by Yasser Usman
But when exactly did his state deteriorate to such an extent that death seemed like the only option? He surely had seen worse days in his life. Then why now, when his art had been recognised and awarded?
With scarce conversations around a socially stigmatised topic and big money riding on his dream project Pyaasa, Guru Dutt found little time to address what happened. After the pain he and his family went through, they possibly accepted the common yet highly inaccurate belief that it was on impulse and people who survive a painful suicide attempt are unlikely to try again.
In fact, more often than not, just the opposite is true.
Reportedly, a previous suicide attempt is among the strongest predictors of future suicide attempts. But no one close to him really wanted to contemplate if Guru would ever try to end his life again.
The rejection of the world and life itself was a prominent theme of Pyaasa. Drawing inspiration and reliving every trial and tribulation in his life for the script, Guru Dutt literally put his soul into the film. The unfading memory of the Pyaasa song ‘Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai’, which had Guru Dutt in a posture that symbolises crucifixion is haunting to say the least, as markedly his state of mind was never the same after Pyaasa. It was as if the characters of his stories and real life merged into one.
The original title of the story that became Pyaasa— ‘Kashmakash’—also appears in a very important verse by lyricist Sahir. In the film it describes the poet’s frustration with the events happening in his life. But looking back, it can be said that the verse also applies to Guru Dutt’s state of mind in those days. It was as if his soul was bared.
Tang aa chuke hain kashmakash-e-zindagi se hum
(I am weary of this troubled life, weary of this troubled existence)
Thukra na dein jahaan ko kahin be-dili se hum
(In my grief, may I not reject the entire world?)
Hum gham zadaa hai laayein kahaan se khushi ke geet
(How can I sing of joy when I live in pain?)
Denge wo hi jo paayenge is zindagi se hum
(I can only return to life what life itself offers me)
And then, as if following the strain ‘Thukra na dein jahaan ko kahin be-dili se hum’ (In my grief, may I not reject the entire world?) Guru Dutt had done the unthinkable.
13
A STAR IS BORN
‘It is sad and unfortunate that he never got the recognition he deserved. Neither the media nor the industry gave him recognition then.’
—Arun Dutt (Guru Dutt’s son)
On 22 February 1957, Pyaasa was premiered at Bombay’s Minerva theatre. The leading personalities of the film industry attended the premier.
Within a week of its release Pyaasa was much talked about. The humane theme of Pyaasa connected with audiences and the film struck gold at the box office. Pyaasa scored silver jubilees at many places and even in a non-Hindi/Urdu speaking centre like Madras it ran for fifteen weeks. The media there wrote that the people down south identified their own poet Bharati’s life with the story depicted in the film. The commercial success of Pyaasa went far beyond Guru Dutt’s own expectations. Guru Dutt was elated with the success of Pyaasa. He said in a Screen interview: ‘The success of Pyaasa is the best reward of my career. The theme was heavy and I was not all sure that audiences would like it.’
Pyaasa was a revelation. No one had expected such an intense and serious film from Guru Dutt who was dabbling in romantic comedies and thrillers until then. It is to be said that the lyrical fluidity of Pyaasa defies Guru Dutt’s indecisiveness or temperamental and erratic ways of shooting. The film even today flows effortlessly.
Prof. Ira Bhaskar, the Dean of School of Arts and Aesthetics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi says that he was influenced by Hollywood melodramatist Douglas Sirk. Sirk produced highly stylised melodramas. His films had strong women characters. Sirk wrote, directed and acted in his movies and was critical of the soicety and capitalism.
Citizen Kane was a huge influence on Guru Dutt and so was the drama of Orsen Welles. Also, the influence of German expressionist cinema. The entire noir tradition. But equally, and this is not emphasised enough, Guru Dutt was deeply influenced by Indian traditions and Bhakti poetry.
Guru Dutt’s inspiration also came from 1940s Indian cinema, works which deeply influenced him. It’s not one director or two directors but the Bengali cinema and Bombay cinema of the 1940s. People like P.C. Barua and later Gyaan Mukherjee, who was his mentor.
