Tribute to Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Those of us who have watched Anari, Anand, Abhimaan ,Golamaal, Chupke Chupke and loved them; demise of Hrishikesh Mukherjee brings an end of an era; an era which he dominated by making realistic, simple yet entertaining movies.

In current days most of our filmmakers think a few songs shot abroad, a few item numbers, some jazzy special effects and some controversy before the movie release ensure them success. In spite of all the grandeur and jazz in today’s movies more often than not they simply fail to impress. In stark contrast we have Golmaal, Anand or Abhimaan which do not boast of any foreign locales or jazzy special effects but still are such a delight to watch. Even decades after these movies were made these movies are still so entertaining and I am sure they would be as popular in the years to come. This speaks itself for the magic which Hrishikesh Mukherjee created on celluloid.

In my opinion what sets Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s movies from other movies is the simplicity of treatment. He portrayed lives of the urbane middle class with simple believable characters and simple stories empathetically. The characters of his movies have the ability to touch you; who would forget Rajesh Khanna in Anand or Amitabh Bachchan as the jealous husband in Abhimaan or the adorable Jaya Bachchan in Guddi. His movies had the biggest stars of his times in realistic characters; he never portrayed them in larger than life characters. Be it the serious Abhimaan or the heartwarming Anand or the laugh riot Golmaal ; he had the ability to make you smile and cry with his powerful stories. Another feature common to most of his movies is great music. I am sure all those who love to listen to old hindi movie songs definitely have songs from Abhimaan, Golmaal or Anand in their play lists.

I am sure he would live forever in the hearts of hindi cine viewers with the classics that he has created!