Gyan Mukherjee introduced formulae like lost and found, double roles, anti-hero, and many more to Bollywood, but is still forgotten today.
Bollywood, as we know it, is a diverse film industry. Hindi films span everything from huge blockbusters like Jawan to slice-of-life dramas such as Three Of Us. Yet, internationally, for years, Hindi film industry has maintained an image of a producer of loud, colourful films with songs, dances, and all sorts of ‘masala’. In fact, masala has come to denote a genre of Indian films containing all entertaining elements. And while it all developed over years and decades, one man truly started it all.
The man who ‘created’ Bollywood
Filmmaker Gyan Mukherjee does not have the recall value of a Guru Dutt or a Yash Chopra, or even a Shakti Samanta. Yet, all of them were influenced by his works and Dutt and Samanta even trained under him. Mukherjee began his career in Calcutta in the 1930s and soon moved to Bombay where he worked with Bomay Talkies. He began his directorial career with the 1940 release Geeta, based on the ‘crime doesn’t pay’ formula, following it up with the ‘boy meets girl’ trope in Jhoola. In 1943, he directed the biggest Indian film at that point – Kismet, which not only introduced the concept of anti-hero to Indian cinema, but also became the first Indian film to earn Rs 1 crore.
This led Gyan Mukherjee to continue tinkering with these established formulae and he introduced more such tropes in his films, such as ‘lost and found’, double roles, and many more. He is credited as the father of the masala films, which would become the staple of Indian film entertainment under his ward Shakti Samanta, and later expanded by the likes of Manmohan Desai.
Why Gyan Mukherjee was forgotten
But Gyan Mukherjee reign as the formula king was brief. He only directed 10 films in his career, the last of which was Shatranj in 1956. The same year, Mukherjee passed away at the age of 47. His mentee Guru Dutt dedicated his 1957 classic Pyaasa to Mukherjee, while Shakti Samanta expanded his formula process in hits like Aradhana and Amar Prem. But Mukherjee’s early death meant that many of his films were relegated to just memories. Many of his films have been given belated recognition and evn Yash Chopra called him an inspiration, but very few of his works are part of pop culture the way Guru Dutt’s films are.
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 "Gyan Mukherjee")
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