Existentialism, the Absurd and Pyaasa
iView Author: Neeraj Ghaywan (Gurgaon, India)
Email: neeraj.ghaywan[at]gmail[dot]com
‘ Existentialism, the Absurd and Pyaasa ‘
A silver lining in the sky forms shadows on an unkempt man’s face. A bird meanders, treading no path in particular bathed in the bliss of nothingness. Flowers sway to the man’s poetry strewn in ailing emptiness while a bee relishes the sweet life and gently perches on the ground. The bee oblivious to reality is squished to death by a passerby. In an unfathomable instant, the utopian world of momentary happiness is broken; the man shrugs and embraces the absurd of life. This masterful act forms the epoch of a young man’s story in which he is wandering to know the purpose of life but only finds himself battered by the brutal absurdity of our existence.
Vijay (Guru Dutt) is a poet who abdicates romanticism as a form of art. He is on a narcissistic exploration to find acceptance of his oeuvre, depicting hopelessness of mankind. His art is only remained by his poetry screaming from dog eared manuscripts, lying in dustbins and being sold for dus anna in scrap. His brothers detest his presence at home as he is an expense to an already impoverished family. He takes refuge at a friend’s house; a friend who is willing to do anything for money and has just returned from giving a false testimonial for a car accident. His publishers consider his nihilistic works inappropriate in a time when a woman’s beauty seemed to be the only topic of poetry. He stumbles upon Meena ( Mala Sinha), his love from the times of bourgeois education. She had walked out on him to marry a rich man. Vijay alienates from this society that is seduced by the stupor of money, greed and materialism. He is finding the meaning of life through a moral teleological exploration, the absurd of life. He is Albert Camus’ Sisyphus who is led in this world to carry a huge rock atop a mountain, all along he is aware of the futility of this labor, the meaning is the bait and that eludes him perpetually. He is gradually discovering the hopelessness of life. The absurd is a juxtaposition of man’s pursuit to find significance, reason and essence of life and the cold, hopeless world he is pitted against.
His art is understood and appreciated by the most unlikely person, a courtesan, Gulabo ( Waheeda Rehman) who buys his poetry off the scrap market. She falls for him and confesses that there is nothing more to know about him after having read his works as though his art speaks more than his ontological frame of existence. Vijay’s mother hides food from his vicious brothers, in the hope that her son would return someday but he drifts in the hope of recognition. Meanwhile Meena’s rich husband hires him as his servant and tries to humiliate him, a reaction to the suspicion of Meena’s alleged affair. Meena’s arrogance is displayed in the elevator when she confronts Vijay and explains her side of the story and at the end of this fleeting conversation says “Mujhe to upar jaana tha” and takes the elevator to the top floor while letting Vijay leave. His unbecoming comes in the death of his mother, when his brothers deprive him of the ceremony of her departure. This scene of final dissent into absurdity is shot magnificently. Through an arch we see the river glistening with light and Vijay’s dark silhouette fills up the space gradually. He gives into drinking, witnesses the tragic dance of survival by a prostitute who has to intentionally ignore her baby crying for food. He meanders in the by lanes of prostitute areas whose world he earlier considered immoral. He finds meaning in their lives and spends a night at Gulabo’s attic, a la Devdas. His existence wallows and pursues the elusive essence.
Camus argues; suicide is a confession that life is not worth living; it is a choice implicitly declaring that life is “too much”. Suicide offers the most basic “way out” of absurdity: the immediate termination of the self and its place in the universe. This is the realization that dawns on Vijay, that sums up the culmination of Vijay’s attempt to end everything. He flees from Gulabo’s attic convoluted by his internal reflections. He attempts to get run over by a train. On his way, he confronts a tramp trembling in cold. He takes off his jacket and puts it around him. This is his philanthropic deed to bring hope, to see life in everything but himself. The tramp realizes his intentions and stalks him to his dissent only to get caught in the tracks himself. Vijay, in his attempt to save the tramp, is pushed off the track. The tramp dies wearing Vijay’s jacket and the world thus knows the end of Vijay. Purists would argue that it is destiny that sends the tramp as messiah. The question then would be, was the tramp ever destined to die wearing a poet’s jacket caught in a train track? It is the existence and the unintelligible truth of life that we are born to experience, born to suffer. We are merely led by our choices and what we make out of them. We are what we can become. This defines the underlying principle of existentialism: existence precedes essence (Jean Paul Sartre).
