Sachin Bhowmick on Hrishikesh Mukherjee: The Incomparable Babu Moshai
He has had one of the most successful careers in Indian Cinema. Almost everything his pen touches turns into gold-or should I say a golden story, and yet when Sachin Bhowmick tried to catch the legendary Bimal Roy’s attention in the early days of his career, he got the cold shoulder. After trying vainly for months, Sachin Bhowmick turned to Hrishikesh Mukherjee who was himself recovering from his first directorial misadventure, Musafir which had failed to dazzle at the box office, in spite of critical acclaim.
The two Bengali babus met and the deal was that if Hrishi da’s next venture Anari did well, he will listen to Sachin da’s stories, if not then they would be both out in the cold. Sachin Bhowmick’s entry into Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s life couldn’t have been at a more auspicious moment. Anari became a runaway hit, and that paved the way for the making of Anuradha, a story written by Sachin Bhowmick. The two forged a friendship that lasted till the day Hrishi da died. His last film Jhoot Bole Kauva Katey was also penned by Sachin Bhowmick.
In this tribute series to Hrishi da, I can honestly say that Sachin Bhowmick has been the find of the year for me. While I had always known what a super successful writer he was, it was only when I got to know him over many conversations that I discovered what a funny, entertaining story teller he is. His memory like that of Hrishi da is phenomenal, in spite of being in his seventies. Hrishi da’s daughter in law Swati had told me that Sachin Bhowmick was an integral part of the family for them and that if I needed any help, I could call him any time. I did and I have to say, his kindness, willingness to always help out, his patience and warmth have truly touched my heart.
The memory lane to Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s life was strewn with special memories, crystal clear in Sachin da’s (as I fondly call him) mind. Sachin da mentioned how when he was struggling, he’d show up at Hrishi da’s house at lunch time daily and the main attraction was the food! “Hrishi da’s very sharp second daughter asked me one day, uncle why do you always show up at lunch time every day?” Hrishi da scolded her but she had indeed caught us!”
Sachin Bhowmick shared interesting stories of how when they finally made Anuradha, it won the President’s gold medal, as the National awards were called then, for best film of 1960. While Balraj Sahni the hero was a very well educated, superbly trained actor, the heroine, the ethereal looking Leela Naidu, born of an Indo-French union, was a newcomer and spoke only French and English. Each time she tried speaking people would burst out laughing. But Naidu did not give up. It took her over a month, recalls Sachin Bhowmick and Hrishi da’s strict orders to everyone not to laugh at her and the lovely actress dubbed all the dialogues herself.
The music of Anuradha was another interesting story. Since the film was based on the life of a singer, Hrishi da wanted a classical musician to do the composition. Since his brother was very close to Bade Ghulam Ali, the maestro was approached. The eccentric singer demanded one rupee more than the famed music directors Shankar-Jaikishan. Hrishi da could not afford his price says Sachin Bhowmick who was then sent to the sitar maestro Pt. Ravi Shankar who came to their rescue. Lata Mangeshkar didn’t charge a single penny for the songs, and the music of Anuradha went on to be ranked among the best compositions in the last 100 years of Indian cinema.
So off they went to Berlin for the film festival with Anuradha as one of the entries. There Satyajit Ray on hearing that Sachin Bhowmick (whose Bengali novel he had illustrated some years ago) was writing for Hindi films, said very tongue in cheek, “ Hindi film mein kahani hota hai kya?’ (Do Hindi films have a story?). “I told him indeed most don’t have a story but I’m trying to be different,” recalls Sachin da with a laugh. “He gave me his blessings and said he was confident that between Hrishikesh and me, we will do well. He had a lot of respect for Hrishida.”
Satyajit Ray also encouraged Sachin Bhowmick to watch as many foreign films as he could at the festival. A film by Akira Kurosawa struck Sachin Bhowmick’s imagination and he narrated the story to Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Hrishi da was very enamored by the story about a man stricken with cancer who decides to bring joy to everyone for the remaining months of his life and that gave birth to Anand.
Raj Kapoor was the first choice for the film, but Sachin Bhowmick said it would not inspire sympathy if the hero was a man past middle age who had lived his life. The next choice was singer Kishore Kumar but Sachin da disagreed on the grounds that people thiought of Kishore Kumar as an out and out comedian. He asked Hrishi da to choose a young popular star. Rajesh Khanna was the choice and the rest is history.
