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Hrishida calls me chinna poonu -Rekha
He deserved not only this award but deserves all the genuine
awards in the world. More than just being one ofthe greatest
filmmakers in India, he is a very warm human being, the kind
of man I am sure have very little place in this rapidly growing
ruthless world which doesn’t suit them at all. To me
Hrishida has always been a father-figure, a guru and a guide.
He always calls me his chinna ponnu which means a little girl.
He once told me that he would portray me as Chinna Ponnu,
his little girl. The result was Khubsoorat, one of my best
films and his best films too, he says. He always called his
stars his betas, his children. His home was like home for
all of us, his betas. We belonged to his family. He was the
head of the family and we were his little ones. He knew how
to make us come up with our best performances. I now feel
sorry that I did only two films, Namak Haraam, and Khubsoorat
with him. I also feel guilty that we didn’t do any more
films together. I pead guilty that I never got very close
to him, that I didn’t find the oportunity to reciprocate
his feelings of apnapan which is a strong point of this great
man. He believed in all of us being one family but we were,
most of us, all guilty of not spending enough time with him,
not learning from him to our great disadvantage. He is a man
who deserves all the love possible and love can’t be
measured when it comes to a man like him. I am also guilty
of not being able to give Hrishida the time that I always
wanted to give him the time but time was always proved to
be the villain. I promise you, I will now make up for it.
More than this award, I wish Hrishida a long and healthy life
which will bring meaning into the lives of many more people.
I hope to spend a lot of time with him one of these days and
I will even fight the villain called time when I decided to
do so. Where does one find such great man like our Hrishida
in our industry today?
He brought Anand to
my life- Rajesh Khanna
I have experienced all kinds of happiness in my life, but
some of the greatest experiences have been the ones which
was the results of having Hrishida as part of my life. My
heart literally leaped with joy when I heard the news about
my Hrishida being honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke award
and suddenly I wondered why this great brilliant man with
a heart of gold who had contributed so much to Indian cinema
was not considered for the award all these years.
I firmly believe that I would not have been the Rajesh Khanna
I became ifHrishida would not have come into my life. He brought
Anand into my life and changed it. I also had the privilege
of working with him in films like Namak Haraam and and Bawarchi
and they were some of the best films I worked in. Hrishida
was my guiding star during the best period of my carrer. He
taught me the finer aspects of acting. You will see the difference
very clearly when you see Rajesh Khanna directed by Hrishida
and Rajesh Khanna directed by all the other directors.
Thank you, Hrishida for making my life and many other lives
meaningful worthwhile. We all pray that you live a healthy
life, so that you can work again, work wonders like you once
worked. How I wish I could start my career with Anand all
over again.
Hrishida is a great man. He will always been know for his
work which is a rare combination of brilliance and being a
warm large-hearted human being. I always have Hrishida as
part of my heart. It’s been like that ever since I met
Hrishida for the first time.
I learnt many things from Hrishida - Gulzar
I started out in the school where the late Bimal Roy was the
principal and Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Hrishida) who was Bimalda’s
chief assistant was Mastji for all of us. Masterji wanted
good work because he firmly believed in good work which could
only lead to good cinema.
Bimalda died in 1965 and we who worked with him as a team
were suddenly unemployed. It was Hemant Kumar who came to
our rescue and got us jobs in various places. Hemantda who
was at the peak kept me with him to write his songs. He then
introduced me to Hrishida who was destined to play a very
important role in any life and career.
It was 1965 and Hrishida was already making good cinema long
before they before they talked about new cinema and parallel
cinema. His cinema is simply what is called good cinema, cinema
for every man, woman and child. He is a very good man and
his goodness is reflected in all his films, that’s why
there are no villains in any of his films. He belonged to
a typical middle class family who lived with his parents,
his brothers and his sister. They are all seen in some way
and other films.
He called me to work with him for the first time in Aashirwad.
What followed was one long innings, a partnership as director
and writer. He was the master still and I his obedient Shishy.
There were times when Masterji said working with him had become
a habit with him. And there were even times when Masterji
made me stand out of class, dropped me from some of his films.
I learned so many things from this humble genius of a man,
specially, his timing for every kind of scene. We have not
worked together for a long time but we still share the Masterji
and Shishy realationship with great love.
Incidentally, Masterji would not be able to make his masterpieces
without the help of the large-hearted producer, NC Sippy who
understod Masterji and Masterji’s urge to make good cinema.
Hrishida had nothing to worry as a director as long as he
had N.C. Sippy as his producer. Later, the same N.C.Sippy
who helped Masterji in making his films the way he wanted
also came to my resque help when I started of my carrer as
a director in my first film Mere Aapne. That was another era,
another period which was made memorable by men like Masterji
and Sippy Sahab. I don’t know why God has stopped creating
great men like them this these days. His (God’s) decision
has greatly affected good filmmakers like Masterji and the
kind of good cinema he made.
PS: Amitabh Bachchan, who considers himself a creation
of Hrishida will have his say on Hrishida in the next issue
because of his sheer lack of time and because “I can’t
talk about father-figure and a giant of a filmmaker like Hrishida
in just a few lines”.
Ali Peter John
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