by Yasser Usman
The next time writer Bimal Mitra came to Bombay, Guru drove him down to Bungalow No. 48, Pali Hill. The old guard was still there at the gate. As soon as he opened the gate, it seemed as if the opening scene of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam came out of celluloid and was being played out as reality.
Guru Dutt, like the character of Bhootnath, entered through the gate of what used to be an opulent bungalow. But now there were just ruins. It was as if like Bhoothnath, Guru Dutt too went into a flashback thinking about the old days.
The room where he used to sleep, was now just a pile of bricks overlapping the broken Italian blue marble of his exquisite bathroom. All he could see was splintered timber, chunks of plaster and shattered pieces of a dream.
His thoughts were broken by Mitra’s voice. ‘Ok, tell me why did you do this to a home built with such love?’
With a sad smile on his lips, he replied,
‘Because of Geeta,’ Guru said in a low voice.
‘What does that even mean?’ Mitra asked.
Guru puffed at a cigarette, lost in his thoughts, then blowing smoke he said, ‘Ghar na hone ki takleef se ghar hone ki takleef aur bhayankar hoti hai’ (‘The pain of having a home that you can’t call home is worse than the pain of being homeless’). Or perhaps a home that could never become a home.
It was the realisation that the pain of not having a home is better than having a home and realising it could never be a happy home. Profound, yet very painful.
Guru Dutt’s mother said, ‘Guru’s stars were bad. He did not give a second thought to it. The beautiful bungalow was destroyed. Ever since the bungalow was pulled down, Guru Dutt’s home went to pieces gradually.’127
With Geeta and kids, Dutt shifted to a rented flat in a building called Ashish, opposite Dilip Kumar’s bungalow in Pali Hill. The kids thought that they will be returning to their bungalow once the construction work was done. But within a few months Guru and Geeta fought again and realised that their relationship was over and a reconciliation was no more possible.
This time Guru Dutt moved alone to a flat in Ark Royal Apartments on Peddar Road in central Bombay. Geeta Dutt and the three children moved to a rented place near Mehboob Studios in Bandra.
The family was gone. There were no friends around. Only acute loneliness.
In these moments Guru Dutt remembered his old friend, Dev Anand.
Section Fifteen
1964
‘Pack up! Pack up!’
60
FINAL DAYS
‘I have become an orphan. Kya karu main?’
—Guru Dutt to V.K. Murthy
‘We were and remained friends till the last, though our meetings started becoming rarer and rarer as we both grew, physically, emotionally and artistically,’ said Dev Anand about his old friend Guru.
In his loneliness when there was no one to talk to, Guru Dutt used to call Dev Anand at midnight saying he had a brainwave. Dev remembered,128 ‘He wanted to make another movie with me and I would always tell him, “Come over”. He always “came over” and he always discussed his plans…as soon as he set his foot back in the studios, he had another idea and the previous one paled into insignificance. Then I would not hear from him for months at a stretch until he had another brainwave.’
Perhaps Guru Dutt did not plan to make any film with him. He just wanted to go and meet his old friend. Just sit and talk like old times. But he could never share his turmoil even with Dev Anand.
The Madras shooting trips continued. There was no problem of money. He was commanding rupees three lakhs per film as an actor and was most excited about K. Asif’s magnum opus Love and God. The shooting with Nimmi had began and the industry was abuzz with news that Asif was going to make the film as grand as Mughal-e-Azam.
The shooting of his home production, Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, was going smoothly. He had watched Raj Kapoor’s Sangam and was very impressed. He wanted to make a colour film. He talked about it with Raj Kapoor and wanted to show him his Kaagaz Ke Phool.
Days were spent immersed in work but nights were difficult. It was just loneliness. In Sathya Saran’s book Ten Years with Guru Dutt, Abrar Alvi talks about a strange conversation he had with Guru Dutt mocking the idea of suicide: ‘We used to talk about it. The ways to kill onself… and we had realised that a man cannot kill himself by swallowing sleeping pills. By the time you can swallow lethal dose, the medicine overpowers you and you conk out.’
And Guru Dutt had replied, ‘You must take it like a mother gives medicine to her child…crush the tablets and dissolve them in water.’
