugh till it actually hurts our belly(in Golmaal and Chup ke Chup ke), cry till the point where some of us needed to consoled(Anand, Milli, Abhimaan) and basically keep us absolutely engrossed by keeping it simple without any distractions.No wonder this Dada Saheb Phalke awardee gave  birth to and perfected a new kind of Genre in Hindi cinema, the one that is called the Hrishikesh Mukherjee Genre.