#3. Book 2 — The middle-class superstar
Book: The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee — The filmmaker everyone loves
Editor/Writer: Jai Arjun Singh
Pages: 331
Publisher: Penguin Books
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Bookstore: Kumzum, Gurugram
Time to read: 4 days
Summers in the late 90s and early 2000s used to be very brutal in Kanpur, especially in my home. It was insanely hot, and power cuts started at 11 am, and if you were lucky, ended at 4 pm. We only had fans to cool ourselves, and an ancient black & white tv to keep us entertained (with no cable — only DD1 and DDMetro to our rescue). So naturally, like many of you, I grew up watching the bioscope program, with movies like “Khatta-Meetha”, “Golmaal”, “Asli-Naqli”, “Anand”, and “Bawarchi”. These slice-of-life stories, with Wodehousian characters, and simple yet elegant music, not only brought a much-needed respite from the heat but also provide simple sustenance to the soul, much like dal-chawal.
I always thought the works of Hrishikesh Mukherjee were simple, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this. And I am very thankful to the author, Jai Arjun Singh, to help me discover the depth of the works, and also a lot of underappreciated classics like Satyakam (sadly only available on youtube, and I agree with the author here, this is no way to watch a movie) and Biwi aur Makaan (this one is apropos, simply because bachelors are still considered pariah while renting). The amount of thought that went into the simplistic set design, the callbacks to his films (Mili and Mem-Didi), and the wonderful background score, simply speak to the mastery over the craft of film-making that Hrishi-da had.
Thankfully, I still have the luxury to work from home, and this movie has inspired me to start a new afternoon ritual, for Arjun and me. We sit down after Arjun is done with his lunch, and we watch an old movie together. So far, we have completed Bawarchi, Khatta-Meetha, and Golmaal, and we have to continue this till he is vocal enough to protest!
