Every time Hindi Cinema becomes obsessed with a trend and continues to follow it till it becomes stale and soulless, comes a filmmaker that dares to stand out from the crowd and create his own niche. The 70s and the 80s were occupied by the genre of action and drama, larger-than-life and over-the-top movie making. Amid this, came a man that echoed the voices of people that were seldom heard.

The man was filmmaker Basu Chatterjee. Very similar in thoughts to Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Bhattacharya, Chatterjee created characters more than heroes, their conflicts felt real, and the humour felt organic and also oddball. In a way, he was one of the creators of the term slice-of-life before it became a genre in itself in modern times. His cinema was refreshing and cut across everyone, what came to be known as the classes and the masses.