Guru Dutt
Guru Dutt was a great actor, director, producer, choreographer and writer and is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema.He was born as Vasanth Kumar Padukone on 9 July 1925, in village Padukone in Karnataka in a Saraswat Brahmin family. Guru Dutt spent his early youth in Bhowanipore, Calcutta and learnt fluent Bengali and in the year 1942, he learnt Dancing and Choreography in Almora under Pandit Uday shankar and later worked as a telephone operator with lever brothers, calcutta before he joined Prabhat Film Company in Pune on a 3 year contract where he did some minor roles , choreography and assistant directorship and after which he got unemployed for sometimes during which he wrote short stories for the Illustrated Weekly of India . In 1951 , Dev Anand engaged him as a writer and director first for his film Baaji बाजी which was a super hit and then for another super hit film Jaal जाल in 1952 .In between Guru dutt formed his own production company “ Gurudutt films pvt ltd “ and also formed his own team of artists and artisans ( several of them later became super stars like waheeda Rehman and director Raj khosla ) and delivered several hit films like Baaz बाज in 1953 , Aar Paa आर पार in 1954, Mr. & Mrs. 55 in 1955 , C.I.D. in 1956 , Sailaab in 1956 , Pyaasa प्यासा in 1957, Kaagaz Ke Phool कागज के फूल 1959 . All these movies were superhit except Kaagaj key phool ( the first Indian film made in cinemascope) which turned out to be a box office failure and resulted in huge losses . It is said that this sad film was a reflexion of dutt’s own disturbed personal life – deep real love for waheeda , which created strains in his marital life ( having already married to well known Bengali singer geeta Roy in 1953 with three children) leading to his taking refuge under excessive alcohal and sleeping pills . Guru Dutt, known for his path-breaking films like ‘Pyaasa’ and ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’, first met Waheeda Rehman on the sets of the film ‘C.I.D’ in 1956. It is said that Dutt was instantly mesmerized by her grace and talent and despite being married to singer Geeta Dutt, he found himself irresistibly drawn to Waheeda.Their blossoming relationship and it’s pain and longing was depicted in ‘Pyaasa’ and ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’. It is said that Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman’s relationship was a poignant ( sad ) blend of love, respect and shared creative passionIn the year 1960, dutt released his film Chaudhvin Ka Chand चौदहवीं का चाँद starring himself alongside Waheeda Rehman .The film was a box-office super hit and it more than recovered Dutt’s losses from Kaagaz key phool and it was followed by his film Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, a successful film with Dutt and Meena Kumari in the lead role and Waheeda in the side role . On 10 October 1964, Dutt was found dead in his bed room in his apartment in Bombay. His death may have been suicide ( as many claim ) or just an accidental overdose of liquor and sleeping pills . Before his death, he had separated from geeta roy and used to live alone in his rented flat . In his short but extremely celebrated career, he wrote stories for his four films Baji, jaal, baaj and Pyasa and acted in , directed and produced 8 top class films of which several gained cult following and left his lasting imprints in the hindi cinema . His movie Sahib bibi aur gulam won three awards including for best actor and best movie of the year . His film Pyaasa (1957) made its way to the Time magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Movies . Dutt was included among CNN’s “Top 25 Asian Actors” in the year 2012. In the year 2021, author Yasser Usman published a biographical book about him, titled “Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story” was published by author Yasser Usman .A postage stamp in his honour was issued by the India post in the year -2004 .Dutt had married Geeta Roy Chowdhuri (later, Geeta Dutt) a well-known playback singer in 1953 and the couple had three children. After the death of Guru dutt and Geeta ( in 1972 due to lever failure caused by over alcoholism) their children grew up in the homes of Guru’s brother Atma Ram and Geeta’s brother Mukul Roy.Guru dutt will be remembered for all times to come for his cinematic brilliance. Salute to this genius.
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Seven stars
Special Commeny
Gurudutt was simply a genius, a legendary man of few words but was celebrated and highly praised for his artistic brilliance only decades after his death. He gave Indian cinema some of its all-time classics like film Pyasa and Kaagaj key phool . Starting his career as a choreographer, he carved out a niche in Indian cinema in a very short span of time as died at a very young age of 39, but before that he left his lasting legacy on Bhartiya cinema.Several great artists continue to live with us through their brilliant work and guru dutt was one of them . His 1957 film Pyaasa प्यासा was placed in Time magazine’s list of all time 100 great movies. His films Kaagaz Ke Phool, Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam are often quoted as examples of great cinema work . Only if Dutt would have known just how influential and popular his cinematic work would become, he may not have ended his life ( it is said by many that he committed suicide ) and today, the history of Indian cinema may have been adorned with many more gems from him.Guru Dutt at the core was a performer and would not shy away from acting out most of his film scenes to his actors before the actual shoot and in the end the actors were just placed in a scheme of things that the director ( guru dutt) had already staged for them. Gurudutt invented and introduced several cinematic innovations, was very good in spotting and then launching the new talent, paid good amount of time to the music and songs of his films and delivered winning performances but what ultimately defined Guru Dutt was the impressive amount of cinematic work he left behind as a producer and director. Some of his all-time classical films include his stunning directorial debut Baazi बाजी ( 1951), Aar Paar आर पार ( 1954), Mr & Mrs 55 मिस्टर एंड मिसेज़ 55 ( 1955), C.I.D सीआईडी (1956), Pyaasa प्यासा (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool कागज के फूल 1959), Chaudhvin Ka Chand चौदहवीं का चाँद (1960) and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam साहब बीवी और ग़ुलाम (1962).He was a man who made a humble beginning as a choreographer , then quickly evolved himself in to a actor by adding to his acting skills and then turned in to a master filmmaker . His all-round ability gave his films an added depth during the golden age of Hindi cinema.His intelligent cinematic techniques had a transformative effect in as much as it inspired others to follow in his giant footsteps. This visionary could make films which were much ahead of his time . He didn’t not hesitate or felt a scared to show realism in his films by portraying the then prevailing socio economic conditions with it’s pain and grief and sad ending of films as against the prevailing general commercial trend of making films with escapist entertainment, over optimism and happy ending of the films . He as a forward thinking film maker gave women their due share ( role) in his films whether it was the sexy vamp in Baazi (Geeta Bali), the prostitute (Waheeda Rehman) in Pyaasa, the sharp-witted heiress in Mr & Mrs 55 (Madhubala) or the desperate alcoholic (Meena Kumari) in Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, he created some of the most memorable female lead characters in cinema history.By breaking cinema rules, tackling social taboos and doing things on his own terms, he left a permanent mark on the movie landscape that will never be erased and that is why he would perhaps never be forgotten.Guru Dutt was also credited for launching a lot of new stars like actress Waheeda Rehman, comedian Johnny Walker , director Raj Khosla, actress Geeta Bali and also singer Geeta Roy whom subsequently became his wife . With his film Kagaz Ke Phool in 1959, Dutt crossed the fourth wall of the narrative form to become a world-class director of all times, by mirroring a recount of his personal life that was torn between his wife and a beautiful actress. Today this film is a part of syllabus in many film schools as the finest self reflexive film to have ever been made in india .His film Pyaasa is a tale of a struggling poet, Vijay (Dutt) who faces rejection and betrayal from society with his performance perfectly capturing the essence of a disillusioned and disappointed artist yearning for recognition and love.His films are still and will remain celebrated and revered by viewers, critics and students of cinema the world over, not only for their technical brilliance but also for their profound take on the emptiness of life and the shallowness of material success.
Salute to this great and genius cinema master .
