Guru Dutt Read online

  It was a big family and the lack of resources kept flaring up. Guru’s father was struggling to make ends meet. The clerical post at the Burmah Shell Company paid the bills, but his dreams of a creative life were shattered. It left him a bitter and frustrated man.

  Lalitha recalls, ‘There were always financial problems. My father’s job was low income. He was a clerk and he never rose to become any senior director [never rose to a senior position]. He was not ambitious. Perhaps he did not believe in success. A very idealistic man. He believed in poetry which is not enough to survive.

  ‘My parents would often have heated arguments. Mother was very ambitious but my father was quite happy with his Keats, Shakespeare and Shaw. A laidback intellectual, he didn’t talk much,’9 recalled Lalitha. Guru Dutt and his siblings were scared of their father’s temper and could never get close to him emotionally. As a kid, Guru was stubborn and short tempered like his father.

  ‘Mother was the driving force. My father was very detached from the kids. He was never ever interested. Never even asked Ammaa how she was running the house. Once our school called him for a meeting but when he went there he had no clue in which class his kids were,’ laughs Lalitha.

  So it was Vasanthi who became the guiding light for her kids, especially Guru Dutt. He was the apple of her eye.

  ‘Guru Dutt was also always quiet, aloof, always lost in his own world, dreaming his own dreams. He was never a talkative child. He shared a lot with my mother when he was a kid. But he remained quiet most of the time later.’

  Hidden in the nooks and crannies of their modest existence, the little Guru Dutt was like a seeker with many questions. He had a habit of asking question after question until he got answers which satisfied his curiosities. He was a bright student at school and was fascinated by different languages, like Vasanthi. He spoke Hindi, Konkani and Bengali very well but was always more comfortable in English. At home, the family used to speak in Konkani and English. ‘Guru’s hobby was to collect books. He was a bookworm. I collected a few coins and encouraged him to buy second hand books. He started reading books from the age of 4 years. Beside our house there was a huge open space where Bengali jatras were performed. These jatras are like dramas without stage. Guru would never miss the jatra. By this time he could speak and understand Bengali.’

  Jatra is a form of itinerant (gypsy) theatre that drew upon stories from epics and folk-tales, often with a view to impart a reformist, social or religious message. It was immensely popular in Bengal in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Young Guru Dutt was fascinated with the performers telling stories from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata all night long. His mother recalled, ‘This was his first exposure to storytelling. Imitating the Jatra performers, Guru would tie a cloth around him like a dhoti and would try to tell stories to his siblings.’10

  Sitting at the door of his Bhowanipur house, young Guru Dutt often keenly watched the Baul singers of Calcutta, who played their ektaras and sang devotional songs on the streets. In the evening, his Nani would be lighting the diyas11 for the evening aarti.12 Guru Dutt, now a teenager, would make shadow figures of a swan or a deer in the flickering light of the diyas. Lalitha remembers, ‘…he was obsessed with shadow plays and would make numerous figures on the walls.’

  More than anything else, Guru Dutt had a profound interest in dance. Uday Shankar’s dance dramas used to be very popular in Calcutta. Guru Dutt happened to watch one of Shankar’s shows at a very young age. ‘After the day he watched his first Uday Shankar dance drama a great change came over him. Uday Shankar’s virtuosity mesmerised him, he was inspired,’ said Lalitha.13 He was so enthralled that he told his mother, ‘One day I want to be a dancer like him.’

  But most importantly, it was in Calcutta that Guru met the person who would introduce him to the world of cinema and recognise his phenomenal talent. He would give him a dream—of recognising his inner artist and capabilities.

  His name was B.B. Benegal.

  Section Two

  DESTRUCTION OF A DREAM

  1956–57: BOMBAY

  ‘The films he was making also affected him.’

  3

  THE THIRST

  BOMBAY, 1956

  ‘Pyaasa’s theme was inspired by my father.’

