30 Best Hrishikesh Mukherjee Movies (and Where to Watch Them)

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Hrishikesh Mukherjee was a visionary for his time as the director pioneered the “middle cinema” of Bollywood. With his romantic dramas and screwball comedies striking the right balance between mainstream popularity and arthouse realism, Mukherjee left behind some of the finest Indian movies of all time. These include Anand, Namak Haraam, Gol Maal, Chupke Chupke and many more.

Our guide offers you the definitive watchlist of the best Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies and all the options to stream them in India.

From Anari to Anand: Which Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies should I watch first? 

The best Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies to start with include his collaborations with actors Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan. Both Bollywood veterans starred in Anand and Namak Haraam. The former is a cult hit starring Khanna as a terminally ill man who wants to live his life to the fullest alongside his best friend (Bachchan).

Namak Haraam followed in the wake of Anand’s success and starred Bachchan as a wealthy industrialist and Khanna as a middle-class worker associated with him. The movie perfectly exemplifies Mukherjee’s tendencies to reflect the socio-political realities through his easy-to-digest cinema. It’s with movies like these that some critics called Mukherjee “the common man’s director”.

All the serious drama aside, Mukherjee’s comedies are also essential to watch for any Bollywood fan. Gol Maal is an all-time favourite of many featuring career-best performances by Amol Palekar and Utpal Dutt. Palekar stars as a slacker trying to impress his girlfriend’s uptight father (Dutt). Featuring memorable songs by Kishore Kumar and a chaotic comedy of errors as its storyline, Gol Maal has only aged well with time.

Chupke Chupke is similar in tone and touches upon mistaken identities and hilarious love stories. Frequent collaborator Amitabh Bachchan stars along with his on-screen wife Jaya Bachchan and his Sholay co-star Dharmendra. The fact that Mukherjee could bring out laughably lovable performances out of dramatic actors like Dharmendra only goes on to show the director’s versatility.

Dharmendra also offered one of his best acting performances as Ashok in Anupama. His character is a charming poet who helps the titular introverted heroine (Sharmila Tagore) find a new lease on life.

Romance was also a forte of Mukherjee’s as displayed in the aforementioned comedies and the memorable rom-com Khoobsurat. But then again, he can switch up the emotions for more tragic love stories like Mili that found Amitabh Bachchan romancing Jaya Bachchan only to discover that she has a few days to live. Think of Anand but as a romance instead.

An equally passionate and ill-fated romance between the Bachchans is explored in Abhimaan, another one of Mukherjee’s best works to watch. The film revolves around a singer who encourages his wife to also pick up a musical career. But when she overtakes him in terms of popularity, a power clash follows.

While most of these movies came out in the 1970s and the 1980s, Mukherjee has been delivering classics since the 1950s and the 1960s. Perhaps the best example of his early filmography is the 1959 crime comedy Anari. Raj Kapoor stars as a cheerful honest man who is wrongly accused of murdering his landlady. The chaos that ensues foreshadows the manic energy of Mukherjee’s subsequent movies.

Why is Anand the best Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie to watch?

Anand's universal themes of life, death, and friendship, combined with Mukherjee’s nuanced direction and memorable dialogues, create a profoundly moving and culturally impactful narrative. Its balance of humor and tragedy makes Anand a timeless classic and Mukherjee’s best work.

Where can you watch the best Hrishikesh Mukherjee movies online?

Below you can find the latest streaming information for Hrishikesh Mukherjee's best movies. This includes every offer for viewers in India today. 

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  1. Anand

    Anand

    1971

    #1

    Dr. Bhaskar Bannerjee struggles with his patients' suffering and the darkness and poverty he confronts daily. He treats cancer patient Anand who upon learning of his impending death determines to use the time he has left to the absolute fullest.

  2. Namak Haraam

    Namak Haraam

    1973

    #2

    Somu and Vicky decide to exact revenge on the union leader, Bipinlal Pandey. However, when Somu understands the plight of the workers, it creates a rift between the two friends.

  3. Gol Maal

    Gol Maal

    1979

    #3

    A man's simple lie to secure his job escalates into more complex lies when his orthodox boss becomes suspicious.

  4. Bawarchi

    Bawarchi

    1972

    #4

    Desperate for a cook, the disgruntled Sharmas are relieved when a multi-talented man, Raghu, takes up the job. However, when all seems well, the family jewels disappear and so does Raghu.

  5. Abhimaan

    Abhimaan

    1973

    #5

    A popular singer encourages his wife to sing, but tensions mount between the pair when his career begins to falter and her own musical career and popularity surpasses his own.

  6. Khubsoorat

    Khubsoorat

    1980

    #6

    Nirmala Gupta rules her household with an iron fist. While most of her family resents it, they do comply and try to appease to her. When her daughter-in-law's free-spirited sister comes over to stay for a few days, things in the Gupta family start to change, agitating Nirmala.

  7. Chupke Chupke

    Chupke Chupke

    1975

    #7

    Sulekha is in awe of her brother-in-law Raghavendra for his intelligence. Parimal, her husband, decides to take up the challenge of fooling Raghavendra and goes to work for him as a driver.

