Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Hrishikesh Mukherjee, R.I.P.

Hrishikesh Mukherjee , who directed more than 45 Hindi movies, passed away last Sunday, August 27. May his soul rest in peace.

Hrishida was one of my favourite directors. His films were always good and clean entertainment. And yes, his movies usually had good songs. Most of the movies directed by Hrishida had music by either S.D. Burman or R.D. Burman. Two movies which had made me cry were directed by Hrishda -- in Satyakam, its hero, played by Dharmendra who gave his life's best performance, played an idealist man who never lied come what may, and Ashirwad, for which Ashok Kumar got national award for the best actor. In Ashirwad, Ashok Kumar's wife who was a rich women, always used to nag him and he leaves home and his daughter. In the most memorable scene of the movie, the daughter is giving alms to poor men and beggars who had come to her wedding, one hand is shown palm down, instead of palm up, and the daughter realises that it is her father who have come to give her Ashirwad (blessings) as she had been promised by him long time ago. That once scene showed the tremendous power of the cinema, and I just could not hold my tears. Hrishda was truly a great craftsman.

I read somewhere that Hrishda used to shoot his movies in a peculiar manner by shooting the portion of the movie first sans its songs. He believed that songs are unreal, but necessary part of the movie. When someone used to ask him how is shooting of your movie going, he used to reply that the `real' part of the movie is shot, and the `unreal' portion is yet to be shot. Hrishda has left this unreal world for the real world. His films will continue to give us many hours of enjoyment and fun.

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