The year 1957 proved to be a landmark year for Hindi cinema. It witnessed the release of atleast three films which have achieved classic status over the years: Mehboob Khan’s Mother India, B.R. Chopra’s Naya Daur and Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa. Though entirely different in their plots and treatment, the three films shared some common traits. They were deeply rooted in Indian values. More importantly, in all three films moral dilemmas and important social issues were beautifully merged with entertainment, melodrama and wonderful music to produce ‘artistic commercial films’ with universal appeal. Perhaps that’s the reason that even after more than sixty years they don’t feel jaded.
Unfortunately, Pyaasa did not win any of the prestigious Filmfare awards for 1957. The award ceremony was dominated by Naya Daur and Mother India. But Pyaasa stood the test of time and went on to capture a place in TIME magazine’s coveted list of ‘All-TIME 100 Movies’, and has achieved the status of a cult film the world over.
His son Arun Dutt says, ‘The biggest irony is he never won any awards. He never canvassed for awards. He never cared about them. Awards had a lot of politics behind them. He never wanted to be surrounded by that kind of politics. It is sad and unfortunate that he never got the recognition he deserved. Neither the media nor the industry gave him recognition then. Many reviews of his films were nasty too.’
Pyaasa propelled Guru Dutt into the league of filmmakers to watch out for. But with Pyaasa, another new star was born.
Her name was Waheeda Rehman.
14
THE GIRL WHO CALLED A
SPADE A SPADE
‘You don’t shout at me like this, otherwise I will quit, I can’t face it.’
—Waheeda Rehman to Guru Dutt
Waheeda recalled, ‘My acting in C.I.D. was not good and my work done on the very first set of Pyaasa was also disappointing. Everybody said that I was a wrong choice and had no future. Moreover, I was a difficult person, also extremely stubborn, who would not put on this or that dress. But the only one person who seemed to have faith in my abilities was Guru Ji. But for him I would not have been what I am today. After hearing the remarks of everybody he said only one thing, “Let us try her once again”.’
There was a spark in the actress that Guru’s eyes had seen when he had met her in Hyderabad for the first time. He had become her mentor. Since she came to work in C.I.D., it was Waheeda’s clarity and attitude that had struck Guru Dutt. A young South Indian girl without any support in the much vilified Bombay film industry of the 1950s, she must have felt vulnerable. But despite being a newcomer, she drew a clear line and nobody was allowed to cross it. She held her fort bravely and Guru Dutt admired that from day one.
Waheeda Rahman remembered an incident, ‘Both C.I.D. and Pyaasa were being shot simultaneously at Kardar Studios, and he advised me to come and sit on the sets and watch the shooting when I had nothing else to do. One day I saw him losing his temper on a senior artist and I was really shocked. That day I told him, “You don’t shout at me like this, otherwise I will quit, I can’t face it”.’
Guru Dutt was the boss there. No one had spoken with Guru Dutt in that tone.
‘I have told you I won’t lose my temper with you. Now don’t worry,’ replied Guru Dutt. Waheeda didn’t stop. ‘Yes, you better don’t,’ she insisted and explained, ‘I don’t know acting. You teach me, tell me what to do and I will try to do my best; but don’t get angry with me.’
Guru Dutt just looked at her without saying anything.
‘He d
id not get angry with me, even in the most trying circumstances,’ said Waheeda.
Waheeda Rehman said, ‘He used to be very impatient, not with the artistes, but with the technicians—especially the camera crew. “Jaldi karo, jaldi karo yaar, abhi tak shot kyon nahin ready hua?” [he would keep saying.] He was always in a hurry because he was constantly thinking about the next shot, the next scene, the next movie. We often told him that you’ve just given the instructions, it has to take some time to execute them, be patient. But he used to be very restless.’
Remembering the shooting of a song Rahman said, ‘The shot of Pyaasa, when I come running down the staircase and speak a dialogue was taken twenty times, and every time I failed. By the time I came running down the staircase I was too exhausted to speak the dialogue. He noticed it, came and told me that I should take rest for some time, but I was not prepared to admit that I was tired and the shot could not be okayed till lunch break. But he did not seem to be angry at all. After lunch I had to give fourteen more takes till the thirty-fourth take was okayed. Perhaps a record for me; and also a record of the patience of Guru Ji.’
