Later Life
Hrishikesh Mukherjee was honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award by the Government of India, in 1999. Mukherjee was chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification and of the National Film Development Corporation. He was also awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award for his contribution to Indian cinema by government of India in 2001 . The International Film Festival of India honoured him with a retrospective of his films in November 2005. He holds the distinction of working with almost all the top Indian stars since independence of India in 1947.
The films were realistic and unlike the other Bollywood films do not have crime, violence. The simple plots contain deeper meaning, but are generally straightforward in form, theme and treatment. He directed around 50 films most of which were valued by audiences and critics alike because of their middle-of-the-road accessibility, heart-warming irony and literary sensibilities. His characters inhabited a middle-class, urban, educated milieu. One more characteristic of his films was that it had a character engrossed in music. Such as Anuradha, Aashirwad, Chupke chupke, Abhimaan, Khubsoorat, GolMaal, Alaap, Bawarchi, Aashiq, Mili, Saanjh Aur Sawera and Phir Kab Milogi to name a few.
His last film was Jhooth Bole Kauwa Kaate. Since his original hero Amol Palekar had grown old he had to choose Anil Kapoor. He has also directed TV serials like Talaash. Another director making films akin to him is Basu Chatterjee.
Read more about this topic: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“I have heard that whoever loves is in no condition old. I have heard that whenever the name of man is spoken, the doctrine of immortality is announced; it cleaves to his constitution. The mode of it baffles our wit, and no whisper comes to us from the other side. But the inference from the working of intellect, hiving knowledge, hiving skill,—at the end of life just ready to be born,—affirms the inspirations of affection and of the moral sentiment.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“His life was a sort of dream, as are most lives with the mainspring left out.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)