10 things you should know about Hrishikesh Mukherjee

Hrishikesh Mukherjee is one my favorite Hindi Movies director. He is famous for being the pioneer of the ‘middle cinema’ of India. Most of his social and family movies reflected the changing middle-class ethos. Actually he carved a middle path between the extravagance of mainstream cinema and the stark relism of art cinema. His middle-of-the-road movies were realistic with simple plots and deeper meaning. He believed in making films full of heart-warming irony, literary sensibilities and straightforward in form, theme and treatment. In his career, he directed 42 films. Some of his superhit films are Chupke Chupke, Anupama, Anand, Abhimaan, Guddi, Gol Maal, Aashirwad, Bawarchi, and Namak Haraam. Let’s see 10 things that you should know about this great film director.

1. He worked with Bimal Roy as an assistant director in landmark Indian films like Do Bigha Zameen and Devdas. He also worked as editor in Madhumati.
2. His first film as a director was Musafir. It was released in 1957. However the movie performed badly at the box-office. Then after 2 years he got his first success as the director in Raj Kapoor starring movie Anari.
3. He gave Amitabh Bachchan first major break in Anand movie. Moreover, he also introduced Jaya Bhaduri to Hindi cinema in his film Guddi.
4. He was the first director to introduce Dharmendra in comedy roles, through Chupke Chupke movie.
5. He also directed TV serials like Hum Hindustani, Talaash and Dhoop Chhaon.
6. Most of his movies didn’t contain any sex, crime and violence.
7. He was awarded the 1999, Dada Saheb Phalke Award, India’s highest award in Cinema for Lifetime achievement.
8. In 1961 he got National Film Award for Best Film for Anuradha movie.
9. He was chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification and of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).
10. His last film was Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kaate.

Selected Movies

• Musafir (1957): starring Dilip Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Suchitra Sen and Usha Kiran.
• Anari (1959): starring Raj Kapoor, Nutan, Lalita Pawar and Sohrab Modi.
• Anuradha (1960): starring Balraj Sahni, Leela Naidu
• Asli-Naqli (1962): starring Dev Anand, Sadhna
• Anupama (1966): starring Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Shashikala.
• Gaban (1966): starring Sunil Dutt, Sadhana
• Aashirwad (1968): starring Ashok Kumar
• Satyakam (1969): starring Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore
• Anand (1970): starring Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan
• Guddi (1971): starring Dharmendra, Jaya Bhaduri, Utpal Dutt, Samit Bhanja
• Bawarchi (1972): starring Rajesh Khanna, Jaya Bhaduri
• Abhimaan (1973): starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri
• Namak Haraam (1973): starring Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan,
• Chupke Chupke (1975): starring Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri
• Mili (1975): starring Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri
• Gol Maal (1979): starring Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt, Bindiya Goswami
• Khubsoorat (1980): starring Rekha, Rakesh Roshan
• Naram Garam (1981): starring Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt, Swaroop Sampat, Shatrughan Sinha
• Rang Birangi (1983): starring Amol Palekar, Parveen Babi, Deepti Naval, Farooq Sheikh
• Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate (1998) : starring Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla