Basu Chatterjee was such a worthy bearer of the tradition of Bimal Roy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who kept cinema connected with the society and kept the light-hearted, small-big and sour-sweet moments of common life in front of the audience with great seriousness. He was also a director who weaved literature into cinema. Director Basu Chatterjee, the producer of successful, meaningful films like Sara Akash, Rajnigandha, Chitchor, Chhoti Si Baat, Swami, Khatta-Meetha, Baato-Baato Mein, Shaukeen and Chameli Ki Shaadi, was completely dedicated to films. He used to write the script and dialogues of his films himself. If no financier was found, he would have made the film by taking a loan himself. He would shoot mostly outdoors to keep the film close to our lives and not too expensive. He would have given so much money to the honest artists from his pocket.
We get many such interesting and true information about Basu Chatterjee from the recent book ‘Baaton-Baatein Mein’ written on Basu Chatterjee by senior film journalist and writer Anita Padhye. Published from Aman Prakashan, Kanpur, the author has described this book as a reliable biography of Basu Chatterjee, in his own words, which is absolutely correct. From the late sixties till the late seventies and eighties, Basu Chatterjee gave one brilliant film to the audience of Hindi cinema. When TV became a household name, he also entertained the audience by presenting the best serials like Rajni, Darpan and Kakkaji Kahin. Born in Ajmer on 10 January 1930, Basu Chatterjee’s father worked in the Indian Railways. That’s why his childhood was spent in Bombay, Abu Road and Mathura. He remembered Mathura. While there, he felt the urge to watch the film.
In 1950, he got a job as a librarian in a school in Churchgate, Bombay (now Mumbai) and moved to Mumbai. Basu was interested in painting since childhood and used to draw cartoons very well, then started working as a freelance cartoonist in Current newspaper. Meanwhile, he also started making freelance cartoons in the famous weekly paper Blitz.
Then he came to know that lyricist Shailendra, who was from Mathura, was making a film called Teesri Kasam, so he approached him to ask for the job of assistant director in the film. The director of this film was his own Namarashi Basu Bhattacharya and this was also his first film. Basu Chatterjee was appointed Chief Asst. He was accompanied by BR Ishara as assistant director. His first lessons to learn film direction were with many stalwarts of the film world. His second film as an assistant director was Saraswatichandra. By now he had got all the technical information related to cinema. So he decided to make the film himself. At the same time, his acquaintance Arun Kaul had bought the rights of famous Hindi story writer Rajendra Yadav’s novel Sara Akash for Rs.21.
Basu Chatterjee also liked its story and the making of the film started. For this he took a loan from the Film Welfare Corporation. Artists like Rakesh Pandey, Nandita Thakur, AK Hangal, Dina Pathak, Mani Thakur etc. were selected. The film was praised but did not earn enough to repay the loan. Yes, he won the Filmfare Award for the year for screenwriting and was offered the film Piya Ka Ghar by Rajshree, who distributed his film. The film was successful and big people started approaching him to direct the film. Basu Chatterjee’s next film was Rajnigandha, based on the story Yehi Sach Hai by Mannu Bhandari, wife of Rajendra Yadav. This film was also very successful. Although at first no distributor was ready to take it because the hero-heroines of the film were very simple whereas at that time the characters of the hero-heroine used to be larger than life. At the same time, he got BR Chopra’s film Chhoti Si Baat and Rajshree’s film Chitchor. Both these films were also well received by the audience. For the first time the middle class society became the focal point of cinema. One of the attractions of these low-budget films was not only the ear-pleasing music, but also new talented actors, in which the common people found the reflection of their lives.
Basu Chatterjee’s creative journey continued. Swami, Priyatma, Khatta Meetha, Dillagi, Baaton Baat Mein, Hamari Bahu Alka, Fond, Lakhon Ki Baat, Chameli Ki Shaadi and Tenant etc. In 1985, he made serials like Rajni and Darpan for Doordarshan and then Kakkaji Kahin in 1988. It was well liked. In his lifetime, Basu Chatterjee made 35 films and received several Filmfare Awards for screenwriting and direction. The 1997 film Gudgudi starring Anupam Kher and Pratibha Sinha was the last film directed by him. He also directed five Bengali films. He left us on 4th June 2020.
while going
In the film Piya Ka Ghar, Basu Chatterjee wanted to cast Amol Palekar as the hero but Rajshri’s Rajkumar Barjatya said that his simple face would not work as a hero, then Anil Dhawan was selected. One of the songs of this film – Bombay Sheher Ki Sair Kara Doon… was shot at prominent locations in Mumbai. In the last stanza of this song, Amitabh Bachchan is seen in the role of a waiter, giving Coca-Cola to Jaya Bhaduri and Anil Dhawan. This was possible because during this time Amitabh Bachchan was working in Rajshree’s film Saudagar and on the other hand he had also become good friends with Jaya. The music of Piya Ke Ghar was given by Laxmikant Pyarelal. When he saw the final trial show of the film, he was very angry because all the songs of the film were kept in the background on Hero-Heroine. This enraged him so much that he refused to give background music for the film and never worked for Rajshri again. (The author is a senior literary and art critic.)
