GURU DUTT - the Genius most Misunderstood & Most Misrepresented

By MOHAN SAHAY


GURU DUTT has been assigned as a ‘failure’ by many film writers and columnists over the years, ever since he took his own life by consuming overdose of barbiturate ( sleeping pills ) and whisky – a lethal combination - on the night of 9 – 10 October 1964. He died in the wee hours of 10th October at his Peddar road apartment of Bombay. It was a Saturday.

It is sad and unfortunate that an all time great filmmaker and actor should be described as a frustrated man for the sin of committing suicide. Remarks are most uncharitable to say the least. There could be many reasons for someone ending his life.

What killed him was not the failure at the box office of his magnum opus “Kagaz ke Phool” or his financial crisis that drove him to do “… that mad thing…”. There are instances when people committed suicide for a variety of reasons.

Marilyn Monroe, for instance, killed herself by consuming over doze of sleeping pills at the peak of her career when she was most sought after actress, a glamour queen, an alluring beauty in 1962. Certainly, she was under no financial crisis nor her demand in Hollywood was on the wane. She too died at the prime of her youth.

The film world of Bombay is silent on Dutt’s affairs with Waheeda Rehman. It Was Guru Dutt who discovered Waheeda at a film premier in Hyderabad when she was still in her teens. It was Guru Dutt who gave her the break in C. I. D – a box office hit of Dev Anand who played the lead role in the film while Waheeda was cast in a negative role; Shakeela being the other girl in the lead female role against Dev.

Even Dev Anand when asked by this writer about Dutt’s less talked affair with Waheeda Rehman evaded a direct answer.

“ Well, Guru Dutt and I were great pals. In fact we had just discussed a film to be produced jointly. I musts say Guru Dutt was a genius and great filmmaker. It is sad that he died young”, Dev Anand told me sometime ago in a one to one talk in Lucknow.

He further said, “ I still remember it very well. I was shooting for Teen Devian when I received the news of Guru Dutt’s death, I abandoned the shooting, packed up and headed straight for Dutt’s residence. I was first to reach there. It was a Saturday, 10th October”.


May be it was a different age, different time, different era then. Dutt was married. He had fallen in love with Geeta Roy then a famous playback singer. She was a Bengali while Dutt was a Sarswat Brahmin of Karnataka. She was beautiful girl with a sharp feature. Geeta was an established playback singer inBombay then while Dutt was still making his place in the filmworld.

It happens in life when one is drawn towards someone despite him or herselt. You fall in love. Getting a divorce from Geeta Dutt was not easy since it would also have meant lot of condemnation from the film world that Dutt dreaded to face. In fact, at the time of Guru Dutt’s death, Geeta Dutt was living separately with their children in Mumbai though there was no judicial separation of the two.

Even Dev Anand and Surraya could not marry despite both being deeply in love with each other – a fact admitted by Dev Anand and Surraya. It was due to social taboo and strong resistance from Surraya’s grandmother that the two could not consume their love into wedlock.

Had Dutt lived in the present age, such things could happen without any fuss.
GURU DUTT would have been 82 years old had he been alive.

His love for Waheeda was reflected in two of his films – Pyasa and Kagaz ke Phool though in Chaudhavin ka Chand too the shot filmed on Waheeda on the first night of their wedding in the film tells the story. Guru Dutt's emotions and love for the girl in the title song –‘ chaudhavin ka chand ho… ya aftaab ho….” was well pronounced when he closes in, almost to the point of kissing his wife on the screen. Guru Dutt’s eyes and face tell everything.

Among his classics, Pyasa is much talked about film since it was also a commercial success. Dutt’s showed the selfish character of the people in the film and also how a person who dismissed someone as a pedestrian could lift the same man to height and embrace him for selfish ends – material gains to be precise.

Mala Sinha who was Dutt’s love in the film marries a rich publisher Rehman since Dutt being a poet living in penury.

Pyasa had a strong social message too. The film depicted the plight of prostitutes and the social order of that day. Saheer Ludhianvi’s lyrics of the song ‘’’ jinhe naaz hai hind par who kahan hai..’, was penned as a satire on Pandit Nehru who was then Prime Minister of India. Reminding the great leader of the social plight of the women in India.

In Pyasa, Dutt also sent a message of futility of material world. After his poems are a hit albeit it was only after Dutt was declared dead by mistake, Dutt rejects the glory and fame to walk hand in hand with a small time call girl played by Waheeda in the film.

While doing so, the Dutt did not forget to tell the world what a rupee means for those who are penniless. He earns a rupee to survive by ferrying luggage of a rich man. He goes to the small eatery and orders for the meal. The owner asks Dutt to clear the dues first or pay cash for the meal. Dutt showed the owner a one rupee coin. He eats with one hand and holds the coin toghtly in another palm like a mother clutching her child fearing someone might snatch the baby. It was only Guru Dutt who could film such sequence for the screen with a message and pholosophy of life of a majority of Indians that holds good even today.

By all accounts, Kagaz ke Phool was the greatest of all the films of Guru Dutt. Not only because it was the first Cinemascope Hindi film made in India, but the thematic values of the film, the storyline, the characters and their performance - everything was so powerful that one is left wondering what the human relationship is all about and how complex are relations. The nuances of love and sacrifice run along.

Each time if you see the film, you discover a new angle, a new interpretation of Kagaz ke Phool. The film also tells Guru Dutt’s own story. His extra marital relation with Waheeda in the film and how he is reduced to penury after attaining the height of a successful and rich film director because of his love for the girl in the film. Dutt who plays the lead role as Suresh Sinha in the film also showed the false pride and arrogance of the elite of the society – the brown saheb Verma family whose daughter is married to Dutt. When the film ends with the death of Dutt in the film studios – it is said that Dutt filmed his own death in Kagaz ke Phool which was released in 1959 at Maratha Mandir, Bombay, five year before Dutt committed suicide.

Kagaz ke Phool failed at the box office since it was made ahead of time. Had the film been made now, people say, it would have been a great box office hit.

It is a tribute to Guru Dutt when an actor like Amitabh Bachan says. “ If I had my wish to do the role in my life of a classic film of yesteryears, I would love to play the role of Guru Dutt in Kagaz ke Phool”.

Critics say ‘ Kagaz ke Phool’ is a poetry on celluloid.

ends