Gulabo is devastated yet determined to resurrect Vijay’s art which was more crucial than his own existence. She is in contrast to Meena who in her pursuit of money and fame walks out on him while Gulabo begs with all her life’s income to publish Vijay’s works. They are finally published posthumously. His poetry is flying off the racks and he becomes a literary legend. While recuperating in a hospital, he is woken up from a coma by the recital of his works. He claims his poetry and is understood to have gone insane. Here he is again witnessed by the absurdity of his being. He flees the asylum where he has been trapped only to end up at his own death anniversary, a ceremony to felicitate him. He witness the horrifying deed of all his adversaries feasting on his fame, squeezing every penny of his dead worth. His publishers, brothers and friends, all conspire to prove him dead even after discovering him alive. As he is struggling to prove himself alive, in an ironic turn they all turn to become his closest confidants and start to own up to their relation with him, hoping for a better royalty off his poetry. This profoundly changes Vijay’s belief in the system that corrupts our morality.
Your browser may not support display of this image.His belief in absurdity peaks at this point which lyrically explodes on the screen with the legendary “ Jaala do ise, phoonk daalo, tumari liye hai, tum hi sambahlo yeh duniya”. The song is shot with brilliant usage of light, as he walks among mortal plebs with spiritual gusto. He realizes he is not the person who was the poet, who was struggling to make his voice heard. He audaciously confesses he is not “Vijay” ( the celebrated poet). He is beaten up and is called an impostor. He gives up his identity which is the futile labor of carrying the burden of being. He renounces the world, is convinced by Meena to own this fame, this new found identity that he yearned for. He finds it meaningless and returns to Gulabo, the only person who truly understood him. He escapes the world with her and an artist turns into a man and existence finds its essence.
Popularly, this film is hailed as a romantic masterpiece and which for me is to brutally disrespect the art and philosophy behind it. If life is so meaningless and absurd as shown in the film, the logical reasoning then would be suicide. Camus’ ideology negates this argument. On the contrary, he suggests, accepting the absurd is a matter of living life to its fullest, remaining aware that we are reasonable human beings damned to live a short time in an unreasonable world and then to die. We remain aware of the conflict between our desire and reality, and so living the absurd is living in a constant state of unceasing conflict. It is a revolt against the meaninglessness of our life and the conclusiveness of the death that awaits us. Suicide, like hope, is just another possible way out of this conflict. Living the absurd is more analogous to the predicament faced by the man condemned to death yet who, with every breath, revolts against the notion that he must die. We may take Vijay to be contemplating suicide as his interpretation of the meaning of life. However, he doesn’t make a conscious choice to live but is saved from a suicide. The confrontation at the town hall felicitation following his death, changes his interpretation of existence altogether. The meaning of life that he comes to know is of higher dimension and he decides to abdicate everything and start with nothingness, as though on a quest of newer absurdities.
Many instances in the film show Vijay spending his time on a bench overseeing ships that are ready to leave the shore. Those who have known the absurdity of life will know what Vijay was waiting for at the harbor in discreet points of his life. You can hear him scream for freedom. You will probably know what went through Guru Dutt’s mind at the last hours of eternal sleep.
PS: On October 10, 1964, Guru Dutt was found dead in his bed after an alcohol and drug overdose. He was scheduled next day to meet Mala Sinha for his ironically titled film, Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi, and Raj Kapoor to discuss making color films. Pyaasa was a black and white film. I can’t wait to see how Anurag Kashyap adds color to this film. I hear he calls it Gulaal.
Tags: albert camus, Anurag Kashyap, existentialism, Gulaal, Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha, Pyaasa, waheeda rehman
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
just one word – AWESOME.
just reminded me again of that timeless classic…
the lyrics is heart wrenching..especially of three songs…
Jaane wo kaise lig the jinke…
Jinhe naaz hain hind pe…
Jalado ise….ye duniya
very few songs have had such impact on me…
beautiful writing…good work
regarding suicide… i always say tat its a permanent solution for a temporary problem :(
PPS: I am aware that Anurag is not remaking pyaasa and I know that its a tribute to “Yeh Duniya” from pyaasa.
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@Magik, Thanks man!
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@I really appreciate you mentioning, jeenhe naaz hai hind pe. I think its a very underrated song.
