Dinesh Raheja charts the highs and lows of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's creative association with five megastars -- Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra.
Five megastars -- Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dharmendra -- had one thing in common: They held Director Hrishikesh Mukherji in high regard.
Each of the five actors have collaborated memorably with the filmmaker, often stepping out of their starry ways and making special concessions to accommodate his critically acclaimed middle-of-the-road films.
Amitabh Bachchan-Hrishikesh Mukherji
Amitabh Bachchan has done the most movies with two directors, Hrishikesh Mukherji and Manmohan Desai. He did as many as eight films with both.
In fact, the actor first came into prominence thanks to Mukherji's Anand (1971). Amitabh played second lead to Rajesh Khanna who had the more prominent title role as the dying man who spreads life-affirming positivity.
But Amitabh shot to fame as Babu Moshai, the brooding, emotionally barricaded friend whose life is transformed by Anand.
Sure, Amitabh became a huge star with Zanjeer in 1973 but Mukherji played a major role in establishing his acting credentials as an actor with the twin successes of Namak Haram and Abhimaan, both of which released that same year.
Mukherji is the only filmmaker to have pitted two superstars, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, together on screen. Twice at that. In Namak Haram, though Khanna had the sympathy-cornering death sequence, many felt that Bachchan had stolen a march over his senior.
Since Amitabh's wife Jaya too had debuted in Hindi films with Mukherji's Guddi, the close friends formed a clique.
Story goes that Amitabh-Jaya insisted on being a part of the director's Chupke Chupke (1975) though Dharmendra-Sharmila had the main roles. But the resulting rollicking comedy was a creative win for the couple, as was the darker-shaded Mili (also 1975) which presented true love triumphing over a terminal disease.
Mukherji made a creatively courageous decision at this juncture of his collaboration with Bachchan. Though Amitabh had now been entrenched as an action superstar, Mukherji cast him in a poignant role in Alaap (1977) as a soft-spoken musician who struggles against his materialistic father.
Alaap flopped disastrously, but Amitabh continued to extend his patronage to Mukherji right until the mid-1980s when he cut his work load after his near-fatal accident and Mukherji retired from films. Amitabh would dutifully show up even for a guest appearance, like he did for Mukherji's Golmaal (1979).
The duo next teamed up on Jurmana (1979) and Bemisal (1982) which were relatively minor notes in the rich symphony of their collaboration.
But both films were thematically rich human dramas, very much a part of the sensitive, civilised, literate cosmos that Mukherji created in their long and remarkable repertoire.
Rajesh Khanna-Hrishikesh Mukherji
In Anand, Hrishikesh Mukherji captured the ultimate irony: A dying man who teaches others how to live. Interweaving it with laughter and without resorting to melodrama, Mukherji showcases Anand's philosophy -- 'Life has to be lived well, irrespective of the lifespan'.
In one of his signature roles, Rajesh Khanna played the terminally ill patient who copes by refusing to mope.
At the giddy heights of his superstardom, Khanna gave a persuasive performance that was straight from the heart. It fetched him the Best Actor award.
Khanna would reportedly cut his fees for the filmmaker.
Mukherji next cast Khanna in Bawarchi (1972) as another benign soul whose transformative powers changes lives. Once again, there was no love story for the king of romance, but this time, the duo weren't as successful at the ticket windows.
Quick on its heels came the hit film, Namak Haram (1973), in which Khanna played a champion of the dispossessed, who stands by his empathy even if it means going on the warpath against his best friend, played by Bachchan.
In subsequent years, Mukherji switched preferences to Bachchan.
But Khanna and he did collaborate one last time for the ill-fated Naukri (1978), which was a long time in the making.
It had an indifferent release when Khanna was going through a low phase.
Sadly, after four films, this team ran out of steam.
Raj Kapoor-Hrishikesh Mukherji
Mukherji rose to prominence as a director with the Raj Kapoor-Nutan starrer, Anari, which was the biggest hit of 1959.
Anari could well be said to have provided the template for Mukherji's future filmmaking style.
It centred around a highly principled common man (Kapoor), battling a rich but humanely etched capitalist (Motilal); and this conflict became a recurrent theme in many of Mukherji's movies thereafter.
