NO FAREWELL FOR YOU,BASU DA

I know the name Basu Chatterjee will make many of the younger generation ask "Basu who"?, but I and my generation are very fortunate that we knew a fascinating filmmaker called Basu Chatterjee who  ushered in  a  new era  of Hindi film entertainment which went on unabated for three decades. For my generation ,Basu Chatterjee will always  be a name that  brought happiness, love and a soothing feeling even in  the midst of the most trubulant times .For us,the name, Basu Chatterjee was  a guarantee of seeing our own lives as they were without exaggerating or overdoing things.

His films did not focus on the dark sides of our lives like others filmmakers did, he made the dark look bright and cheerful at the end of every film he made. He came in at  a time when there were filmmakers like Satyajit Ray,Mrinal Sen, Tappan Sinha and Basu Bhattacharya on  one side and  names like B.R.Chopra,Yash Chopra, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra and Ramesh Sippy  among many others were  ruling commercial cinema,but he had the  ability,the  talent and the sheer  confidence to  make  and establish his own way  of  making films and succeeded in such a  big way that he gave a massive complex to all the other filmmakers of different classes and genres....

I was just out  of school when I  saw a film called "Sara Aakash"at the Minor mini theatre in Andheri for  not  having anything better to do and when I walked out of the theater,I was in a haze and asked myself if films could aslo be made like this film . I had  to wait for some more and many more films to come from Basu Chatterjee to try  and know the answers to my question....

Basu Chatterjee  had made  his next film, "Rajnigandha"which had none of the frills  and  trappings of the other films my generation was drunk on .It was a  simple love story between two clerks  in office and the problems the  lovers face. Basu da  as he was  now called  did not want to work with the big stars  because he just couldn't afford to pay them their prices and  tolerate their tantrums. He had seen a Marathi theater actor called  Amol Palekar who was working as a clerk in a bank and convinced him to work in "Rajnigandha" .A reluctant Amol finally agreed.

He found a pretty middle class girl called  Vidya Sinha and  cast her as  Amols heroine .He also found a fiery theater actor called Dinesh Thakur. He wrote the screenplay and dialogue himself and had  Salil Chowdhury as his music director who gave  him some lilting songs. "Rajnigandha "was shot  in  a month because Amol Palekar had to go back and join service in his bank. The film did not have an encouraging response initially but  then picked up and  was one of the biggest hits and Amol Palekar didn't   have to  go back to his bank again as Basu da had become  a star -director and Amol and Vidya had become  the new stars of Hindi cinema. "Rajnigandha" had assured him of a new  place  in Hindi cinema .

Basu da made other films like "Piya ka Ghar"(it was shot entirely on real locations in chawls in Bombay), "Chitchor ", 'Khatta Meetha ",  "Swami ",Chameli Ki Saadi "and the industry woke up to the reality of the new school of filmmaking founded by Basu Chatterjee .

There were other filmmakers who tried their best to imitate Basu da,but not one of them could make the kind of films Basu da made .

Basu da did not follow any formula to make his films. He told  simple stories about everyday life in a simple way which was very simple for every class of audience to  understand, to be entertained and to be enlightened.

The strongpoint of every film he made was a perfect screenplay and it was this quality about him that made him get accepted and respected as the three best screenplay writers in India, the  other two being Satyajit Ray  and Vijay Tendulkar. There was was feeling that Basu da being a Bengali would not have a command over the Hindi language, but Basu da who was born and brought up in Ajmer in Rajasthan proved how good he could be in Hindi when he wrote the dialogue of all his films, whether it was for a light-hearted film like "Khatta Meetha "or serious films like "Swami" and " Ek Ruka Hua Faisla ".Basu da had  such a command over the medium of cinema that he could complete a film in three or  less than three months.

