Today is the 98th birth anniversary of one of India's finest directors Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
A short 🧵about his life and films.
We all know of Hrishida's contribution to the Hindi film industry, but did you know he has been involved in a lot of celebrated movies down south. In fact, Filmfare South gave him a life time achievement award in 1994, something he never received from Bombay Filmfare.
He edited the Malayalam classic Chemmeen. This movie is interesting as it also had the music from another Bengali legend - Salil Chowdhury.
He started his film career primarily as an editor and learnt everything about movies from Bimal Roy while working on Do Bigha Zamin and Devdas.
His directorial debut was Musafir. The film is about a house and the lives of three families who live in it, so in essence, it is three stories linked by the house.
It wasn't considered a box office success but gave the world glimpses of the genius of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
He struck gold with his second film Anari that starred Raj Kapoor and Nutan.
Casablanca ended with the line "This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship". And that could have been said about Raj Kapoor and Hrishida.
When Raj Kapoor fell seriously ill, Hrishida feared that he would die, leaving him friendless.
That's when he penned down the film Anand about what a friend is about to die. Raj Kapoor called Hrishida - Babumoshai and that is what Rajesh Khanna calls Amitabh Bachchan.
If you are not tearing up after seeing the end of Anand, cardiologists will certify that you have a heart of stone.
Hrishida was a typical Bengali who loved his football. He wanted to incorporate the craze of Pele's visit to India and included many references to Pele in Gol Maal. (-50 if you reference Rohit Shetty here).
In fact in the song "Ek Din Sapne Mein Dekha Sapna" there is a portion that was eventually omitted in the final cut of the film where Amol Palekar dreams of being Pele.
Might be the first instance of a Hindi film song referencing Pele. Listen to that portion here.
Talking of Music, Hrishida's films always had excellent music.
He was particularly fond of the Sitar and was a radio artist himself, but a bout of Arthritis kept the instrument away from him in later years. Pic courtesy @jaiarjun from his excellent book on Hrishida.
One of our favorite Hrishida films is Bawarchi. It is unique that it has spoken credits. Amitabh Bachchan introduces the characters in a film starring Jaya Bahaduri.
Many years later, Paa, a film starring Amitabh Bachchan had spoken credits, this time by Jaya Bachchan.
Getting back to Gol Maal, the scene where Amol Palekar visits Deven Bhojani - we see the scene from a movie Jurmana being shot. Deven asks "abhi tak khatam nahi hui?" referencing to the long time that film was on the floors.
Jurmana released couple of weeks after Gol Maal.
He has had 2 cameos in his films.
Guddi, a film about the Hindi film industry, sees him playing the role of a director in the film within the film.
The other is in a song sequence from the film 'Biwi aur Makaan' with Mahmood asking him "Rehne ko ghar do."
What are your favorite Hrishi da stories? We would love to share them.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Jamnagar these days is famous for being the epicenter of Reliance industries and for welcoming the who's who of the world for a pre-wedding.
But in 1942, it played a significant role in saving over 1000 Polish children from certain death in WW2.
A thread 🧵
In 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland which started World War 2. Some Poles tried to escape the wrath of the Germans by moving into Soviet territory.
The Soviet authorities forced hundreds of thousands of Poles to migrate deeper into Soviet territory, including Siberia.
The invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941 prompted the USSR to declare an amnesty, resulting in the liberation of these Polish exiles. They were asked to find refuge themselves.
They embarked on arduous journeys to various destinations.
"Except for cricketers, poets, and singers, others found it relatively hard to come to India."
This was director John Mathew Matthan's rationale for portraying a ghazal singer as the villain!
25 years ago, crime drama changed forever with the release of Sarfarosh!
A Thread 🧵
John Matthew Matthan was an ad-film director, and "Sarfarosh" was his debut. But, he was an assistant to Govind Nihalani in Nihalani's first film "Aakrosh" and in "Gandhi," where Nihalani was the cinematographer!
He met Naseeruddin Shah on the sets of Aakrosh!
Aamir Khan's rationale to work with a debutant was as follows:
"When I read the script, I realized the social implications of what the film was trying to say (...) I reacted emotionally to it because of what I had been going through as an Indian, it talked of Hindus & Muslims living together."
#JaiBhim
Babasaheb Ambedkar is one of the greatest thinkers ever!
The architect of the Indian Constitution was undeniably a GENIUS!
A thread 🧵celebrating this icon who said "Cultivation of the mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence"
As a member in the viceroy’s council from 1942 to 1946, Dr Ambedkar was instrumental in bringing about several labour reforms.
He changed working hours from 12 to 8 in 1942.
He also introduced DA, medical leaves & periodic revision of pay.
📸@roundtableind
Babasaheb studied for two PhDs in his career in addition to his qualification as a lawyer 🤯
His PhD dissertation in Economics at @LSEnews was titled ‘The Indian Rupee’. A few years ago, @stefeich unearthed a first edition of this work with Ambedkar’s original dedication!
Anil Kumble is one of India's greatest match winners. Today we talk about a a little known story of how a very much vegetarian Kumble ate 2 bears 🐻🐻
Setting the stage - 1995, hot and dry summer in the county championships in England. Kumble is playing for Northamptonshire. A Thread🧵
They were second in the table going to take on the first placed team Warwickshire. Warwickshire, though without Brian Lara, were defending champions and were leading the table at that time.
Few years later, Kumble would dismiss Lara looking like this.
Allan Lamb won the toss for Northamptonshire and decided to bat first. They were skittled out for 152 with only David Capel managing to get to a half century.
David Capel then proceeded to take a 7fer to restrict Warwickshire to 224. Remarkably 140 of them came from Roger Twose.