After Anari, Mukherji continued to choose strong, single-character-oriented biographical subjects (Anuradha, Anupama, Anand, Guddi, Mili).
Mukherji and Kapoor seemed to be perfectly matched cinematically. In Anari, Mukherji's world view (Kisiki Muskurahaton Pe Ho Nissar) complemented Kapoor's onscreen image derived from the idealism of his earlier films. What also helped Anari was its narrative fluidity (Mukherji's reputation as a film editor was legend), and the director's ability to tailor ideological standoffs into emotionally loaded scenarios. The film won Raj Kapoor his first Best Actor trophy from Filmfare.
But the director and actor chose to collaborate next on a markedly different subject, Aashiq (1962). The film had Kapoor and Padmini as creative artistes and star-crossed lovers while Nanda played Kapoor's wife.
The film didn't do well but their friendship survived.
Mukherji wanted to make Anand originally with Kapoor. After all, Kapoor called Mukherji 'Babu moshai' but it was not to be.
Raj Kapoor's last collaboration with Hrishikesh Mukherji was a character role alongside Rajesh Khanna in the forgettable Naukri (1978).
Dilip Kumar-Hrishikesh Mukherji
Though Dilip Kumar was a huge star in the mid-1950s, he agreed to act in Hrishikesh Mukherji's directorial debut Musafir (1957), effectively jump-starting the filmmaker's career with a bang.
Dilip Kumar assented because he knew Mukherji from the time the latter was assisting Director Bimal Roy during Devdas (1955).
Mukherji, a science student from Calcutta University, had also impressed Kumar with his work as the co-editor on Devdas.
Musafir was a portmanteau film with three thinly-linked stories and six acting leads.
But the Tragedy King gave it his characteristic intensity.
This Mukherji film was the only time that Kumar crooned a song onscreen; he dueted with Lata Mangeshkar on the Salil Chowdhury composition, Laagi Nahi Chhute.
Musafir didn't travel far at the box office, but Mukherji's association with Dilip Kumar continued. Though Mukherji was now a full-fledged director, Dilip Kumar roped him in as one of the co-editors on his home production, Ganga Jumna (1961), a landmark success.
Then Dilip Kumar surprised many by consenting to do a cameo for Mukherji's Phir Kab Miloge (1974). He played a villager who kidnaps Mala Sinha to avenge a wrong done to his sister.
Considering Dilip Kumar has rarely made any cameo or special appearances in his career, it certainly testifies to his respect for Hrishikesh Mukherji.
Dharmendra-Hrishikesh Mukherji
Hrishikesh Mukherji's films repeatedly explored new facets of macho star Dharmendra's personality.
Dharmendra became a big star after playing the rough-and-tough Shaka of Phool Aur Patthar in 1966. Later that year, Mukherji successfully presented him in a strikingly different role as a progressive and sensitive writer in Anupama.
Dharmendra won acclaim for playing the catalyst who encourages a shy, neglected girl (Sharmila Tagore) with a fractured psyche to blossom into her own person.
Mukherji refreshingly presented his star-actors like Dharmendra and Khanna and even glamorous heroines like Sadhana (Asli Naqli) or Sharmila (Satyakam) or Rekha (Alaap) as embodiments of simplicity.
Dharmendra was so pleased with this portrayal that he repeated the Mukherji-Tagore team in his production Satyakam (1969).
The actor had an author-backed role as an inveterate believer in truth, who refuses to compromise his values even in the face of insurmountable odds. The stylistically spare film didn't appeal to the masses but Dharmendra counts it among his favourites.
Overcoming his disappointment at not being cast in Anand, Dharmendra sportingly agreed to do an extended cameo in Mukherji's seminal classic, Guddi (1971). He played himself onscreen, the object of Guddi's immature star-worship.
In the 1970s, Dharmendra was a huge action star after Mera Gaon Mera Desh and Jugnu, but Mukherji stubbornly stood his ground and cast him instead in a comic role in Chupke Chupke (1975).
As a Hindi purist poseur, the actor was a laugh riot.
Including Majhli Didi (1967) and Chaitali (1975), this star-director collaboration lasted over six films.
One wishes though they had warmed our hearts with even more tales of human whimsy.