Some more trivia: Gurudutt’s full name was Gurudutt Padukone - he was related to Prakash Padukone, the badminton player and he comes from that corner of India which contains the origins of some of the smartest people on earth ;)

He made kagaz.. after his Pyaasa flopped. Pyaasa is equally depressing. My favourite song in it is Jinhe naaz hai.. (http://www.luc.edu/faculty/drockwe/yekuuche.html) Very very depressing :(

Cool, I didn’t know that part about being related to Prakash Padukone.

I agree Pyaasa is another depressing film, just like Sahib, Biwi Aur Ghulam. I think the depression in his life reflected in the movies he directed.

IM-very-HO Pyaasa is one of the best movies ever made - anywhere. The music, the cinematography - incredible pathos. Which Indian director since then has been able to provoke emotions on those scale?

I had my videshi friends who are artists watch the movie and though they could not really grok the shades of meanings in the songs - most of them were teary eyed or dabbing their eyes by the end.

Totally agree, UncleDuke - another thing about that movie in particular and most other old movies is the melodious songs and the beautiful lyrics - lyrics which actually have some real meaning and make sense with respect to the situation.

Gurudutt was one of the best director ever produced in the history of India cinema. Only few directors can stand beside him like Rajkapoor, V. Shantaram, Bimalroy. It was unfortunate part of indian cinema that we lost him before time. Actually it was not suicide. It was planed murder.

You are so right about Guru Dutt and his movies there is an ethereal and and a spiritual quality to his movies-unmatched and unparelleled. There was a retro of his movies in France in early 80’s and Kagaz ke phool was a huge success. Iqbal Masood from Indian Express tried to translate the songs to the audience. THey were spell bound. I have also read some of the travel accounts where the writer in some remote corner of Europe ended up finding a devotee of GuruDutt.

I wonder if you have read the book’ Guru Dutt a Life in Cinema ” by Nasreen Munni Kabir ( Oxford UNiversity Press). I had done the first review of the book in 1999 on amazon.com. As I mentioned in the review, the book has to be felt deeply and not to be read from an intellectual perspective.

The sad poetic lyricism , humanitarian quality and haunting images of his movies leave you in a strange state. I cry invariably when i see his movies. I dont know if these are tears of sadness or it is pure ecstacy.

Amit, thanks for the book recommendation. I will definitely check it out.

Gurudutt was a master moviemaker. All his movies were handcrafted master pieces. His early death lead to a big void.

@ RaviKiran: um…Pyaasa wasn’t a flop. KKP was.
infact Mr.Dutt decided to stop directing films right after KKP flopped.
just thought i’d let you know.

@ Shanti: nice blog. cheers.

Saw Kagaz ke Phool again today. The sheer brilliance in direction, acting and editing have made this a master piece. V.K. Murthy leaves you gaping by his creative cinematography. Fantastic frames and shots. Can only think of seeing the movie on a big screen. NEVER on TV.

PYASA Certainly a jewel in the crown of Indian Film Industry

Pyaasa was probably the first post modern cinema with a post modern man who is so sickened by the hypocrisy of society that he prefers obscurity to fame, loneliness to friends. I have yet to recall a movie till this one in India where the hero actually rejects love, family, friendship and fame. Our movies were sugary till then. There was no sense of anger or disgust. It was limited against maaliks and rich fathers who would not allow their daughters to marry vagabonds. In the end the not got the girl. The father saw the error of his ways. The world went back to its spinning ways. Pyaasa broke that mould forever. Forget everything else. Forget the brilliant camera, forget the ethereal waheeda, forget sahir, forget mahmood in that unforgettable role of guru duty’s brother…
The next post modern man was amitabh bacchan. The movie was Deewar.