Guru Dutt Read online

  The dance inspired by Benegal’s painting really acted as a catalyst. The performance captured on camera gave him the confidence to finally take the plunge. His heart had decided that he would be a dancer. With the help of a few friends, Guru Dutt managed to get an appointment with Uday Shankar and gave a secret audition. More than the performance it was the infectious passion for dance and determination on Guru’s face that struck Shankar. As soon as the dance performance was over, Uday Shankar announced, ‘Come to Almora.’

  But the family had no money to pay the fee. It was B.B. Benegal again who came to the rescue. With the help of his film distributor friend, S.R. Hemmad, he managed to get a scholarship of Rs 75 for Guru Dutt to go and study at Uday Shankar’s dance centre. The path was now clear. Guru had tears in his eyes.

  ‘Take the blankets because it is very cold in Almora. If you have any difficulties, just write to me,’ said B.B. Benegal, Guru Dutt’s first mentor, Santa Clause and fairy rolled into one.

  It was time to say goodbye to Calcutta, his soul-city.

  8

  DANCE WHEN YOU’RE BROKEN

  ALMORA, 1942

  ‘At Uday Shankar’s dance centre, I saw how complex life is, and how simple too.’

  —Guru Dutt

  It was at the Uday Shankar India Culture Centre in Almora (earstwhile U.P.) where Guru Dutt imbibed his sense of rhythm, music and power of images. Popularly known as the father of modern dance, Uday Shankar was born in an affluent Bengali family. Though he never had any formal training in dance, he worked for over a decade with the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.

  In 1938, Uday Shankar decided to make India his base, and established the ‘Uday Shankar India Cultural Centre’, at Simtola, 3 km from Almora.25 His aim was to popularise and propagate classical Indian dance forms. He invited various dancers and musicians to teach Kathakali, Bharatnatyam, Kathak and other dance forms. Soon the centre began to attract students from across the country.

  Guru Dutt joined at the end of 1941 at the age of sixteen. He soon became one of Uday Shankar’s favourite students. He was the youngest and the best-looking man at the centre with jet black hair, a calm face and an innocence that was hard to miss. He knew how to use the camera so Uday Shankar gave him his camera to capture the images at the centre. Guru Dutt felt at home. Later he shared26, ‘I used to get impressed by simple things. I saw how complex life is, and how simple too.’

  Vasanthi recalled, ‘Sometimes I felt nervous as I did not know what Guru Dutt’s future would be…that was the first time when we were separated from each other. Guru felt our separation very much, although he was busy with his own work and was happy.’

  At the centre, the focus was not only on producing dancers but all-round artists. The centre was like a huge commune where the students had to maintain strict discipline. They had yoga classes, literature and psychology training. They had to create their own dance themes, stitch their own costumes and create plays and performances. In a play based on the Ramayana, Guru Dutt had essayed the role of Lakshman. These shows were performed as shadow plays too. It was here that Guru Dutt learnt to adjust the lights to make a figure appear small or large.

  While Guru Dutt was well settled in Almora, his family in Calcutta was again being uprooted.

  In 1942, during the Second World War, there were rumours of Calcutta being bombed by the Japanese. Vasanthi left the city with her children to stay with her brother-in-law in Karnataka. Soon Burmah Shell Company also decided to move their offices to Bombay. Shivshankar Padukone was also transferred. In August 1942, Vasanthi and the kids also came to Bombay. They shifted to a flat in Matunga in Bombay, the city which remained home to Guru Dutt for the rest of his life.

  In December 1942, Uday Shankar brought his troupe to perform in Bombay. Guru Dutt’s performance was at the Excelsior theatre and he sent passes to his family. It was the first time that Guru’s parents and siblings watched him perform on stage with dancers. ‘He must be seventeen, had an extremely fair complexion and jet black, long hair. He performed his swan dance. Our family was so happy for him,’ remembers Lalitha.

  But the beautiful Uday Shankar chapter in Guru Dutt’s life was also coming to an end.