Guru Dutt really missed his kids. They would come over during the weekends and those were the happiest moments for him. He doted on his daughter Nina. In April 1964, Guru Dutt went to a hunting trip with his sons Tarun and Arun. Johnny Walker also went with them.
But back in Bombay, the loneliness returned. At home there was only his valet Ratan and cook Ibrahim. His regular conversation companion Abrar Alvi had taken some writing assignments in Madras while cinematographer V.K. Murthy was planning to shift to Bangalore. Guru repeatedly asked them to not leave Bombay. Even offered them to pay the money they had taken as an advance.
Murthy later said,129 ‘Before I shifted to Bangalore, I met him and Abrar Alvi. Guru Dutt told me, “I have become an orphan now. Gharwale nahi hai, tum Bangalore ja rahe ho, Abrar doosra film likne ke liye Madras ja raha hai. (My family is gone, you are going to Bangalore, and Abrar is going to Madras to write a film). I have become an orphan. What do I do?”’
In September 1964, Abrar Alvi came back from Madras and went straight to Guru Dutt’s Peddar Road flat. Guru asked him to stay. Abrar said he would come back in a few days. He could feel his sadness but Guru never talked his heart out. ‘So many times he would come to the verge of it but then would check himself. He wouldn’t let himself be stifled by his own woes; rare were the occassions when he would share them,’ said Abrar.130
At the midnight of 18 September, an emotionally upset Guru Dutt walked into Abrar’s house. He left at five in the morning, wanting to say something all night. But he did not.
Abrar then decided to stay with him for a few days. On 28 September, Abrar shifted to Guru’s flat at the Ark Royal Apartments. ‘I moved into his Peddar Road flat to write the last few scenes of Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi. For months he had been staying in that big flat alone.’
Lalitha Lajmi had planned a musical evening at her place on 10 October. Ustad Haleem Khan was going to perform a sitar recital. Early October, Lalitha went to invite him but he said, ‘Please excuse me. I feel lost in a crowd. I will come later and we will spend time. Then we can have dinner together.’ It was to be their last meeting.
On 6 October, Guru Dutt called Dev Anand again. ‘In the last days of his life, he called me and said he’d love to have me over. I saw the man then, he’d lost his hair and was weak. He was suffering. He was not the same Guru I’d known. We discussed making a film together. I told him, “Look, why don’t you write a great script? Let’s do it,”’ said Dev Anand.131
‘He came to the Navketan [Dev Anand’s film company] office and said he wanted to come back and make a film there. Dev Anand told him, “Yaar, tumhara ghar hai. Come and make a film soon.” Guru smiled and said he wanted Goldie [Vijay Anand] to edit the film. Dev Anand often told us about this last meeting with Guru Dutt,’ recalls Amit Khanna.
They made a promise to work together once again, like the promise they had made years ago at Prabhat Studios in Poona during the beginning of their respective journeys.
The same evening Abrar Alvi had moved back to his home.
7 October 1964
A reporter from The Times of India visited Guru Dutt Studios where Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi was being shot. Guru was playing a reporter in the movie and wanted to speak with the TOI reporter. Guru even asked the reporter if he can visit the newspaper office for research. The visit was planned in the following week.
The scene that was being shot involved Guru Dutt (repo
rter) and Mala Sinha (newspaper editor). In the scene, he resigns from the job and throws his resignation letter on the table declaring, ‘Whether you accept it or not, this is my resignation. I am going.’ The editor tries to call him back. But he doesn’t return.
Some time ago, K. Asif had shot a grand sequence for Love and God. It was shot on a set of caravan serai. In that sequence, Majnu (Guru Dutt) is awakened in the middle of the night by some urchins who tell him that Laila (Nimmi) is waiting for him. He gets up, tip-toes across the room, looks at his father and then disappears into the darkness. He is supposed to fall into a trap laid by those who would deny him love and meet his death.
Laila refuses to believe that her beloved Majnu is dead. She keeps on repeating: ‘Majnu cannot die! Majnu cannot die!’
61
THE LAST DAY
FRIDAY, 9 OCTOBER 1964
The shooting of Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi was going on in Guru Dutt Studios. His brothers, Atmaram and Devi Dutt, were shooting for an ad film Hazrat. Devi Dutt remembers,132 ‘He asked me to have lunch, suddenly, he decided to pack up and fly kites.’ He sent his driver to get his children and together they began flying kites. Much fun was had.