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@Crazyrals.. Thanks! Very well put! Suicide could be a solution to the absurd of life but not the only solution.. experiencing the journey of discovering the meaning of life ( however hopeless) is whats worth living.
@ jitaditya: Sorry, I dont know how I missed typing your name in the earlier comment
The Most Amazing post on Pyaasa I’ve read till now, and a your inputs are beautiful, even more beautiful language to support it, the references are awesome, and the personal touch makes it a marvellous piece to read! Neeraj Sir-looking forward to many more of this stuff! :D
*your-not a your
@Neeraj
Yes that was quite a song…actually many people don’t try to understand the lyrics…and I think we should also mention the great Sahir Ludhianvi & SD in this regard….
Yet to see the movie…but a good write up..
There is a lot of discussion going on around the song: Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai..
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I thought why not put the lyrics here for everybody’s delight..
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ye mahalo, ye takhto, ye taajon kee duniyaan
ye insaan ke dushman samaajon kee duniyaan
ye daulat ke bhukhe rawaajon kee duniyaan
ye duniyaan agar mil bhee jaaye to kyaa hai
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har yek jism ghaayal har yek ruh pyaasee
nigaaho mein ulazan dilon mein udaasee
ye duniyaan hain yaa aalama-ye-badahawaasee
ye duniyaan agar mil bhee jaaye to kyaa hai
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jahaa yek khilaunaa hai, insaan kee hasatee
ye basatee hain murda paraston kee basatee
yahaa par to jeewan se maut sasatee
ye duniyaan agar mil bhee jaaye to kyaa hai
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jawaanee bhatakatee hain badakaar ban kar
jawaan jism sajate hain baajaar banakar
yahaa pyaar hotaa hain wyaapaar banakar
ye duniyaan agar mil bhee jaaye to kyaa hai
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ye duniyaan jahaa aadamee kuchh naheen hai
wafaa kuchh nahee, dosatee kuchh naheen hai
yahaa pyaar kee kadr hee kuchh naheen hai
ye duniyaan agar mil bhee jaaye to kyaa hai
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jalaa do ise, foonk daalo ye duniyaan
mere saamane se hataa lo ye duniyaan
tumhaaree hain tum hee sanbhaalo ye duniyaan
ye duniyaan agar mil bhee jaaye to kyaa hai
The lyrics for Jinhe Naaz Hai Hind Pe
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Ye kooche ye neelam ghar dilkashi ke
Ye loote huwe caravan zindagi ke
Kahan hai, kahan hai, muhafiz khudi ke
Jinhe naaz hai hindpar vo kahan hai
Kahan hai, Kahan hai, Kahan hai…
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Ye purpech galiyan, ye badnaam bazaar
Ye gumnaam raahi, ye sikkhon ki jhankaar
Ye ismat ke saude, ye sanso ki taqraar
Jinhe naaz hai….
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Ye sadiyonse be-khauf sehami si galiyaan
Ye maslee huwi adh-khilee zard kaliyaan
Ye bikati huwi khokhali rang-raliyaan
Jinhe naaz hai….
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Vo ujale dareechon me payal ki chhan chhan
Thaki haari sanson pe table ki dhandhan
Ye be-ruuh kamaron me khansi ki than-than
Jinhe naaz hai….
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Ye phoolon ke gajare, ye peekon ke cheente
Ye be-baak nazren, ye gustakh fiqare
Ye dhal ke badan aur ye beemar chehare
Jinhe naaz hai….
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Yahaan peer bhi aa chuke hain jawaan bhi
Tanuumand bete bhi, abbaa miyan bhi
Ye biwi bhi hai aur behn bhi hai maa bhi
Jinhe naaz hai….
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Madad chahati hai ye hawwa ki beti
Yashoda ki ham-jins, radha ki beti
Payambar ki ummat zulai khan ki beti
Jinhe naaz hai….