  —Lalitha Lajmi

  India was recently free from a long British rule of two centuries. There were dreams of a new nation, a better India. The 1950s, often termed as the ‘Golden Era’ of Indian cinema, witnessed films like Raj Kapoor’s Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955), Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955), Chetan Anand’s Taxi Driver (1950), Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen (1953) and Devdas (1955), V. Shantaram’s Do Aaankehn Barah Hath—all much talked about for the social concerns they brought to fore. Three actors were ruling the Hindi film industry—the triumverate of Dilip–Dev–Raj. Each one with a distinct style of their own and each one from a Punjabi-speaking background.

  By 1956 Guru Dutt had secured his place as a promising filmmaker with four big successes as a director—Baazi, Aar Paar, Mr & Mrs 55 and C.I.D. The commercial success brought within reach all the dreams that the thirty-one-year-old Guru Dutt had harboured since his days in Calcutta.

  The time had come to realise these dreams.

  Guru Dutt had by then had achieved the quintessential tinsel town success—a bungalow in the posh Pali Hill area of Bombay, marriage and children with the legendary singer Geeta Roy and his own film banner as a producer-director-actor—Guru Dutt Films Pvt Ltd.

  This finally catapulted him to pick the story he had been waiting to tell on the big screen for more than a decade— the classic, Pyaasa.14

  Pyaasa was a personal story inspired by his early days in Bombay as well as the struggles faced by his father. His father’s lifelong ambition was to engage in creative writing but he could only become a clerk. This exasperation he felt manifested itself in a childhood marred with his bitterness, reclusion and constant fights in the house for Guru Dutt and his siblings. He never could grow out of the need to be the breadwinner of the family and engage in creative pursuits.

  Lalitha Lajmi said, ‘Yes, Pyaasa’s theme was inspired by my father. Father was very creative and well-read…Guru Dutt inherited my father’s temperament.’

  Guru Dutt had written the story sometime in 1947. This was the time when India had just achieved independence but was suffering the bloody aftermath of the Partition. A twenty-two-year-old Guru Dutt had come to Bombay and lived with his family in a small rented flat and was struggling to make ends meet. This was also the time when he had realised how difficult it was for a creative man to survive or to make a place in the cut-throat culture of the film industry. He went door to door of many film producers but couldn’t get work for almost a year. In that frame of mind, he wrote the story about the frustrations and anguish of an artist and called it ‘Kashmakash’. The same story became Pyaasa ten years later with some crucial changes in the plot.

  ‘You will realise that though he made it ten years later [after writing the story] he always wanted to make Pyaasa but there was less commercial angle so he was a little hesitant and the distributors kept on dissuading him,’ Guru Dutt’s son Arun Dutt had said in an interview.

  The subject of Pyaasa, despite being extremely close to his heart, went through a whole process of to-do-or-not-to-do. He had already tasted success in the Bombay film industry riding on the popularity of mainstream romantic comedies and thrillers inspired from Hollywood. But in his heart, he longed to tell a tale that would establish him as an artistic and serious film-maker. But he was not confident. So before taking up Pyaasa, Guru Dutt had toyed with half-hearted ideas of other projects. Here’s what was announced in the Screen India magazine before he announced Pyaasa:

  Guru Dutt’s next venture will be based on a famous Bengali poem.

  This announcement was followed by another one indicating that the idea has been scrapped:

  Guru Dutt has put off the idea of making a popular Tagore poem into a film as r
eported earlier.

  He was now working on a new idea. The announcement in Screen India said:

  Guru Dutt’s next, the life story of a diver will be launched this month. Mostly it will be shot on location at Calcutta and in the Ganges River, the backdrop of the story written by Duhrit Kar, Chief Assistant of composer S.D. Burman. Guru Dutt will play the role of a diver. Hemant Kumar will compose the music.

  And then an unexpected collaboration with the legendary director of Mother India, Mehboob Khan, was reported too:

  Guru Dutt is likely to direct a film for Mehboob Khan.

  This perpetual indecisiveness remained Guru Dutt’s Achilles’ heel throughout his career and to an extent in his personal life too. Spending time on these ideas also meant wasting a lot of resources and money without any visible achievement. But writer and close associate, Abrar Alvi, who was part of Guru’s A-team, clearly said money was just a means for Guru Dutt and never the end. He said, ‘Nobody could ever have cared less for money. I have seen him squandering lakhs—not for personal indulgence but for his art. So many artists were signed and paid but never utilised, so many stories were bought which never went on the floors, so many films which went on the floors were never finished.’

