New Delhi. In the history of Hindi cinema, Hrishikesh Mukherjee is counted among those filmmakers who made the life of a common man the center of his stories instead of big budgets and grand sets. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, fondly known as Rishi Da among the audience, presented ordinary moments of everyday life on screen by connecting them with emotions and relationships. In his films, the bitterness and sweetness within the family, the confusion of relationships, the closeness of friendship and the questions between life and death were clearly visible. The characters and their problems in his stories seemed to be related to common families, but the way of telling the story made the audience connect with them emotionally. This simplicity was one of the biggest features of his cinema.
Abhimaan, released in 1973, is a prime example of this sensitive cinema of Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan in the lead roles, the film effectively brought out the ego and insecurities within a husband-wife relationship. The film showed that love alone is not enough to keep a relationship strong, but it is also important to understand each other's success and feelings. Earlier, through Anand, released in 1971, Hrishikesh Mukherjee had put forward the deep questions related to life in very simple language. In the film, Rajesh Khanna played the role of Anand and Amitabh Bachchan played the role of Doctor Bhaskar. The story revolves around a man who tries to spread happiness among the people around him despite the limited time in his life. Anand's character puts forward the idea of considering the way of living life as important rather than its length.
Humor also played an important role in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's cinema, but his comedy was not limited only to making the audience laugh. Gol Maal is a prime example of this. Starring brilliant performances by Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt, this film satirized social thinking and artificiality through a simple story and memorable characters. The humor of the film still attracts audiences today. Even in Chupke Chupke, he woven a story with relationships and humor. Starring actors like Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Sharmila Tagore and Jaya Bachchan, this film brought forward the funny situations arising between language, identity and family environment. The story continued to be filled with humor, which was its specialty.
Different shades of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's cinema are also visible in Bawarchi and Satyakam. In Bawarchi, small matters and mutual distances within the family were brought forward with simplicity, whereas in Satyakam, values like ideals and honesty were presented with serious questions. The idea that a person's true identity is not determined by his position or reputation is often reflected in his films, but by his behavior and relationships. For this reason, despite being related to common life, his stories continued to leave a deep impact on the audience.
The specialty of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's films was that along with entertainment, he also introduced the audience to the relationships and emotions related to his own life. Abhimaan highlighted the importance of understanding and emotions in a husband-wife relationship, Anand offered a different perspective on life, while Gol Maal and Chupke Chupke delivered heart-touching stories through simple humour. Bawarchi and Satyakam also presented subjects like family, behavior, ideals and honesty in their respective styles. This style of portraying the life of a common man on screen with simplicity and sensitivity became the identity of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's cinema and kept his films memorable for a long time.