There was nothing that suggested that it would be the last day of Guru Dutt’s life.
Guru Dutt, his brother Devi Dutt, Tarun and Arun left the studio together. On the way they stopped at Chiragh Din boutique at Colaba. Guru Dutt loved shopping there. He bought expensive clothes for the children and Devi Dutt. They dropped the kids to their home and Guru asked Devi Dutt to accompany him to his flat. Once at home in the evening, Devi was hungry and Guru Dutt made an omelette for him. They talked cheerfully. ‘He gave me two tickets to attend the cricket match the next day.’ He didn’t have a telephone connection in his flat. They went to the neighbour’s house at the ground floor and called Mala Sinha who was shooting in Madras. It was dinner time when he asked Devi to call up Geeta and ask her if she could send the kids to his place. He was missing them.
Geeta reportedly told him that the kids had spent the day with him and now it was too late. She said she would send them the next day. Devi conveyed her message to Guru who had started drinking. ‘That was the last meeting I had with my brother,’ said Devi Dutt.133
As Devi was leaving, Abrar Alvi arrived.
That night Abrar was working on the last scene of Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi. It was about the heroine Mala Sinha who, deserted by her sister and collegues, becomes very lonely. She finally shuts herself up in a mentally deranged state and then dies. Abrar narrated the scene to Guru Dutt. He heard patiently but remained silent. Abrar kept waiting for his reaction but Guru Dutt was silent, lost in his thoughts. Abrar asked, ‘Did you like it?’
Guru Dutt replied,134 ‘You know, Abrar, I have a fear that some day I also may go mad. Loneliness could really be opressive.’
The conversation thread continued. Guru Dutt also told Abrar about a letter he had recieved from a friend who was in a lunatic asylum, recalling that he and Guru knew each other in Poona eighteen years ago. The man had written to Guru after a long time and asked for some money. Guru had observed there was nothing in the letter that suggested that the man was mad.135
In this conversation, Guru talked about loneliness and also mentioned how Geeta refused to send her daughter to Guru’s place.
Then he heard the scene again. The scene that ended with the heroine’s death. In the climax a couplet from the title song (by Kaifi Azmi) is recited:
Badal jaaye agar maali, chaman hota nahi khaali Baharen phir bhi aati hai, baharen phir bhi aayengi
Guru Dutt finally liked the scene and remarked,136 ‘Our heroine is going to score in this picture.’ He was talking about actress Mala Sinha stealing the show with her ‘death scene’.
Abrar Alvi kept finalising the scene with Guru’s inputs. Around 12.30 at night, Guru went to the neighbour’s house and called Raj Kapoor. He asked Raj if he could come and meet him. Raj was surprised but said that it’s too late. He promised to come over the next evening. Guru Dutt wanted to discuss the newly formed The Screen Actors’ Guild of which he was one of the founder members. But more than that Guru Dutt wanted to show Raj Kapoor his favourite film, Kaagaz Ke Phool, and discuss it with him. He could never get over the failure of the film. Guru had sounded sad and lonely.
Guru came back to his flat accompanied by his income tax consultant, Mr Gole. Abrar was still completing the scene. They sat for dinner together but Guru said, ‘You two have your dinner. I can’t. I am feeling very tired. I would like to retire.’
With these words Guru Dutt went to his bedroom and closed the door.
A restless Geeta Dutt at her mother’s apartment at Peddar Road had also retired to bed but couldn’t sleep. Around 2 AM she felt extremely uneasy. In the evening they had an argument over the phone as Guru wanted her to send the kids to meet him while she had refused as it was too late. It was nothing unusual. They had had worse altercations in the past.
But the restlessness continued. She felt a strange premonition about something that she couldn’t lay her finger on. She wanted to call up Guru but the phone was at a neighbour’s house. It was too late to call. She wanted that night to be over soon.
She rang up the neighbours’s house the first thing in the morning. Guru’s servant came on the line and told her that Guru Dutt was sleeping. Geeta asked him to wake Guru up. The servant went away and came back to say that the door was locked from inside. Geeta asked the servant to break open the door.
