Nonagenarian Basu Chatterjee, whose iconic films both tickled the heart and tugged at its strings with their everyday, realistic, middle-class settings and put him in a class apart, breathed his last on Thursday at his residence in the morning, following agerelated complications. “He breathed his last in his sleep,” his TV producer daughter Rupali Guha informed. The last rites were performed at the Santacruz crematorium, with a few family members and few members of Indian Film & Television Directors Association in attendance.
Auteur Shyam Benegal remembered how Chatterjee, along with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, created a cult of lighthearted, middle-class family dramas that emerged as a parallel narrative to the mainstream. “Action films, where the angry hero takes on the system were becoming the rage then but Chatterjee bucked the trend. He was a prolific filmmaker and devoted to his craft,” said Benegal, “Much of the love he invested in making his compelling films - that largely revolved around love, marriage and discord - comes through. No wonder his work struck a chord and was such a huge success. It is a mark of his calibre as a filmmaker that these films are celebrated, rightfully so, as classics and continue to engage film buffs even today.”
Remembering his interactions with Chatterjee as a fellow member of the Indian Film Society Movement he said, “He was very well informed about what was happening at the world level in filmmaking and often brought up references to Russian, Japanese and European cinema in his discussions,” but pointed out, “The only thing he never was, was filmi. He just avoided the large events, parties and get-togethers, muhurats and the like. He just had no patience for all that.” Anil Dhawan, who has embarked on a new innings since the release of Andhadhun two years ago, agrees with Benegal that there was “nothing remotely filmi” about Chatterjee, whose Piya Ka Ghar (1972) had made him a household name. “He would come to the set almost as if he had a tightly wound spring within and ran a very tight ship. No small talk and no hovering around him. He carried a thick notebook with immaculately detailed notes on all the scenes, shots, camera angles and production cues like continuity, etc.
He was also strict about how much work had to be completed in a day's shoot. Like a teacher, he'd tell Jaya (Bachchan nee Bhaduri) and me, 'Finish your work fast and I will send you home.' As newbies to the industry, we'd just do as told and stay clear.” Basu Chatterjee takes a final bow He remembers a hilarious incident while shooting for Piya ka Ghar. “I was new to Bombay. The horror stories I'd heard about local trains made me avoid travelling on them. I'd largely take BEST buses and when the pocket allowed, a kaali-peeli. Jaya was also new to both the city and industry and had no experience of local trains,” he recounts, “And Basuda made us board a local train from Churchgate. The camera was going to be in a van on the street parallel to the tracks. We were told to laugh and talk with each other. We agreed and got aboard but didn't know where we were supposed to alight.
After the train crossed Dadar, we anxiously asked passengers, who told us Bandra would be the next station. Since I lived there, I knew Bandra. Both of us got off and took a taxi back to the Prabhadevi office which BasuDa had called, asking us to wait. He walked in bellowing, 'Bombay ghoomane ke liye film mein kaam kara raha hoon? Next station par utrey kyon nahin?' But he must have noticed how crestfallen we were and immediately calmed down and ordered us some snacks.” Everybody's favourite boy-next-door hero, director and producer Amol Palekar, who worked under Chatterjee's baton in eight films, including the all-time classics Rajnigandha, Chitchor, Baaton Baaton Mein, Chhoti Si Baat and Apne Paraye, said he was one of the gentlest people he had worked with. “He had called me to his office for the narration of Rajnigandha but after the first sentence, he just faltered, stopped and handed me the script.
I used to wonder how he could tell stories on screen in such a way that they could be held up as reference points and yet, couldn't tell the story himself. He would've poured his heart out in the contours and nuances down to the last detail about each single character. And he went largely by that,” he said, adding, “He had no larger than life airs about himself despite his prowess and achievement and was always at his modest best. He wouldn't unnecessarily feign politeness but explain everything in a very matter-of-fact manner. But there was such an uncanny eye for detail that you were able to pick up the character's traits from that. And he could laugh at the humour everyday life throws up and this is what he brought to his work.” According to Palekar, this is perhaps what got people hooked to his films “though they were so removed from what was popular and mainstream then.” Film and television actor, director and scriptwriter Ananth Mahadevan, who was cast with Rohini Hattangadi (fresh from her role as Kasturba in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi) in the TV miniseries Darpan (1985) says there was a reason why the illustrator/cartoonist with Blitz of yore was so non-filmi. “He had cut his teeth in filmmaking as assistant director to Basu Bhattacharya (Teesri Kasam, 1966) Govind Saraiya (Saraswatichandra, 1968) and learnt very early on that the concept was far more important than the budget. He had made Rajnigandha in just Rs 6 lakh. As an eager student who looked up to him, I picked up a lot. Today, when people commend me on the tight budgets for my internationally acclaimed films, I have mentors like Basuda to thank.” He points out how Chatterjee gave him a lot of valuable inputs for his soon-to-release autobiography Once Upon A Prime Time too.
“You know both Satyajit Ray and Basuda had first been approached to make the DD series on Mahabharat? I keep wondering what it would've been like if it was made by either of them. Both these filmmakers had a penchant for writing original scripts," he says. Mahadevan is ready to shoot based on a script from Ray soon as the Covid-19 lockdown is over and is also in possession of a Basuda script for a social comedy. Actor Amitabh Bachchan, who acted in Chatterjee's Manzil took to Twitter to offer his condolences, remembering the filmmaker as “a quiet, soft-spoken, gentle human... his films reflected the lives of middle India...” and fondly added how the Manzil ditty, Rim Jhim Girey Saawan, is often remembered every monsoon with fondness.
Actor-activist Shabana Azmi also took to the online microblogging platform to condole Chatterjee. “He was the pioneer of what came to be regarded as the middle of the road cinema. I was fortunate to have done three lovely films with him – Swami, Apne Paraye and Jeena Yahan. All lifelike characters.” Bharat Ratna songstress Lata Mangeshkar, PM Modi and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee offered condolences.
