Trivia: Two Hrishikesh Mukherjee Films Where the Director Makes Onscreen Appearance
Well, one of those is pretty easy to guess even if you didn’t know for sure: the 1971 Guddi, which examines the workings of the film industry, features Dharmendra as himself, and has tiny cameos by other movie stars caught in the midst of shooting actual films that were being made around the same time.
In one scene where the Dharmendra-besotted Kusum (Jaya Bhaduri) meets her hero on a film set, the star excuses himself to go and shoot for a piano song. Watching Dharmendra and the leading lady perform this scene is Hrishikesh Mukherjee, sitting on a chair, his back to the camera. When the shot is taken he calls out to his cameraman Jaywant Pathare (also playing himself), who replies “Ek minute, Hrishi-da”.
The other scene is from a film made six years earlier — the 1965 Biwi aur Makaan, about a group of young men looking for accommodation in the big alienating city.
During the song sequence “Rehne ko ghar do”, we see the tops of houses, construction happening at a furious pace, a sign that advertises a housing society called “The Heaven”. But these youngsters are effectively in purgatory. As they wander the streets singing, they run into a middle-aged man. The man — seen mostly from the back and in profile — is Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and the scene is framed so that the lyrics “Rehne ko ghar do” (“Give us a house”) are being plaintively addressed to him. It looks like his actors (Mehmood and Keshto Mukherjee among them) are asking for space in one of his “plots”. Or “stories”.
The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee: The Filmmaker Everyone Loves is a book by Jai Arjun Singh. This trivia post a tiny part of the book that promises great insights into the world of India’s most beloved director. The book will be available for pre-ordering in four days and you “must” book your copy before it flies off the shelf.