He could very easily switch over to the small screen and proved what a success he could be when he made "Rajani " for Doordarshan .He had  approached the popular star Padmini Kholapure to  play Rajani, but  she declined his offer. He tried two other stars and when they too made excuses and wriggled out,Basu da saw a Marathi Play in which Priya Tendulkar ,the daughter  of the renowned playwright Vijay Tendulkar was in  the lead role and was so impressed that he decided to make Rajani  with  Priya Tendulkar or  not make the serial at all.His judgement proved right and Priya Tendulkar became a  household name and a time came when even the then Prime Rajiv Gandhi invited Priya and her family to have breakfast with his family at his residence in New Delhi. Rajani had  made Priya Tendulkar a star and she signed many films in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.

Towards the end of the nineties,Basu da seemed to be losing concentration,focus and touch which could be seen in his later films and serials. And one of the reasons could be his weakness for alcohol .There were times when he couldn't shoot without having a few pegs of his favourite drink ,Vodka .In fact, when he was shooting for two of his last films,

"Zevar "and "Laakhon Ki Baat "he once told me that he had half a bottle of Vodka before he came to the shooting and sipped Vodka even during the shooting.

The worst was when he came high on the sets  of "Rajani "and covered his mouth with a large handkerchief when he talked to his team and the one who couldn't stand his drinking at all was Priya Tendulkar who used to grumble to me in Marathi and say, "mela Vasu ,aaj pan peeun aala aahe" ,but no actor or technician could find fault with Basu Da's work as the captain of the team.

Basu  da was  perhaps the only filmmaker who made entire feature films based on two communities which were mocked at in  Hindi films, the Parsis in "Khatta Meetha "and the Christians of Bombay in 'Baton Baton Mein ".He was the first director to  cast Leela Mishra, the "mausi "of Hindi films as a  Christian aunty wearing a dress and talking English .

Basu da broke his rule of trying to avoid taking big stars when he directed Dev Anand, Tina Munim and Girish Karnad in Amit Khanna's "Mann Pasand"  which was one more version of "Pygmalion".He could even get the best out of the popular team of Dharmendra and Hema Malini in his film "Dillagi ".

If  I had seen greatness being so  ordinary and simple, it was in this unusual man called Basu Chatterjee.He never carried his learning, knowledge or fame on his shoulders and never once did he allow his fame or success to go to his head. In fact I only saw him grow more and more humble and simple with his growing number of achievements.

A time came when we were like inseparable friends. He called me whenever he was free and invited me for a drink, which never used to be one or two drinks, but drink till we were properly drunk.

The Greatness of the humble man was that he sometimes came to the small bars I used to visit (the "Sher-e Punjab" dhabba at seven bungalows which is Know drunk and out ,was  our favourite meeting place. We had a good common friend ,Devendra Khandelwal who he had given a major role in "Khatta Meetha "and who had  grown into the biggest competition for Films Division as maker of short films and he was  always proud of Devendras achievements who he said would have been just another actor lost in the crowd if he had not taken the right decision at the right time ....

The last time I met Basu da was at the same "Sher-e Punjab" dhabba and  I don't know what made him say  that we would not be able to meet like we used to once. But he was still the large hearted Basu da who said, "you  are always welcome to my house  and we can talk and drink and eat machli prepared at home ".Oh ,this hetic  Bombay  life ! It did not give me the  pleasure of accepting Basu da's invitation...

And what an end to our friendship ! I Had been obsessed with what I called "Ye zalim maut ka mausam "ever since man like Irrfan khan, Rishi Kapoor, Yogesh and Wajid Khan died  almost like  in a procession. I had been watching my  mobile with trembling fingers every morning to see whose turn it was next and this morning my  trembling fingers stood still when I saw the line "Basu Chatterjee passes away "and I saw  a map of all that happened in a  country called Basu Chatterjee .

Will this country be resurrected ? I don't know, but I know that Basu Chatterjee will be  a prominent" city "on the map  of my life.

They say, "Basu da jaise log  kabhi kabhi aate hai ".I say  ,Basu da mere sath hamesha the aur hamesha rahege.Alvida,Basu da bilkul nahi kahunga, kyunki Basu da jaise insaan hamesha rahete hai, kahi bhi jaate nahi, kyunki woh har dil mein apna ghar basha kar  humko chhod jaate hai.