With the passing away of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Indian film industry has lost one of the bastions of hindi cinema. He started his career as an editor and assistant to Bimal Roy. Being a worthy disciple of a worthy guru he was able to create a niche for himself. Coming out from the Bimal Roy school of film making his films reflected his gurus touches but he was able to put his own stamp of class and vision in his films. He started his directional venture with Musafir in which he directed Dilip Kumar. He directed all the big stars in 60s and 70s. He directed Raj Kapoor in Anari, Devanand in Asli Naqli, Ashok Kumar in Aashirwad, Balraj Sahni in Anuradha, Dharmendra in Anupama, Satyakam, Chupke Chupke etc. and above all Amitabh Bachchan in Anand, Namakharam, Abhimaan, Chupke Chupke, Mili and others. Where in Satyakam he raised his voice against corruption, in Namakharam he showed the class divide in society, in Anand he shown us the life of a cancer patient which was much much better than Shahrukh Khans Kal Ho Na Ho. If he was able to make sensitive films like Anuradha, Anupama, Satyakam, Anand, Namakharam, Mili and Abhimaan, then on the other hand he made comedies like Chupke Chupke, Khoobsurat and Golmaal also. His two films Anuradha and Aashirwad went on to win Presidents Gold Medals for the best films. Many people are in the impression that Amitabh Bachchan was maximum directed by Manmohan Desai or Prakash Mehra. It is wrong. Hrishikesh Mukherjee directed him for maximum films. The void created by Hrishi Das passing away will be difficult to fill.
