Amitabh Bachchan, Amol Palekar, Shabana Azmi mourn the death of filmmaker Basu Chatterjee

Veteran filmmaker and screenwriter Basu Chatterjee took his last breath today in Mumbai. He was suffering from age-related ailments. He was 93 at the time of death. Amitabh Bachchan took to his Twitter handle to mourn the death of the filmmaker.

He tweeted, “Prayers and Condolences on the passing of Basu Chatterjee .. a quiet, soft spoken, gentle human .. his films reflected the lives of middle India .. did ‘MANZIL’ with him .. a sad loss .... in these climes often remembered for ‘rim jhim gire saawan'”(sic).

Check his tweet here.

T 3552 – Prayers and Condolences on the passing of Basu Chatterjee .. a quiet, soft spoken, gentle human .. his films reflected the lives of middle India .. did ‘MANZIL’ with him .. a sad loss .. ?
.. in these climes often remembered for ‘rim jhim gire saawan’

— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) June 4, 2020

Amitabh Bachchan was the main lead in Basu Chatterjee’s ‘Manzil’, released in 1979.

Amol Palekar worked with Basu Chatterjee in six films including ‘Rajnigandha’ and ‘Chitchor’. Sharing his memories with the filmmaker, Amol told The Quint, “I acted in six of Basu Chatterjee’s films and in two more as a guest artiste. What sets him apart from other directors is Basuda’s sheer simplicity. The way he would narrate a story, without any dramatics and twists and turns, was fascinating. His films did not have the typical tropes of the hero, heroine and villain. Rather they comprised of simple stories about day-to-day life and Basu Chatterjee portrayed them so well”.

He added, “He made simple, loveable comedies. The humour wasn’t loud, rather it was understated. Basu da was a master of that craft.”

Shabana Azmi who also worked with the filmmaker said, “I have done three films with Basu Chatterjee, ‘Swami’, ‘Jeena Yahan’ and ‘Apne Paraye’. I used to enjoy working with him a lot. Although he prided himself in not having a single sentimental bone in his body, he had deep compassion which was evident in the way he wrote his characters. That’s what I found attractive about him. To me, that was an Ismat Chughtai quality. Although his characters hailed from the Indian middle-class society, he had a great knowledge of international middle-class cinema”.

Also Read: Basu Chatterjee No More: Anurag Kashyap, Madhur Bhandarkar, Jimmy Sheirgill offer condolences