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The Common Man's Film-maker

By Brishti Bandyopadhyay

September 23: From the rollicking 'Chupke Chupke' and 'Golmaal' to the shades of jealousy in 'Abhimaan', from the quiet seriousness of 'Anupama' to the tragic 'Anand', veteran film maker Hrishikesh Mukherjee has covered an entire range of emotions and relationships in his films.

In a career spanning more than four decades, he became known as the man who touched a chord in the common man - the middle class in particular. And the ordinary film viewer responded to his quiet flowering in the only way he or she knew - by seeing Hrishida's films again and again.

On September 18, 2000, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 76, was presented the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for a lifetime contribution to Indian cinema, in the National Film Awards ceremony, at Delhi. 'Musafir', 'Anuradha', 'Anupama', 'Aashirwad', 'Anand', 'Abhimaan', 'Namak Haram', 'Chupke Chupke', 'Mili', 'Golmaal': the list is impressive. And Hrishida made these films without getting slotted either as an " art film' (serious) director or as a commercial film director.

While watching Hindi films, people generally suspend their disbelief. They know that anything can happen in the course of a Hindi film - a beggar can turn into a millionaire and vice versa in the blink of an eye, men can fly through air, blind mothers can miraculously begin to see, and long-lost brothers can rediscover themselves precisely at the point of killing each other.

Most Hindi films are fantasies - they explore not when and why, but what if - a theme Hindi film-directors keep coming back to, again and again.

There's a reason for this, say those who've researched Hindi films as a part of popular culture - the everyday culture we see around us. The business of living is a deadly serious game for most Indians, requiring them to work very, very hard. Films offer them the only escape route from all the drudgery and monotony.

So Hindi films are glorious, have larger-than-life characters leading completely charmed and utterly unbelievable lives. Indians are not interested in watching slice-of-life films.

At least that's what the popular opinion on Hindi films is. But the success of the films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee seems to tell a different story. Most of Mukherjee's films are over twenty-years old, yet they remain fresh and appealing in the minds of generations of movie-goers.

The highlight of these films is the ordinariness of both their characters and of the situations they portray.

On the surface the films are "wholesome family entertainers", with simple narratives, gentle humour, a sensitive, often rather sentimental approach, good performances and hummable musical scores.

They deal with a range of subjects - humorous, romantic or tragic. But what marks them out is their ability to convey believable experiences to the viewers. There's a simple reason why these experiences ring so true - many of them are drawn from Mukherjee's life themselves.

In film after film he evoked the simple lifestyle of a typical Indian middle-class household and explored the different shades of relationships in that setting.