  8. Bemisal

    Bemisal

    1982

    #8

    When two twin brothers Sudhir and Adhir get orphaned upon the death of their father, Magistrate Chaturvedi adopts them and brings them up like his own children. Though Adhir goes insane after the death of his father, Sudhir picks up the opportunity, studies hard and becomes a doctor like Magistrate Chaturvedi's son Prashant. When Prashant gets caught for performing an illegal operation, Sudhir takes up the blame to repay the debt of the Chaturvedi family on him and his brother.

  9. Anupama

    Anupama

    1966

    #9

    Mohan Sharma (Tarun Bose) is a workaholic, whose life changes dramatically after his wife dies upon giving birth to their daughter Uma (Sharmila Tagore).

  10. Naram Garam

    Naram Garam

    1981

    #10

    Ramprasad, a young man, lets his lover, Kusum, and her father stay at his boss's house. However, they find themselves in trouble when Kusum is pursued by many suitors, including his boss.

  11. Anari

    Anari

    1959

    #11

    Raj Kumar is an honest, handsome and intelligent young man. Working as a painter, he is unable to earn a living. One day Raj finds a wallet containing money and returns it to the man it belongs to. Impressed by his honesty, the man employs him to work in his office as a clerk.

  12. Buddha Mil Gaya

    #12

    Two unemployed slackers, Bhola and Ajay come across a newspaper advertisement about a missing elderly gentleman, whose estate is worth millions. They come across this male in the Hanging Garden Park in Bombay, and decide to make him their paternal uncle and take him to live with them in a rented apartment, which they cannot afford. This elderly man, Girdharilal takes an unusual interest in Ajay's girlfriend, Deepa. While Bhola and Ajay try to find ways and means of getting rich by turning Girdharilal in, a number of horrific homicides are committed, all against former business associates of Girdharilal, and the clues all point toward the hapless duo.

  13. Mili

    Mili

    1975

    #13

    Shekhar Dayal (Amitabh Bachhan) has moved into a new neighborhood, and is unhappy with the new surroundings. He resents the noise children make while playing, as he prefers quiet and solitude. His reclusion is shattered when his neighbor, Mili, comes into his life. At first he hates the intrusion, but then grows fond, and ultimately falls in love with her. When the time comes for him to propose to this sunny, cheerful, and positive young lady, he learns that she has only a few more months to live..

  14. Guddi

    Guddi

    1971

    #14

    A teenage girl will not accept her family's attempt to arrange a marriage for her, as her heart is currently too full of love for the movies and heartthrob actor "Dharmendra."

  15. Jurmana

    Jurmana

    1979

    #15

    Amitabh Bachchan plays a rich playboy who makes a bet with his friend, Vinod Mehra, which costs an innocent girl, Rakhee Gulzar, her honor. Kicked out by her father, she flees and makes a new life for herself as a singer. It takes two hours to straighten out the misunderstanding, obtain forgiveness from her father and finally reunite a reformed Bachchan with his heroine.

  16. Asli Naqli

    Asli Naqli

    1962

    #16

    Renu lives a poor lifestyle with her family. Shattered and devastated with the deaths of her father and brother, Renu decides to take up the mantle of feeding her family, hiding her dad's death from her ill and fragile mother, and goes along pretending that her father is still alive. Things brighten up when a homeless young man, Anand, enters her life, both fall in love with each other and want to get married. But once again fate plays a cruel joke on Renu as she subsequently finds out that Anand is not who he claims to be, but is in fact, a playboy, the grandson, nicknamed 'Prince", of one of the wealthiest man in town, Dwarkadas, and Anand is scheduled to get married to Rekha - the only heir to a multi-million rupee estate. Watch as events unfold and the effect this news has on the townspeople and Renu's mom.

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  17. Alaap

    Alaap

    1977

    #17

    Dedicated to the memory of the great singers K. L. Saigal and Mukesh, this charming and unpretentious film offers a palate-cleansing change from the spicy “masala” epics that dominated its era, and features their superstar Amitabh Bachchan in a decidedly offbeat role.

  18. Aashirwad

    Aashirwad

    1968

    #18

    Aashirwad is a 1968 Bollywood film. Produced by N.C. Sippy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, it is directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. The film stars Ashok Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar.

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  19. Rang Birangi

    #19

    Sparkling comedy about a meddling friend whose attempt to rekindle the spark in his friend's relationship with his wife of seven years leads to complications to their lives, and to the lives of his secretary and her boyfriend he has not 'scripted' ... Splendid performances by Amol Palekar, Deepti Naval, Parveen Babi and Farooq Shaikh, a perfectly pitched script, witty dialogue and a plethora of aptly placed film references make this a film one can watch over and over and never fail to laugh out loud.

  20. Satyakam

    Satyakam

    1969

    #20

    Circa British Rule in India, Satyapriya Archarya lives a modest yet noble lifestyle with his grandfather, Satyasharan. His mother passed away while he was very young, and his dad became a celibate and went off on a pilgrimage, never to return. Satyapriya studies Engineering, and becomes a close friend of fellow-collegian

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