Film legend Hrishikesh Mukherjee passes away
Legendary filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee is dead. He was 84. Mukherjee died at central Mumbai’s Leelavati Hospital where he was admitted two months ago, hospital sources said. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, a Dada Saheb Phalke recipient, was born in Calcutta on September 30, 1922. More popular as Hrishida, he was one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema.
His magic lay not in the glamour or largeness so often associated with cinema, but in its simplicity and warmth. Hrishida began his career in Bombay in 1951 as an editor and assistant director to Bimal Roy, another great director.
Hrishida’s first directorial venture, Musafir (1957), was all about an old house, where three unrelated stories dealing with birth, marriage and death occur in a series.
While the film was a disaster, director Raj Kapoor was impressed with the film and he later recommended Hrishida as a director for Anari (1959), which had Kapoor himself and Nutan on the star cast.
Other films of Hrishida include Anuradha (1960), Asli-Naqli (1962), Anupama (1966), Aashirwad (1968), and Satyakam (1969).
Anand (1970), a classic film that gives a complex but compassionate look at the balance between hope, fear, life and death and saw Rajesh Khanna’s greatest performance ever as a terminally ill man who wishes to live life to the full before he dies, is considered Hrishida’s masterpiece.
Hrishida then went on to give some excellent films like Guddi (1971), Abhimaan (1973) and Chupke Chupke (1975) and Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate (1999).
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