Guru Dutt’s Birth Centenary | Classic flop & comeback

This year marks the centenary of Guru Dutt, whose profound artistry continues to resonate a hundred years after his birth on July 9, 1925. Classics like ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ and ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’, though often melancholic, resonated with an aching universality, grappling with themes of artistic struggle, unrequited love and societal disillusionment. His genius was tragically cut short, but the emotional pull of his cinema still resonates across generations.

For my book, ‘Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story’, I was lucky to collaborate with his younger sister, the late artist Lalitha Lajmi. Her vivid memories brought Dutt’s world to life, revealing how his intensely personal films mirrored his turbulent life and fragile mental health. While ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ is often cited as the end of his successful filmmaking career, I see a different truth. His comeback after the heartbreak of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ reveals a quiet resilience that is rarely acknowledged.

Guru Dutt Padukone first found his calling in dance. His tentative film entry came as a choreographer in ‘Lakhrani’ (1945). The late 1940s were marked by intense struggle. He even had an unlikely stint as a telephone operator. But a pivotal friendship with actor Dev Anand led to Dutt’s directorial debut, ‘Baazi’ (1951), a noir homage that set his path. He followed it up with another thriller, ‘Jaal’.

Then love arrived in the form of celebrated playback singer Geeta Roy. Their union, a struggling filmmaker marrying a star singer, set the film industry abuzz. Soon after, Dutt’s breakthrough as actor-producer-director came with ‘Aar Paar’ (1954). While ‘Mr & Mrs ’55’ brought further success, his sights were set higher: on his magnum opus, the profoundly artistic ‘Pyaasa’. Yet, even as this masterpiece took shape, the foundations of his relationship with Geeta began to crumble, leading to a suicide attempt during ‘Pyaasa’s making. “I knew he was in turmoil. They had serious problems,” said Lajmi.

‘Pyaasa’ (1957) turned out to be a huge success and cemented Dutt’s place in Indian cinema. The film was a rare blend of critical acclaim and box-office gold. But he knew vision alone wouldn’t sustain a film production company. At Guru Dutt Films, he set a rule of striking a careful balance — follow each artistic gamble like ‘Pyaasa’ with a bankable commercial venture like ‘C.I.D.’ to keep the company thriving. But ‘Pyaasa’ changed everything. Buoyed by its triumph, Dutt skipped the ‘safe rule’ and flew straight into his most personal, expensive and daring film, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’.

While ‘Pyaasa’ was based on the feelings and experiences from his early years of struggle, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (1959) emerged from his impressions about life as a filmmaker. The brooding, quasi-autobiographical film mirrors Dutt’s own story: a filmmaker’s unhappy marriage and his confused relationship with his muse. It eerily ends with the death of the filmmaker after failing to come to terms with his acute loneliness and doomed relationships. Even while he was making ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’, music director SD Burman had warned him, “Don’t make this film, it’s just your personal life.”

Crushed his soul

‘Kaagaz ke Phool’, India’s first cinemascope film, was an instant disaster. Reviews tore it apart. Lajmi recounted how her brother was crestfallen at the film’s complete rejection. He described it as “a stillborn child”. His friend, actor Johnny Walker, recalled, “A heartbroken Guru Dutt came out of the theatre and said, ‘Johnny, I don’t think I know how to direct films. I have lost it yaar.’”

Lajmi said Dutt took the failure to heart and never recovered. He himself said later that the film “went over the heads” of the audience. In an essay, ‘Classics and Cash’, he wrote, “In the formula-ridden film world of ours, one who ventures to go out of the beaten track is condemned to the definition which Mathew Arnold used for Shelley… ‘An angel beating his wings in a void.’”

Guru Dutt never officially directed a film again. He went into a shell. But the film company had to run.

One for all, all for one

The failure of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ also caused a major financial disruption in Dutt’s life. He couldn’t pay his staff for two months and asked some of his senior people, including his trusted scriptwriter Abrar Alvi, to look for work outside. It was also decided that he will take up acting roles in other productions. A successful film was badly needed to keep his company solvent. But crippled by personal turmoil and professional failure, Dutt was sinking deeper into a sea of self-pity. It was his close team of Alvi, Johnny Walker and Waheeda Rehman who told him, “Enough of self-pity. We know you’re sad but you can’t sit forever and do nothing. You have to start working on a new film.” Dutt replied, “But I don’t know how to make films, so how do I make one?”

Actor Nasir Khan, Walker’s son, told me: “If you know how the film industry functions, you will know that if a big film flops, the stars are usually averse to working with the filmmaker. But their bond was so strong. Everyone said, ‘Theek hai yaar, hum sab banaate hain na film saath mein, milkar!’ It wasn’t just filmmaking for them, it was about standing with Guru Dutt… Us daur mein rishtey nibhaye jaate the.” Their backs against the wall, financial discussions were secondary. It was do or die.

