Monday, August 28, 2006

Badi Suni Suni Hain…

My parents always complained when I was a kid that there weren’t any clean family movies around. (This when I was in school and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun was yet to hit the screens.) So I landed up catching most of these ‘old’ films (most released before I was born) on video at home and saw myself watching them a million times again. By some coincidence most of these lovable films came from a man by the name of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Simplicity and real believable characters were always the highlight of his films. Probably why they always struck a chord with the people as they always identified with his characters.

  • Anand with his cheerful approach to life even though he knew he would not be around for long
  • Mili for her naughtiness, her innocence that made everyone around her love her
  • Guddi for her infatuation and film fascination
  • Subir and Uma’s trials and tribulations in Abhimaan affect us as much as them
  • Bawarchi’s Raghu is one cook we all would love to have in our family and till today an inspiration for many Hindi movies
  • Dr. Parimal Tripathi and his challenge to his wife to fool his brother-in-law in Chupke Chupke is still unsurpassed with its closest competitor being Ramprasad Sharma’s twin trick on his boss Bhavani Shankar in Golmaal
  • And finally my favourite: Manju’s battle with Nirmala in Khoobsurat.

His movies always had melodious songs and with a lot of meaning. Here are some of my favourite ones:

All of them family movies. All about simple people who were leading simple lives. Movies woven out of day-to-day happenings, movies that made us smile and made us think as well. Movies that still cheer me up when I watch them. Movies that will never bore me or go out of style. Movies that will remain firmly etched in memory; with all moments that make me cry, make me smile, make me laugh my heart out and make me want a family just as those families there.

Hrishi Da you have left a void that no one can fill

Aapke bine yeh film industry badi suni suni ho gayi hain…

May you rest in peace and we will always miss you.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

God Bless his soul! What a list of movies he has to himself! It is a tragic day for Indian Cinema.

Tugga said...

Abhimaan would be my personal favorite, I guess. Awesome Amitabh and Jaya!!

Minal said...

@Mangi: You bet it is. And where have you been? Long time no see online!

@Tugga: Guess mine too for amitabh, jaya for the plot and for the songs!! Khoobsurat comes a close second , Rekha was such a natural act in that movie and Ashok Kumar was a delight

Anonymous said...

I am as busy as can be with the work and multiple projects on my head. Had been to Mumbai for Ganpati for the past 4 days. Am back to work now.

And abt favorites, mine would be Chupke Chupke... but abhimaan, golmaal and khoobsurat are awesome too!

Anonymous said...

Golmaal is one of those films like AAA where you sit in a group and recite almost all of the memorable dialogues....

Sir, mere pitaji kaha karte the....

Tum usse shaadi nahi karogi jisse tum prem karti ho, tum ussi se shaadi karogi jisse main prem karta hoon

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSHHH !!!

Btw, for all those with a high speed connection and time to kill, you can watch Golmaal on youtube in its entirety or better yet just the most funny parts. Search for "old golmaal".

Minal said...

@Sandip: You are right about that dialogue bit:-) You tube is blocked here you know:-(

Minal said...

@Mangi: Sigh, you are so lucky to be in Mumbai for Ganeshotsav. I'm missing home dearly:-(

Anonymous said...

Minal,

I didn't necessarily mean you when I said 'those with time to kill' ;)

Sandip

Minal said...

@Sandip: Of all the people we know who read this blog I'm the only one who has loads of time to kill;-)

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