Guru Dutt also had this peculiar habit of showing the film to close friends and the members of his team. It included the spotboys, to peons, to the biggest actors working in the team. Waheeda Rehman remembered that after showing the film he would ask everyone, ‘What do you think about it?’ Abrar Sahib used to ask him, ‘Why are you asking the valet? What does he know?’ Guru Dutt would say, ‘No, he’s one of the audiences. So don’t say that.’
This habit of Guru Dutt led to the removal of a song on Waheeda’s suggestion. Pyaasa had a song called ‘Roop tere’ filmed on Waheeda. It came at the point when she gets the news of Vijay’s death. The song was shot on a boat in Calcutta. It was a good number but during the trial show of the scenes, Guru Dutt asked Waheeda and her mother about it. Waheeda recalled, ‘I said, “The song sounds really nice but it looks very boring.” S.D. Burman, the song composer said, “Waheeda, is it really a bad song?” I told him that it was a beautiful song. He asked me, “Why is it boring?” I told him, “According to me dada, this picture is based on the hero, not anybody else. His character has to be highlighted. Now the news has come that he has died, and she is sitting here and crying and singing. It’s dragging the script too much.”’
Mala Sinha told Waheeda, ‘You are a newcomer, you are cutting out your own song?’ She said, ‘It’s so boring! I wouldn’t want to watch it.’
S.D. Burman got upset and angry over Waheeda’s comment. Guru Dutt just became quiet and later the song was removed from the film.
After the release of Pyaasa, Guru Dutt called Waheeda’s mother. ‘He spoke to my mother,’ she said. ‘By then he had started to call her Mummy. “Mummy, I want to tell you something. What you mother and daughter were after, cutting out the song, we cut that out.” She said, “Oh Guru Dutt, I’m so sorry, we didn’t mean to create any problems. We don’t know anything about film-making.”
Guru Dutt said, “No, you were right. Only the two of you were right.”’28
15
ARRIVAL OF THE STAR-JODI
‘The first few years of our married life were happy. But things began getting messy the day Waheeda stepped into the studio.’
—Geeta Dutt
‘Pyaasa made Waheeda Rehman a star in the Hindi film industry. In fact, the songs picturised on her had made the most impact and were much talked about. The seductive strains of ‘Jaane kya tune kahi’ and the romantic yearning of ‘Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo’, were both in singer (and Guru Dutt’s wife) Geeta Dutt’s magical voice.
It is true that Geeta Dutt sang at her best during this period. In Hindi cinema, the star actors are often known for their successful songs. The songs they perform to on screen are mostly sung by playback singers but they ultimately become known for the stars they are filmed on.
In a way, the songs sung by Geeta contributed immensely to Waheeda’s stardom during her initial years in the Bombay film industry. By then Geeta’s own stardom had begun to comparatively fade and she was largely talked about only for the films made by her husband.
‘For her part, Geeta Dutt had never taken to Waheeda Rehman. Even if, with a touch of supreme irony, it was Geeta’s inimitable style of singing that had witnessed Waheeda Rehman arriving as a heroine opposite Guru Dutt in Pyaasa,’ writes film music historian Raju Bharatan.
Geeta Dutt told a family friend,29 ‘The first few years of our married life were happy. But things began getting messy the day Waheeda stepped into the studio.’
In 1958, few months after the release of Pyaasa, Guru Dutt played the lead role in a crime thriller 12 O’Clock. The lead actress was, of course, Waheeda Rehman.
Guru Dutt plays a flamboyant lawyer who is out to clear his girlfriend of a murder charge when the evidence points against her. This film is not talked about much as this wasn’t officially a ‘Guru Dutt film’. It was directed by Pramod Chakravorty who had assisted Raj Khosla on C.I.D. Pramod was also Geeta Dutt’s brother-in-law (married to her sister, Laxmi Roy). The film was the debut of Pramod as a director and Dev Anand was supposed to play the lead role. But when he couldn’t do the film, Guru Dutt stepped in.
