Guru
One man who always inspired me in many ways, thoughts that always crossed my mind, emotions that always walked on me and philosophy which drifted me from this world many times… again and again.
He crafted some of the finest images of Indian cinema, he was Shivsankar Padukone ‘Guru Dutt’ .For me, he was real perfectionist, one man who never believed in letting go things like that and person who was more bothered about creative satisfaction than money.
Guru Dutt started his career as telephone operator and then he joined Prabhat Film Company in Pune in early days as choreographer.In 1947 he became assistant director when moved to Bombay. Guru Dutt was immediate success, within 2 decades he wrote bible of film-making, he experimented with new technique of west. Now this is very interesting , when everyone in film-making were working with 50mm lens he actually shot on 75mm first time in India, that was actual cinemascope black and white , using lenses with higher focal length to get tighter close ups.
I remember first impact of his film was one frame ‘Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam’ song which was a milestone in terms of lighting in film industry. Now the story behind this is when guru sahab was shooting in Natraj studio, light was coming in from one ventilator which fascinated him so much that he thought of using it in his film somewhere ( in spite of fact that film was in black and white format ). And so he brought two huge mirrors and kept one outside the studio in the sun that reflected the light onto another mirror, kept on the catwalk, and opened the balcony door to the studio. Light reflected from one to the other and the beam was created. They added some smoke to it, and that scene became a phenomenal craze in the history of cinematography. Same shot created impact of creativity on my mind.
He has that magnetic aura that made me more curious to see more of his film. I felt nostalgic whenever I saw his film , I guess I must be some 12-13 years old when I first saw his movie ‘pyasa’ and then I hardly got to see him again as we had only one tv channel by that time . Later I saw his maximum available film but sadly we don’t get good print now. When Guru Dutt’s 1957 masterpiece, Pyaasa was announced in list of the 100 best films in motion picture history surprisingly Indian library had missing or some of worse print of Guru sahabs’ film.
The only movie produced by Guru Dutt and termed box-office disaster was, and which is now a cult classic Kaagaz Ke Phool. He lost over 17 Lacs producing that movie, a large amount by 1960s standard, which were to soon come back several times over by Chaudhavin Ka Chaand. Even so, he never lost faith of his team, and distributors of his films.
He had invested a great deal of love, money, and energy in this film, which was a self-absorbed tale of a famous director (played by Guru Dutt) who falls in love with an actress. I believe it was based on his real life love interest with Wahida Rehamn . Kaagaz Ke Phool failed at the box office and Dutt was devastated.
His best quote which is somehow my has deep impact on my life is “mujhe director banna tha, director ban gaya; actor bana tha, actor ban gaya; picture achcha banane tha, ache bane. Paisa hai, sab kuch hai, par kuch bhi nahi raha [I feel this way. I wanted to become a director, I became one; I wanted to become an actor, I became one; I wanted to make good films, I made them. I have money, I have everything, yet I have nothing ]”
The thirst for perfection and thirst for creative satisfaction has been motivation for him for long …even after 2 unsuccessful suicide attempt. On failure of Kaagaz Ke Phool and success of Chaudhvin Ka Chand he said “Life mein, yaar, kya hai? Do hi toh cheezen hai , kamyaabi aur failure. There is nothing in between”.
Movies like C.I.D., Baazi, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam were in their rights the first in Indian cinema. The only movie produced by Guru Dutt and termed box-office disaster was, and which is now a cult classic Kaagaz Ke Phool. It is debatable, how things would have fared commercially if he lived on but for me he was magical.
People felt that Guru Dutt had achieved too much too soon as far as his professional life was concerned. After Pyaasa and Kaagaz ke Phool, there was nothing better to be achieved. This created a vacuum in his life. Perhaps this emptiness caused him to take his own life. His death was an irreplaceable loss for Indian Cinema.
Sensitive, Poetic, Magical - Guru Dutt