  Guru Dutt was busy working on the script of Pyaasa with Abrar Alvi. They were spending more time at Guru’s house and sometimes at the farmhouse writing the screenplay. Abrar said, ‘Those days, I would go home with Guru Dutt every evening and we would sit around with a drink each, discussing work. We started with C.I.D., then the story and picturisation of Pyaasa took over our lives. And it was in those long fruitful evenings that I learnt a lot about Guru Dutt’s technique and cinematic expression. He was a man obsessed with cinema.’

  That obsession—added with his new-found success— was a heady cocktail. Guru Dutt now had money and clout. He now wanted to be recognised as a filmmaker with a difference. With two hit films as a lead actor, he could have opted to work as a hero in films outside his banner. It would have been an easier, more comfortable and starry career choice. But he had a deep desire to create films— artistic films. Having his own film production banner boosted his status as a successful producer. It also suited his temperament of shooting over long periods of time.

  But running a company meant incurring huge costs and a regular flow of money was required for maintenance and salaries. A creative soul, Guru Dutt always found himself more at home with story ideas, song situations and creating magical moments on celluloid; however, as the studio boss he was also required to give his time to the administrative and financial health of his company. His trusted chief production controller, Guruswamy, handled the day-to-day functioning of the studio.

  He also felt responsible for his staff. So many families depended on him for their livelihood. So it was important that his company should produce successful films regularly. There were bonuses when a film did well. His kindness was duly acknowledged by people who worked with him. ‘There was a certain nobility about him. Once an artiste who had been helped on many occasions, monetarily or otherwise began to give constant trouble. Once I pulled him up and reminded him of the help we had given him on many occasions. Later, Guru Dutt called me to his office and told me, “Never mention about helping someone. It hurts human pride,”’ recalled Guruswamy.15

  But while it wasn’t possible for Guru Dutt to shoot every day, it was important that his staff had regular work even when he was busy planning his next film. For that, the company had to churn out more films on a regular basis, even if it meant hiring directors. Also, it was of prime importance to produce commercially viable films first and then invest in artistic ‘dream projects’ like Pyaasa. So Guru Dutt decided to follow a simple rule: in his production company each commercially successful film would be followed by a ‘risky and artistic’ film. Commercial success was always very important to Guru Dutt.

  Guru Dutt had already begun shooting a few sequences of Pyaasa when his previous film, C.I.D., was being made. He had filmed three reels but wasn’t satisfied with what he had shot. So he scrapped the entire footage and decided to shoot it again.

  Pyaasa, which literally means ‘the thirsty’, was finally in the making. With this dream project, Guru Dutt perhaps also set off on a path of unquenchable creative perfection—eventually derailing every other dream he held close.

  4

  DILIP KUMAR AND PYAASA

  ‘Guru Dutt was hesitant to face the camera as an actor.’

  —V.K. Murthy

  For his most ambitious film yet, Pyaasa, Guru Dutt wanted the best actor around. He wanted the ‘tragedy king’, the top star of the 1950s—Dilip Kumar. Dilip was known to take his craft extremely seriously and was a perfectionist to the core. He normally worked in one film at a time to give it his 100 per cent. This was exactly the kind of dedication Guru Dutt wanted from his Pyaasa hero.

  Guru went to meet Dilip Kumar and narrated the script of Pyaasa to him. Dilip Kumar agreed to do the film in principle. He quoted his price of one-and-a-half-lakh rupees. Guru Dutt requested him to consider reducing the price as he had already scrapped the shoot he had done for the film, wasting a considerable amount. In reply, he was asked not to worry about the money. Now that Dilip Kumar was to take on the lead role, his loyal film distributors would take care of the finances. This perhaps was the point where Guru Dutt disagreed with him. Guru Dutt clearly told Dilip Kumar that he had a fixed team of distributors too and he had committed Pyaasa to them. In Sathya Saran’s book Ten Years with Guru Dutt, Abrar Alvi says that Guru Dutt told Dilip Kumar, ‘I haven’t come to you to sell my film. I can sell it on my own. I have come to you as a director, because I believe that if I cast you in my film, I will make a better film. You will add stature to it.’16

  Whether Dilip Kumar, the biggest star-actor of those times, took offense is not known. Dilip Kumar never talked about this meeting ever. But at that time he promised Guru Dutt that he would come for the shooting from the next day.