  Due to the war, the foreign funding to Uday Shankar’s India Culture Centre became difficult to sustain and it finally closed down in 1944. This was a huge jolt for all the students, including Guru Dutt. His mother wrote in her memoir, ‘One evening Guru returned with three of his colleagues with bag and baggage…we were all keenly disappointed at the turn of events. The poor students did not know what they would do in future. They were all depressed.’ Lalitha Lajmi added, ‘Guru was one of his favourite students. Uday Shankar told my mother to make sure Guru should continue dancing. But we knew dance wasn’t really a profession in those days. There was no future in dancing.’

  At that time, Guru Dutt didn’t know that sometimes things fall apart so better things can fall in place. The stint at Almora had taught him an important lesson: many times in life one has to lose things and people close to one’s heart and have to learn to begin afresh. This cycle keeps repeating.

  9

  DEV ANAND, A FRIEND FOR LIFE

  POONA, 1944–46

  ‘We promised each other that the day I became a producer, I’d take him on as a director, and the day he directed a film, he’d cast me as a hero.’

  —Dev Anand

  It was time to seek a new direction in life. After spending a few months in sheer desperation, twenty-year-old Guru Dutt turned to his mentor B.B. Benegal once again. Benegal took Guru Dutt to Poona and introduced him to Baburao Pai who was a partner in the famous Prabhat Film Company, popularly known as Prabhat Studios in Poona. The studio had a reputation of being an institution that produced successful films in the past and it was in the process of hiring new talent and revamping itself.

  Guru Dutt was hired as a dance director at Prabhat Studio at a salary of Rs 50 a month, on a three year contract. He also worked as an assistant director and sometimes even as an actor in the films produced by Prabhat Studio. In the film Lakharani (1945), Guru Dutt appeared as one of the group dancers and also acted in a scene in which he was tied up and beaten. This was his first appearance as an actor. He was also an assistant to director Vishram Bedekar. ‘It is possible,’ said Atma Ram, ‘that it was at this stage, while working in Lakharani, that Guru Dutt decided to become a director. Till then his goal was to pursue dancing in its pure or applied form.’

  It was here in Poona, during the making of the 1946 film Hum Ek Hain, when he met friends who would play a very crucial role in his life and his films.

  Coming from Lahore of undivided India, with dreams of becoming an actor, Dev Anand was struggling to get a foothold in the Bombay film industry. The year was 1946 when he met Baburao Pai of Prabhat Studio and managed to impress him after gate-crashing into his office. Pai gave Dev Anand a train ticket to Poona and asked him to give an audition in Prabhat Studio. Dev Anand gave a stylish audition and was selected for the film Hum Ek Hain to be directed by P.L. Santoshi. He was offered a monthly salary of Rs 350—a big amount in those days.

  The shooting was about to begin in a few days. Dev Anand was staying in the guesthouse of Prabhat Film Company when one day there was a knock at the door.

  ‘Kaun hai?’ (Who is there?) asked Dev.

  ‘Main kapde laya hoon,’ (I’ve brought the clothes) said the washerman’s young son, Tukaram.

  Dev Anand came at the door of his room to take his clothes but realised that his favourite shirt was missing. There was another shirt which didn’t belong to him: ‘This is not my shirt! That dhobi, I’ll sack him!’ Dev shouted blaming the young boy’s father.

  The washerman’s son was scared. Dev Anand asked him if he has delivered his shirt to some other room. Tukaram had no idea. In search of the shirt, they knocked on the door of a few rooms and finally a bespectacled young man, holding a book in his hand, came out from a room. Dev Anand explained the situation to him an
d asked if the man had got his shirt by mistake. The man smiled and confirmed that he had a similar ‘wrong shirt’ story and fortunately the shirt too.

  They smiled. Dev introduced himself and said he was the lead actor of Hum Ek Hain.

  Shaking hands with Dev Anand the bespectacled man replied, ‘I am the lead choreographer of Hum Ek Hain. My name is Guru Dutt.’ Dev recalled later, ‘We had a hearty laugh and embraced each other. We were to be friends for all times.’

  Guru Dutt was also the assistant director and even played a small role in Hum Ek Hain. The film was a two-hero story about Hindu-Muslim unity. Dev Anand played the Hindu character while the Muslim character was played by another young, good-looking actor, Rahman. Dev Anand, Rahman and Guru Dutt became close friends during the making of the film. They would cycle around the roads of Poona, cook together, watch movies together, share each other’s secrets and were inseparable.

