It was a memorable musical tribute to one of the greatest directors of Indian Cinema. Producers Mohan and Meera Subramaniam and Swati and Pratip Mukherjee (daughter -in-law and son of Hrishikesh Mukherjee) along with their team of singers put up a truly unique show for the Boston audience. This is probably the first time that a musical show was dedicated to a film director, rather than singers or music directors. Hrishikesh Mukherjee was the ideal choice given the exceptional melodies his films have given us. Mohan Subramaniam and his team produced a show with a meticulous choice of clips from Mukherjee’s films and a delectable selection of songs. The result was a captivating story line that kept the audience engaged all through the program.

Ajay Sinha an Art History Professor at Mount Holyoke who teaches a course in Indian films at his college introduced the show. His opening remarks established the unique contributions of this legendary film director: “Growing up in India, most of will remember going to see movies secretly, chupke chupke.  We played hooky at school and dodged the eyes of the elders.  In “Guddi,” Hrishi Da explores this taboo around cinema.  In telling the story of a high school student’s obsession with movies, he turns the camera on our hidden desires, for the first time in the history of commercial cinema.  Guddi pioneered a new genre that a scholar of film, Madhav Prasad, has called “Middle Class Cinema”. 

Singers Mohan Subramaniam, Sowmya Sri, Raghu Saranathan, Nidhi Tare Lad and Valentino Almeida performed their songs superbly. Each brought with them their unique textures of their voices and skills. Songs such as “maine tere liye hi saat rang ke sapne chune, bole re papihara, aane wala pal, tera mera pyar amar, and ek roz main tadapkar” captivated the audience from the get go. Preetesh Shreevastava’s interludes with a mix of comedy and thoughtful remarks about the skills of direction added a different dimension to the program.

The presence of Pratip and Swati Mukherjee of course brought a personal and emotional connection with Hrishikesh Mukherjee. And so did the clips of Amol Palekar’s comments on his close ties with this legendary director that were recorded especially for this program.

Said Pratip Mukherjee, Hrishikesh’s son: Our family is mildly surprised to know that so many people still appreciate the type of art that he made. I remember, at the end of his career – we would egg him on to keep working. His response would be “the world has changed, and people no longer want the type of movies that I want to make.” And with Hindi music changing so much in the last several decades, he felt that same of his musical sensitivities. Seeing this wonderful event, I think we can finally put that entire debate to rest.

The show ended with a medley of songs culminating with the entire team of singers joining in to sing “diye jaltein hain phool Khiltein hain … badi muskil se magar duniyaan mein dost miltein hain”.

This was clearly a program we will remember for a long time.

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