At around 3 AM, Guru Dutt came out of the room, woke Ratan up and asked him about Abrar Alvi. Ratan told him that he had left after dinner. Ratan asked if he could make a drink for him. Guru Dutt replied, ‘No, just give me the bottle.’
With a bottle of whiskey in his hand, Dutt went back to his room and locked the room from inside.
Guru Dutt never came out of the room alive.
62
JOHNNY! GURU GAYA!
It was 10.30 in the morning of 10 October 1964. It was a Saturday.
Guru Dutt was lying there. Insensate. Finally, his melancholy was over.
There was an unfinished Hindi novel kept by his side and the lights were on. It was as if he had carefully thought about the lighting and composed a frame for a perfect shot for his ‘death scene’. He had woven many spells through the poetic glances of his camera and the rebellion in his cinematic language. This was Guru Dutt’s last spell. An unusual frame composition for his real departure scene.
Wearing a kurta-pyjama, sprawled on his back, inclined to the right, eyes closed, face relaxed in a serene repose. It was strange but true that he never looked as peaceful in the previous many years as he was looking then. An unusual posture of thoughful, eternal sleep.
His mother recalled, ‘I couldn’t believe it. How calm and serene was his face! I couldn’t believe my son has breathed his last. I went and felt his forehead. It was cold as ice. Then I went and sat near his feet. I was stunned and sat like a stone.’
Lalitha Lajmi has vivid memories of that morning. She’s teary eyed while recounting it, ‘He was dead, his right arm out, half-opened eyes, an unfinished book and the right leg folded as if to get up from his bed. There was some coloured liquid in the glass. Dev Anand reached first and sat close to my mother.’
A shocked Dev Anand had cancelled the shoot of Teen Deviyaan and was the first one from the industry to reach Guru’s Pedder Road flat. ‘I was the first man to go into his room. His dead body was lying there. There was a glass of blue liquid on the floor. He was sallow. And dead.’
Abrar Alvi recalled,137 ‘What baffled everyone was the right-hand fore-finger gently resting on his chin—as if he was lost in deep thought.’ His leg was lifted as if he was about to get up from the bed. On the side table was a glass with a pink liquid, the sleeping pills Sonaril crushed and dissolved in water.138
‘He’s killed himself,’ said Abrar as soon as he saw Guru Dutt. Playing in his mind were images from the day when he and Guru had discusse
d ways to kill oneself. And Guru Dutt had replied, ‘You must take it like a mother gives medicine to her child…crush the tablets and dissolve them in water.’
Geeta reached soon and fell unconscious from shock. Their little daughter Nina started wailing, ‘Papa, papa get up!’ Guru’s sister and mother also rushed to the Ark Royal.
Consoling a speechless Geeta, Dev Anand broke down. Holding Guru Dutt’s hand, he repeatedly said, ‘Guru, uth! Kahan chala gaya tu?’ (‘Guru, get up. Where have you gone?’)139
Lalitha recalled, ‘The death must have come around 4 or 5 AM. I reached around noon. My mother and husband were already there. Geeta was unconsolable.’ With tears in her eyes Geeta said to Lalitha, ‘You all will blame me for this. Won’t you?’
O.P. Nayyar recalled,140 ‘At around 2 AM the same night that he committed suicide, my wife told me, “Raj Kapoor has phoned for you. He is saying that Guru Dutt is totally inebriated and is crying inconsolably, repeatedly calling for Nayyar Saab!” I was too tired and sleepy to go. I just told my wife to make some excuse. I had an appointment with Guru at his residence anyway the next morning at 10.’ Guru kept his word, and Nayyar met his lifeless body the next morning.
Lalitha Lajmi recalls, ‘It’s a moment frozen for me. The whole film fraternity was there and I was praying for Waheeda to see him for the last time.’
63
THE END
‘I know that he had always wished for it, longed for it… and he got it.’
—Waheeda Rehman on Guru Dutt’s death
Johnny Walker and Waheeda Rehman were travelling to Madras the day Guru Dutt passed away. Johnny Walker recalled, ‘As soon as I entered my room in Hotel Connemera, the telephone rang. It was a trunk call from Bombay, and I was told about the tragedy: “Johnny! Guru gaya!”’ Johhny broke down. His friend was gone.