Guru Dutt - A master director who was tormented by life | Birth Anniversary

[Kavishala Daily] Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone (9 July 1925 – 10 October 1964), better known as Guru Dutt, was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He made 1950s and 1960s classics such as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Chaudhvin Ka Chand. In particular, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool have been included among the greatest films of all time, Pyaasa by Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list and by the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll, where Dutt himself is included among the greatest film directors of all time. In 2010, he was included among CNN's "top 25 Asian actors of all time". He is most famous for making lyrical and artistic films within the context of popular Hindi cinema of the 1950s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 film Pyaasa. Several of his later works have a cult following. His movies attract full houses when re-released; especially in Germany, France and Japan. (From Wikipedia)

Guru Dutt’s 95th birth anniversary: A master director who was tormented by life

No talk on Indian cinema is complete without the mention of Guru Dutt. In the annals of Hindi film history, he keeps company with the likes of Bimal Roy, V Shantaram, K Asif, Mehbood Khan, Kamal Amrohi, BR Chopra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Yet, his works have an incandescent quality to them. Working within the boundaries of mainstream Hindi cinema, his sensibilities were rich, modern and subtle. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of his most memorable films, Pyaasa, figures in Time magazine’s All-Time 100 best movies list.

His cinema is full of pathos and pain – emotions born from rejection. Both Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool told the story of a sensitive person’s disillusionment with society. And yet, Guru Dutt never cut a picture of misery in life as such. Pyaasa was a commercial success though Kaagaz Ke Phool set him back reportedly by Rs 17 lakhs, a huge sum then. He recovered much of his money with his later films, Chaudhvin Ka Chaand and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Guru Dutt had earlier had a successful run with comedies and thrillers – Aar Paar, Mr And Mrs 55, Baazi and CID—all saw Guru Dutt as an actor-director or as a producer (example being Dev Anand starrer CID).

Guru Dutt is also credited to giving Bollywood some of its best talents – he introduced Waheeda Rehman, discovered talents like Badruddin Kazi (popularly called Johnny Walker), writer-director Abrar Alvi and ace cinematographer, VK Murthy.

However, many are of the opinion that Guru Dutt could never handle rejection. Journalist Dinesh Raheja, writing in Rediff.com, quoted late Dev Anand as saying: “He couldn’t digest failure.” Dev was a life-long friend of Guru Dutt and one-time confidant. The rejection of Kaagaz Ke Phool, which some claim was his commentary of show business, hit him hard and stayed with him till his end; Guru Dutt died at the age of 39.

Guru Dutt’s personal life too was topsy-turvy. According to his sister, painter of repute Lalita Lajmi (mother of late filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi), Guru Dutt-Geeta Dutt’s marriage was tempestuous. Both were sensitive souls – neither could they live with each other nor without one another. While many ascribe the presence of Waheeda as the bone of contention between Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt, Lalita robustly refutes that. She agrees that Waheeda may have been his brother’s muse, but to ascribe the trouble in their marriage to her would be wrong. Lalita,&