With Guru Dutt as the hero, most of the regulars from his A-team perhaps came as a package. The credit roll included the names Abrar Alvi, V.K. Murthy, actors Rehman, Johnny Walker and Waheeda Rehman. The music was composed by O.P. Nayyar and lyrics were by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Of the seven songs in the film, Geeta Dutt sang five. Three of these were solos and the other two were duets. The album boasts of the fabulous ‘Kaisa jaadoo balam tu ne daara’ and the romantic chartbuster ‘Tum jo hue mere humsafar, raste badal gaye’.
The mainstream masala thriller did average business and was soon forgotten. However, Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman’s fabulous chemistry was much written about. They were being referred to as the hit star-jodi.
But while this was happening, Geeta Dutt too, wanted her stardom back.
Section Five
BUILDING OF A DREAM
1947–53: BOMBAY
‘Apne pe bharosa hai to ek daanv laga le…’
16
GEETA: THE TRUMPCARD
BOMBAY, 1950
‘He would listen to one of Geeta’s songs over and over again “Tumi jodi bolo bhalobasha dite janina” (“If you tell me I don’t know how to love”)…he was in love.’
—Lalitha Lajmi
When Geeta Roy met Guru Dutt she was a top billing artist and star singer.
Geeta Roy was born on 23 November 1930, as Geeta Ghosh Roy Chowdhary, one of ten children in a zamindar family based in Faridpur, Bangladesh. In 1942, during the Quit India Movement, her family had left East Bengal to settle in Bombay. The family went through a difficult financial crunch and had to struggle even to pay for her singing classes. In 1947, S.D. Burman, who had heard her sing previously, contacted her and gave Geeta Roy her first hit song—the melancholic ‘Mera sundar sapna beet gaya’.30 Geeta was all of fifteen years old at that time. She hadn’t seen much life, but there was an innate pain in her voice.
The young girl won countrywide acclaim and in the next two years she managed to overshadow Shamshad Begum and Raj Kumari—the famous voices of that era. Her beautiful voice had an instant connect with the listeners as she moved away from the ghazal style of singing and brought in a fresh spontaneity to her songs. In her own words, her singing seeked to give expression to her inner self. Many successful songs followed. She sang in around twelve movies in 1948 and atleast twenty-five films in 1949. She worked with some of the top music directors, including Anil Biswas, Husnlal & Bhagatram, C. Ramchandra, Naushad, Vinod, Ghulam Mohammed, Gyan Dutt, Hansraj Behl, Krishna Dayal, Bulo C. Rani, and S.D. Burman.
After struggling to find work for about a year, a twenty-three-year-old Guru Dutt became an assistant director for the film Girls School (1949) and then joined director Gyan Mukherjee on Sangram, a crime thriller produced by Bombay Talkies. Director Gyan Mukherjee
was a big name in commercial films. He was the man who had directed the most successful film of Hindi cinema at that point of time titled Kismet, which ran for nearly five years in a theatre. He became a real mentor for Guru Dutt in the film industry. Gyan had a huge collection of books and Guru Dutt was allowed to borrow books from his personal library. Working with this mainstream film-maker, Guru also imbibed his technique, commercial aspect of film-making and his flamboyant style.31
Though the film business in the Bombay film industry was dominated by Urdu-speaking Punjabis, there were few Bengali teams comprising superb creative talents. Guru Dutt felt more at home in their company. Having spent his formative years in Calcutta, he had a strong affinity towards Bengal, its people and its culture. In an industry where Yusuf Khan became Dilip Kumar and Mumtaz Jahan became Madhubala, he decided to stop using his family name too. Guru Dutt Shivshankar Padukone was now known as Guru Dutt. ‘Dutt’ was a common surname in Bengal and many in the film industry assumed that he was a Bengali too. Guru Dutt had no problem with it.
Bengal was going to shape his cinema and his life.
Guru Dutt’s friend, actor Dev Anand, had become a star riding on the success of his 1948 release Ziddi. With his elder brother Chetan Anand, Dev launched his own production company ‘Navketan’ in 1949. It was now time for Dev to fulfill the promise that he made to his friend Guru Dutt. ‘I’m not a promise breaker,’ said Dev. Though Guru Dutt had never directed a film, Dev Anand decided to gamble on his friend from the days of struggle. He asked Guru Dutt to direct Navketan’s second production in 1950.