by Richie Lasrado, Daijiworld.com, Mangalore
with inputs from Udupi bureau
Mangalore, Jul 27: The long name Guru Dutt Shivshankar Padukone may not ring a bell. But to thousands of his fans he was only known as Guru Dutt. These two words spelt magic and stood for quality film-making.
Guru Dutt, hailing from a Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family of undivided Dakshina Kannada, can be regarded as one of the best products the district gave the film world.
File pic of Guru Dutt with cinematographer V K Murthy
Some of his movies, though black-and-white, are regarded even today as all-time classics. A trilogy of his tragedies - 'Pyaasa', Kaagaz ke Phool' and 'Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam' will be screened in Manipal on three consecutive days, commencing Thursday, July 27, under the title, "The Realm of Shadows".
Venue: Dr T M A Pai Planetorium Auditorium, Manipal
Timing: 5-30 pm on all three days
July 27: Pyaasa
July 28: Kaagaz ke Phool
July 29: Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam
Admittance is free.
This is a chance which Guru Dutt fans can ill afford to miss.
More on Guru Dutt: (July 9, 1925 - October 10, 1964)
Courtesy: Internet sources
Guru Dutt is remembered in the history of Indian cinema as the brooding, intense romantic who attempted to reflect the changing social situation in India in the fifties. Within his short life, he created some of India's most socially-conscious movies like Pyaasa (Thirsty, 1957), Kaagaz ke Phool (Paper Flowers, 1960) and Baazi (1951). He also introduced Waheeda Rehman in CID (1956) and propelled her to stardom through his films.
Born in 1925, Guru Dutt worked as a telephone operator before he embarked on his career as an actor and director in 1944. The fifties was the time when India, under Nehru's brand of state socialism, was embarking on massive industrialization. The conventional wisdom has it that rapid changes introduced by industralization were undermining 'traditional values'.
What is certain is that industrialization, and the accompanying migration from rural to urban areas, was creating - as it still does in India - anomie, dislocation, and new social norms. In the urban enviornment, new social relations developed.
It is, therefore, not surprising that a recurring theme in his films is the attraction, bound to be fatal, that develops between a middle class girl and a tough but likeable character from the lower class. His most memorable movie in this genre is probably Pyaasa. Inspired by Sarat Chandra's novel, Srikanta, it depicts the romance between a poet and a prostitute. The genuine poet cannot survive amidst philistines and publishers interested only in profiteering: the spectre of the big city is everywhere in Guru Dutt's films.
Guru Dutt's films are also said to be marked by a certain nostalgia, most evident in Sahib, Bibi aur Gulam (Master, Mistress, and Servant), a film that explores the decline of feudal landed family. An aristocratic demeanor, a flair for style, characterize this film. Yet in all of his films, Guru Dutt was to show mastery over cinematic elements, from lighting and camera-work to film composition; and every film bears the unmistakable imprint of his work. Though not known widely outside India, Guru Dutt's work compares with that of any director working at that time around the world. His brilliant career came to a premature end with his suicide, following a protracted struggle with alcoholism, in 1964.
Sources: Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul. Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. London: British Film Institute; New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994
Mahmood, Hameeduddin. The Kaleidoscope of Indian Cinema. New Delhi: East West Press, 1974
Brief Filmography
Baazi (1951)
Pyaasa (1958)
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)