  The twenty-one-year-old Guru Dutt felt at home with these new friends. He was also on a road of self-discovery, realising that it is filmmaking that was going to be his calling in life. Together they talked about their dreams, their future in films. During one such conversation Guru Dutt and Dev Anand made a promise: ‘We promised each other that the day I became a producer, I’d take him on as a director, and the day he directed a film, he’d cast me as a hero,’ said Dev Anand.

  Guru Dutt and Dev Anand had crossed paths for a reason. The promise was for keeps.

  10

  THE HEARTBREAKS

  ‘In Pune, he was involved with a girl of dubious reputation. They almost got married but then finally he broke off with her. I feel he always had a compassion for “fallen” women.’

  —Lalitha Lajmi

  There was love in the air too.

  The shooting of Hum Ek Hain was on in full swing when Guru Dutt fell in love. Being a dance director, Guru came into contact with a dancer called Vijaya. One thing led to another and soon they were in a serious relationship. His mother writes, ‘During Ganesh Puja, Guru Dutt gave us a surprise visit. He came along with Vijaya just when the puja was going on. They both came and touched my feet. Guru Dutt introduced her to me as my future daughter-in-law.’ The family treated her as a family member. They were happy and wanted Guru Dutt to marry soon. Guru and Vijaya left the same evening.

  And then the problems began.

  Then next morning Vasanthi received a wire from a lawyer in Poona. The senior lawyer, Mr Khajigiwala, had written that Guru Dutt had eloped with Vijaya and he would take legal action against him. But Guru Dutt remained undaunted.

  Then a strange thing happened. The wife of the lawyer, Mrs Khajigiwala, visited Vasanthi many times to get her permission for Guru Dutt’s and Vijaya’s wedding as Guru was legally underage by a few months and consent of the parents was important. But soon the story began to unfold. Vasanthi wrote, ‘Later it was rumoured that Vijaya was Khajigiwala’s mistress. His wife was jealous and wanted to separate Vijaya from her husband. She played all sorts of tricks to persuade us to consent to the marriage.’

  The wedding date was fixed and announced in a Marathi daily newspaper without the parents’ permission. The senior lawyer was after him. It could have got Guru Dutt arrested. So, a friend of Guru Dutt’s advised Vasanthi to take him to Bombay immediately, averting the crisis.

  Recalling the incident Lalitha said, ‘Yes, in Pune, he was involved with a girl of dubious reputation. They almost got married but then finally he broke off with her. I feel he always had a compassion for “fallen” women.’

  But Guru Dutt had contemplated a future with Vijaya and now he was heartbroken. His mother writes, ‘I thought that it was better if Guru got married to somebody to save him from further calamities. So I chose my Hyderabad cousin’s daughter, Suvarna, for him to marry.’ Guru met Suvarna and liked her. They started writing letters to each other. It went on for some time. Vasanthi was happy that his son had moved on from that previous heartbreak. But then suddenly Suvarna’s family stopped replying to their letters. ‘They broke connections with us, and arranged the girl’s marriage with another boy,’ recalled Vasanthi.

  Vasanthi soon realised the reason for her cousin’s bizarre behaviour. Guru Dutt, in an attempt at being honest, had written to his uncle (Suvarna’s father) about the Vijaya story. His intention was to avoid misunderstandings after marriage. Vasanthi wrote, ‘Perhaps they lost confidence in Guru Dutt. We had that black spot for film line, as its reputation was bad at that time.’ Suvarna’s father was convinced that people working in the film industry had loose morals and his daughter would not be happy with Guru Dutt.

  This was deemed as an insult to the family. For the sensitive Guru Dutt, it was the second heartbreak in quick succession. It affected him emotionally. Sadness engulfed him and he went silent. ‘He never showed his feelings to anybody. But I could make out. The disappointment was too much for both of us,’ wrote Vasanthi.

  In Pune, Guru immersed himself in work. Dev Anand called Guru Dutt ‘brimming over with artistic creation and lava that has to explode’, but added that he was ‘…all the time at war with his inner self, melancholy and withdrawn.’

  In the midst of this emotional turmoil, time had also come to say goodbye to Poona.

  11

  BOMBAY CALLING!

