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Amitabh Bachchan tweeted a picture of him and Rajesh Khanna on 23rd November that it was 44 years of Namak Haram.
The film is directed by the legendary Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Padma Vibhusan, DadaSaheb Phalke awardee and winner of 8 Filmfare awards.
T 2719 – Namak Haram .. 44 years ! .. and that instrument in my hand is the first video camera in the film Industry .. it had just come out and it belonged to Rajesh Khanna personally .. when he showed it to Hrishi Da, he used it in the scene of the film .. !! pic.twitter.com/g0oH7ox4GN
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— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) November 22, 2017
Amitabh’s tweet reminded me about Hrishi Da, a director par excellence. He was the pioneer of midway cinema, the middle path between typical masala movies such as Yaadon Ki Baaraat and Naseeb and typical Art cinema such as Bazaar and Mandi.
Called “a great man who made great films” by Rajesh Khanna, Hrishi Da directed simple realistic stories. He was a Professor of Science and Mathematics at Kolkata before the lure of film industry took him to Mumbai. He started as a cameraman, then became a film editor, an assistant director and finally a director.
Hrishi Da’s 1st major success came in his 2nd movie, Raj Kapoor’s Anari. It won several awards such as Best actor, music director, Lyricist, male playback singer and Supporting actress apart from the President’s Medal for best feature film in Hindi.
Hrishi Da directed almost 50 great movies. Let us briefly discuss a few of the most memorable ones.
Anupama starring Dharmendra and Sharmila has probably one of the best ever soundtracks in the history of Hindi movies. Hemant Kumar was in his elements. Kuchh Dil Ne Kaha, Dheere Dheere Machal, Ya Dil Ki Suno Duniyawalo are songs which are hummed every day even now.