Walker was aware of a script for a social drama that was with Guru Dutt’s company. Though Dutt had set it aside as he wished to make more artistically and socially inclined films, his team now urged him to film it. Titled ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’, this love story was based on writer Shaukat Hussain Rizvi’s ‘Ek Jhalak’. Set in Lucknow, it belonged to the then popular ‘Muslim social’ genre. ‘Team Guru Dutt’ wanted to complete the film in a few months to keep the studio running but Dutt was still reluctant. Having earlier worked with director M Sadiq, Walker said, “You don’t worry, I’ll get Sadiq Babu to direct. You just act in the film and produce it.”

Dutt also faced a stark reality: several people in his production house stood to lose everything. Having endured soul-crippling struggles himself, he understood that their livelihoods depended on his next successful film. Despite the storm in his life, Dutt, with the support of his team, took up the challenge. He began scouting locations and immersing himself in music sittings with composer Ravi. Another crucial event happened. With this movie, Geeta Dutt stopped singing for Waheeda Rehman altogether. This cracked open the fault lines of the Guru-Geeta relationship. Now, there was little left to hold on to.

Dutt went to Baroda with cameraman VK Murthy to scout locations. It was there that Murthy realised that more than the location, it was Dutt’s need to escape from Bombay and his life which had brought them there. Murthy recalled a heartbreaking conversation in an interview given to journalist Patchy N: “‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ upset him very much, though he didn’t express it to others… while scouting for locations in Baroda for ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’, he narrated to me a line from ‘Pyaasa’: ‘Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai.’ I asked him why he said that suddenly. ‘Mujhe waise hi lag raha hai. Dekho na, mujhe director banna tha, director ban gaya; actor ban na tha, actor ban gaya; pictures achchi banani thi, achche bani. Paisa hai, sab kuch hai, par kuch bhi nahi raha,’ he told me.”

While M Sadiq accurately captured the film’s milieu, it was Guru Dutt’s own direction of the song sequences, especially the enduring title song, that truly made the film shine. He looked good, Rehman dashing, Johnny Walker was back in his element after his miscasting in ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’. With its music already topping the charts, ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’ was released in June 1960.

Biggest Blockbuster

It was a deeply regressive story at every level. But the audience that had thrown the proverbial stones at ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’, lapped up ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’. It went on to become a monstrous hit. Within just eight months of the box-office disaster of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’, Dutt had resurrected himself. It says a lot about his understanding of the commercial aspect of cinema.

In his career, Guru Dutt produced just one flop film through his film production company: ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’. And he never forgot that failure. Lajmi shared, “Though ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’ was a big success, Guru Dutt’s personal life was really disturbed and it seemed he was going through full blown depression by then.”

Dutt soon launched his next film, ‘Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam’ (1962). Still reluctant to direct, he asked Alvi to helm the film. The film was a big success but Dutt’s personal life unraveled. His marriage with Geeta Dutt collapsed, his association with Waheeda ended, his mental health worsened, and another suicide attempt followed.

Lajmi recalled that Guru Dutt never spoke about why he tried to end his life. “Sometimes he used to call me. I would rush to him even in the middle of the night. But he would sit quietly, not say anything. I felt he wanted to say something. But he never did. Never.”

In a stunning turn of events, Guru Dutt ordered the demolition of the bungalow he had lovingly built in Pali Hill, convinced it brought no peace. Geeta moved to Bandra with the children; Dutt retreated to a small flat on Peddar Road, alone. Though thriving professionally, starring in K Asif’s ‘Love & God’ and working as an actor with southern producers, Guru Dutt battled deep loneliness, often turning to alcohol and sleeping pills.

On October 10, 1964, at just 39, Guru Dutt was found dead in his flat. Whether it was a suicide or accidental overdose, it was a tragic end to years of his silent, internal struggle. Johnny Walker and Waheeda Rehman were travelling to Madras that day. Walker recalled, “As soon as I entered my room in Hotel Connemera, the telephone rang. I was told: ‘Johnny! Guru gaya!’” Johnny broke down. His friend was gone. Waheeda was stunned.

It’s been 60 years since Guru Dutt died. In his early thirties, he gave us ‘Pyaasa’, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ and ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ — now hailed as classics. And yet, I could not find a single direct interview. While his peers graced magazine covers, he remained a quiet shadow. This despite the fact that he mostly made commercially successful films. It was only after his death that the world begin to truly see him. His cinema began getting immense recognition not just in India, but in many parts of Europe. It was as if destiny played out the theme of his immortal ‘Pyaasa’ in real life: the posthumous fame of an artiste. And ironically, ‘Chaudhvin Ka Chand’, the film that revived his studio, signalled his grand comeback and became ‘Guru Dutt’s biggest hit’, is seldom remembered in the same vein as his more celebrated classics.

— The writer is the author of ‘Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story’

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