  1947

  The shooting of Hum Ek Hain was over. Baburao Pai had left Prabhat Film Company and started his own Famous Studios in Bombay where Guru Dutt was now given the job of assisting the director Anadinath Banerjee. At that time Banerjee was directing a film called Mohan. Dev Anand had also left Prabhat and shifted back to Bombay. He was signed as the hero of Mohan. The two friends were reunited. But the happiness didn’t last long.

  The year was 1947. Along with independence from the British rule, the country also witnessed the Partition. And with that the film industry was also partitioned. There was random migration of cinema talent between the two newly formed nations. India lost some luminaries and gained others. Around the same time, film-makers and actors from the Calcutta film industry began migrating to Bombay. As a result, Bombay became the center of film production in the Republic of India after Partition. On the night of independence, even the movie stars were euphoric. Dev Anand took his car out and drove all around Churchgate in it. Jugnu, starring Dilip Kumar and Noor Jehan, was the most popular film released in 1947. Cinema legends like Raj Kapoor and Madhubala made their debut with Neel Kamal. The same year Dev Anand starred in two successful films—Mohan and Aage Badho. A new order was being established in the Bombay film industry.

  But Dev’s friend, the twenty-two-year-old Guru Dutt, was struggling to survive.

  Guru Dutt’s contract with Baburao Pai got over in 1947. He badly needed a job. He met many producers, knocked the doors of many studious to get one. He even went to Madras to try his luck at Gemini Studios. But nothing worked. Lalitha said, ‘He was out of work and frustrated. He started writing. He wrote some short stories and mailed to the famous The Illustrated Weekly of India. The editor used to be an Englishman, S.R. Mandy. But none of his stories were published. They all came back with a rejection slip.’

  It had been almost a year with rejection written all over his life. He had tried securing a job as a choreographer, writer, assistant director but felt there was no one who could understand the heart of an artist. In his young mind he thought everyone was interested in making money and no one cared for the art. This disturbed the sensitive Guru very much. He became so disillusioned that he planned on opening a bookshop with his brother Atmaram. He could have turned to his mentor B.B. Benegal for direction, but Calcutta was seeing frightening communal riots and it had taken a toll on Benegal. It was during this turbulent phase that Guru Dutt began writing a story based on the conflict going on in his mind and soul. He aptly called it ‘Kashmakash’ (Conflict).

  The story was written at a producer’s office while waiting for work. His son Arun Dutt said, ‘There was a period in 1947 where he was out of work for nearly eight to ten months. So
at that time he used to go to some producer’s office quite often, because the original story of Pyaasa, I have a copy, is handwritten on the letterhead of a company called Pramukh Films. I tried to trace that company but was unable to find it.’

  The first draft of ‘Kashmakash’ was intensely personal. Guru Dutt poured his disillusionment, disappointment and resentment into the story and promised himself that he’ll bring it on screen.

  This story would later become his most celebrated film Pyaasa. His dream film.

  Section Four

  DESTRUCTION OF A DREAM

  1956–57: BOMBAY

  ‘I’m becoming blind, I can’t see.’

  12

  FIRST SUICIDE ATTEMPT

  ‘I knew he was in turmoil. They had serious problems.’

  —Lalitha Lajmi

  Just when Guru Dutt’s dream project Pyaasa was nearing completion, came the news that he had attempted suicide.

  ‘His first attempt at suicide was during Pyaasa. It might have been a result of a particularly bad skirmish with Geeta or because he was at an emotional low,’27 shared close friend and confidant, Abrar Albvi.

  It was the year 1956 when the thirty-one-year-old Guru Dutt had swallowed a copious amount of opium. Lalitha remembered, ‘I knew he was in turmoil. They had serious problems. He called me and said “Baat karni hai.” But when I went, he wouldn’t say a word. When the news came we were stunned. We rushed to Pali Hill. I remember his body had turned cold and his vision had blurred. He kept repeating, “I’m becoming blind, I can’t see.” We took him to the hospital. He was saved.’ But what had gone wrong in his life? The artist who had undergone so much struggle to become a winner in life, why did he want to take his own life? The people close to Guru Dutt could never really know if the attempt to end his life was due to a mood disorder, philosophical reasons or just poor impulse control. Neither did they seek professional help after he was discharged from the hospital. The suicide attempt, however, definitely shocked everyone.