Sachin Bhowmick says Hrishi da never catered to formula films. On one hand he was making movies with top stars, on the other he made “Mem didi” because he loved Sachin Da’s story of an Anglo Indian middle aged woman, who scrounges and saves and sends the daughter of her dead employers to the best private boarding school while giving the young girl the impression that her parents had left her a fortune. While living in a chawl she starts on the wrong foot with two gangsters, who eventually adopt her as their older sister and call her Mem didi. The veteran actress the late Lalita Pawar played the lead role. “I told Hrishi da, on one hand you are making movies with all these big stars, why do you want to make this film? It’s not exactly box office material. But he said one should not just always be focused on that. I like the story and I will make the film, and he did. Look at the roles he gave Dharamendra, who had this he-man image of a macho guy who beat up dozens and was hot headed. Hrishi da gave him an out and out comedy like Chupke Chupke, and did the same with Amitabh Bachchan who had only done serious, intense roles in Anand, Namakharam, Jurmana and Bemisaal.”
Sachin Bhowmick also laughingly recalls Amol Palekar’s dismay when a Kurta stitched for him arrived and was pretty short in size. Amol was acting in the block buster Golmaal also written by Sachin Bhowmick. Hrishikesh Mukherjee refused to get a new one made. “ Hrishi da was so economical. Any other director would have yelled at the tailor and got a new one made. Instead he told Amol to wear that Kurta and created this very funny dialogue where Utpal Dutt asks him, “why do you wear such a short Kurta and Hrishi da’s dialogue was that it was meant to just be an instrument of modesty and not fashion-and if every man saved a few inches off their kurtas they’d solve the clothing problem of so many poor in the country!”
Sachin da also said that any one who ever worked with Hrishi da just fell for him. They would ask after him all the time. “It didn’t matter who it was, be it Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, they all asked about his films, how he was doing. Rajesh Khanna used to say “I will cancel every one else’s dates if I can get a film with Hrishi da. No one ever charged him their market price. Amitabh used to get 45 lakhs, Hrishi da gave him 15. Amitabh never quoted him his price. He just told him to give him whatever he could because Amitabh knew Hrishi da’s films were made on a shoe string budget and even the buyers didn’t pay that much.”
Sachin Bhowmick said that many people didn’t realize what a gifted writer Hrishi da was. “He had tremendous contribution to the dialogues of Anand and many of them were written by him. His skills as an editor were so formidable, there was always a queue of top directors wanting their films edited by Hrishi da. Manmohan Desai’s Coolie was edited by Hrishi da, as were many award winning and very popular films.”
Sachin Bhowmick says if given the choice, he would have loved to have written the story of Satyakam, though Anand was his personal favorite. “But Hrishi da always said, there is no film like my Satyakam. Dharamendra too was very proud of having produced that film even though he lost money on it, but it received a lot of critical acclaim.”
No conversation could ever be complete without the music in Hrishi da’s films. Sachin Bhowmick says Hrishi da had a clear preference for Bengali music directors because of the melody in their composition. He felt they understood what he wanted very easily. Stories of a miserly and sedate S.D Burman who would palm off four packets of peanuts claiming how nutritious they were and give them to Hrishi da and his team while he’d scurry off to have lunch, made me laugh. “Every other music director would feed us if it was past lunch time, but S.D. would say- Hrishi I will give you something which is very good and full of vitamins and hand us those peanut packets! On the contrary, R.D was exceedingly vibrant, generous and full of life. Once his tabla player got wet in the rain because he couldn’t catch a bus and R.D. gifted him one of his cars. He spent so much on me as well. Hrishi da gave Salil Chaudhry a new lease of life with Anand. He was not doing well and look at the amazing music he gave in the film. Look at Hemant Kumar’s music in Anupama. That was another film I like very much.”
Shammi Kapoor and Hrishikesh Mukherjee never worked together, but the duo became very good friends when internet entered India, according to Sachin Bhowmick. “They were both computer junkies and even established an association for cyber surfers, with one becoming the President, another becoming the secretary! They kept sending stuff across email to each other. I was attending Shammi’s 76th birthday last month and he was remembering Hrishi da and what great cyber friends they had become.”
Sachin Bhowmick says Hrishi da was very unwell when his last film Jhoot Bole was made. It was to fulfill the dream of a producer who had always wanted to make a film with Hrishi da. Aamir Khan was his first choice for the film for the lead role which Anil Kapoor played later with Juhi Chawla as his heroine.
“Aamir came home, even played chess with Hrishi da but much as he wanted so badly to work with him, the story didn’t appeal to Aamir. Hrishi da made that film on a wheel chair and he was very unwell. I didn’t think the story was fresh but he still went ahead and made it. Of course on the positive side, he ended up making great friends with Amrish Puri and grew very fond of Juhi.”
Like everyone else who has worked with Hrishi, da Sachin Bhaumick too says the same thing-that he had the best time in Hrishi da’s company.
And that makes me say what I have always believed about Hrishi da – this Babu Moshai was incomparable.
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