Guru Dutt- A Cinematic Genius

Guru Dutt will always be remembered by the mature lovers of cinema as a master filmmaker who was far ahead of his times in terms of aesthetics he created on the screen.His  100th birth anniversary   was on 9th July. He achieved success at an early age of thirty  and made his directorial debut  with a successful film Baazi that was an instant hit with evergreen star Dev Anand as the lead. He never looked back.His acting skills were matchless and this can be proved by his performance in Aar Paar(1954).Mr and Mrs.55,CID and many more.Chaudhvin Ka Chand emerged as a great commercial hit  and then who can forget Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa(1957),Kaagaz Ke Phool ,Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam.These movies established him as an acclaimed film maker who knew how to break the conventional line  and tread into fearsome zones.His movies made audience to introspect and change their stance on morality and immorality.Genius of Guru Dutt can be internalised from art of filmmaking he played with the shades and used visual grammar in the films that was mostly absent.This created a sober effect and reflected the moods and the situation.In an article in the Hindustan Times  former diplomat,Pavan K. Verma has well captured the sensitivity of Guru Dutt.He rightly says, “To understand the Guru Dutt’s genius,one  must first understand Pyaasa,arguably his  magnum opus.At its heart is Vijay,a penniless poet in a  materialistic world,whose verses,suffused with anguish and truth find no takers.In crafting Vijay,Dutt gave us a character who was as much  a  reflection of his own  inner torment as he was a symbol of  the artist in any era-ignored,misunderstood and  ultimately commodified.” Verma  then goes on to say, “Dutt employed Sahir Ludhianvi’s searing poetry-Jinhe naaz hai Hind par  who kahan hai?-to strip away the false  pieties of a newly independent nation that  had begun to forget its promises.”The important point raised about the Guru Dutt’s film making by Verma  is that Pyaasa will be remembered  for the role of Gulabo(courtesan) played by  Waheeda Rehman.This movie brings to the fore as to how Guru Dutt  subverts  societal norms by investing  dignity in the most marginalised.He rightly terms it as Dutt’s moral vision as he saw courage in those characters where others  saw waste.That made Guru Dutt different from the conventional film makers who came up with normal melodrama for mere entertainment.Guru Dutt’s cinema was devised to tread into the areas feared in terms to societal norms.Guru Dutt indeed introduced visual grammar that was absent in the Indian film making during his times.There was poetics in his cinema as effects were created with shades and the intensity of light and shadows.How he used light and shadows is worth a serious study to understsns Guru Dutt and his cinema.Kagaz ke Phool was was an outcome of the creative genius of Guru Dutt but people failed to internalise its intent.It was a commercial disaster at that time that took the toll of Guru Dutt and left him shattered.This film was a confessional and autobiographical  laced with fiction  produced and directed with craftsmanship making it clear that Guru Dutt was a genius and to understand him needed minds that were not present in the audience at that time.Today this movie is considered as a classic and epitome of film making craft and emerging film makers and scholars look back upon this masterpiece as a standard of film making.Guru Dutt’s life ended like an enigma as he was found dead in his apartment.Cause attributed was overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol.Heart broken genius  left his mortal frame on 10th Octoberin 1964 at an age of 39.Indian film making lost a matchless genius.