  The following day, all preparations were done for the muhurat17 shot. The entire unit of Pyaasa was waiting to welcome their star, Dilip Kumar. Hours passed but Kumar didn’t arrive.

  Guru Dutt’s production controller and confidante Guruswamy said, ‘I myself had gone to fetch Dilip Saab. But he was not to be found at home.’

  Guru’s brother, Devi Dutt recalls, ‘He [Dilip Kumar] was to attend the mahurat at A.P. Kardar Studio. Also, [producer–director] B.R. Chopra’s office was in the same compound. Dilip Saab went there to meet him. There was a quiet rivalry between B.R. Chopra Saab and Guru Dutt. Dilip Saab sat there discussing the script of Chopra Saab’s Naya Daur as the mahurat time (of Pyaasa) slipped by. Guru Dutt sent for him. Dilip Saab said he’d be there in ten minutes.’ But even then Dilip Kumar did not turn up.

  Around lunch time, Guru Dutt sent for two bees.

  By 3 pm he had decided to play the protagonist himself and took the first shot—a close-up shot of a bee thirsty for nectar but a man passing by crushes the innocent life under his foot.18

  Guru Dutt had always underestimated himself as an actor. In all his films where he had played the lead role, he was always the reluctant second or third choice. Cinematographer and another of Guru Dutt’s A-team members, V.K. Murthy remembered, ‘He was hesitant to face the camera as actor… He could not critique his acting adequately, and so this job was up to Abrar or I.’19

  There were always talks of signing other actors for the role. In Pyaasa too, after scrapping the initial shoot with himself in the lead role, he had started thinking that he doesn’t possess the histrionics required for the very complex role of the tragic poet. He felt that a craftier actor was needed.

  Later, Dilip Kumar said in an interview that he didn’t sign Pyaasa as his role was similar to the one he had played in his memorable film Devdas. He never mentioned anything else on record. It’s true that had Dilip Kumar turned up on that fateful day, Pyaasa would have been a very different film. But the way in which Guru Dutt played the role of Vija
y, it is difficult to imagine anyone except him in that role now. He gave it his everything. Guru Dutt became Vijay, the heartbroken poet.

  The audacious move by Guru Dutt to take on the role that Dilip Kumar refused paid off and it became ‘one of Bollywood’s all-time greatest performances’. Bunny Reuben, the biographer of the thespian Dilip Kumar writes, ‘What, in fact, Guru Dutt had actually done, was to…inform the entire cinema-going world that he had given a “Dilip Kumar role” to a totally new actor and he’d made a super-hit out of his film.’ There cannot be a more telling statement on the feat that had been achieved.

  With himself in the lead male role, the quest for the female lead started.

  5

  AN ACCIDENT AND

  WAHEEDA REHMAN

  ‘That meeting appeared to be just a coincidence; but destiny must have known that my days were changed…’

  —Waheeda Rehman

  The casting of the female leads for Pyaasa went through many changes. Initially Madhubala was considered to play the role that finally went to Mala Sinha. Meenu Mumtaz was signed as the streetwalker’s friend while the song ‘Jaane kya tune kahi’ was to be picturised on Kumkum. However, in the final cut, both Meenu Mumtaz and Kumkum were out.

  A relatively new actress, Waheeda Rehman, was finalised to play the lead role of the prostitute, Gulabo, opposite the protagonist, poet Vijay (Guru Dutt). Initially Guru Dutt’s team wasn’t happy with her casting. It was a complex role that required a mature and seasoned actress and Waheeda was just one film old. But Guru Dutt had absolutely no doubt. Abrar Alvi said20 that in the beginning at least the romantic in Guru Dutt saw in Waheeda the perfect foil to his creative and intellectual leanings.