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Zaraa mulk ke raahbaronko bulalvo
Ye kuche ye galiyan ye manzhar dikhavo
Jinhe naaz hai hindpar unko lavo
Jinhe naaz hai hind par vo kahan hai
Kahan hai, kahan hai, kahan hai
due credits should go to V.K.Murthy the veteran cinematographer who made “Yeh Duniya” song impact many people’s lifes by lighting it up briliantly
@Neeraj – well written
What are the odds?!! I wrote this post as a very subtle prelude to Gulaal. Now this news piece is hinting at Anurag Kashyap making a movie on the life of Guru Dutt. I swear, I didnt read it before writing this post. Anurag, is this true? http://entertainment.oneindia.in/bollywood/gupshup/2009/anurag-writing-110309.html
Beautiful writing. Your article made me think about similarities between pyaasa and devdas ..similar conflicts, disorientation and suicidal tendencies … chasing the ideal and making do with compromise that life is…finding support with girls who compromised with their lives but have positive outlook. No wonder Anurag is so besotted with both pyaasa and devdas….can’t wait for gulaal! And anurag would definitely be the most apt person for a biopic on Guru dutt!!
not taking the due for the writer, I would rather concentrate my comments on the writer rather than the movie…Movie, I think has been seen and debated many times by the connoisseurs of art. I would rather hail the writer of this post for integrating one of the most acclaimed philosophy of our time and the movie. ‘Being and Nothingness’ by Sartre is one of the revered work of its time and to understand and relate it to the movie is a task in itself. Kudos to the writer…good work…
@Prasanna: Thanks!
@:arun verma: You’re right, Anurags is definitely THE person to be directing Pyaasa revisited.
@Sourav, Thanks a bunch! You kind of nailed the soul of this post. My intent in writing this blog was not to review it or discuss something that already been talked about in blogsphere. Pyaasa happens to be my all time fav movie of bollywood. I am perpetually intrigued how this film was so ahead of its time, as though Guru Dutt had read all of Camus, Kafka, Sartre, Nietzsche etc. The only person who is sort of reviving and reinventing the spirit of existentialism is Anurag. In fact his film No smoking, IMHO had a lot of existential tonality from Kafka’s The Trial and Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus.
I’m going to watch Pyaasa now, before Gulaal.
Very good article about Pyaasa
@Neeraj – I am simply awed by the breath of your study of life through the failed protagonist of Pyaasa. Congrats!
You have made my day today.
@Indraneel: Your comment made my day! Thanks!
You write very well…
awesome movie. really well written..good job neeraj.
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my thoughts:
“We are what we can become” — i couldn’t agree more. people often say you are what you do but then they forget about all of our dreams and aspirations and how those unfulfilled desires are such a big part of who we are.
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i think that existentialists who ponder over the absurdities of life often understand the patterns of power structures all across the world but are baffled by the futility of it, because they always remember that death is right around the corner. so vijay probably understood why his brothers and the rest of power-hungry people behave the way they do, but he never understood the importance of it.
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the movie also highlights the similar sense of yearning that everyone experiences, whether it is a rich powerful man or someone like vijay. two existentialists pondering about the meaninglessness of life is better than one because they find solace and mutual understanding in each other’s company. if vijay had not found gulabo there is a chance that he might have attempted suicide again. existentialists feel powerful when they are understood, most others feel powerful when they control other people. power is still the key. this is why vijay doesn’t care about controling people through his now-legendary stature, he’s happy that his poems are getting some recognition…and the ‘idea of vijay’ is being appreciated.
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i think another reason vijay doesn’t commit suicide is because after the strage mishap with the tramp, he realizes that death is just as absurd as life…and just as brutal. he can’t find meaning in it either anymore.
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if i remember correctly, dostoevsky’s angst against duniya goes beyond vijay’s and the existentialists’. he was pissed off at the rules nature imposes on us and how 2+2 can only be 4 and not 5. that guy wished to be free in the most elemental sense…perhaps wanting to be god. now here’s a guy that will make a great protagonist for a movie.
@Arthi, thanks!
@ Papaji: Wow! Great interpretations. I am fully in consent with your interpretation with Vijay finding death as another absurdity in life.
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Another interesting point which my sister told me,who is light years away from all this philosophy, that existentialists are prone to suffer more because they keep questioning life and existence and hence encounter more absurdities. Those who take life as it comes and continue existing without questioning, have lesser troubles.
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Profound thought on “Existentialists feel powerful when they are understood”. With this can we conclude existentialists are egoists in the sense that they want their instincts to be rewarded?
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Could you tell a bit more on the Dostoevsky’ian existentialist, the angst? Do you mean from “crime and punishment”? Or am i missing something? Sounds quite interesting.
quote We are what we can become. This defines the underlying principle of existentialism: existence precedes essence unquote
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that’s where the catch lies with existentialism
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it accepts that there is nothing more possible for man other than to live this apparent life
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if this is the truth
then existentialism is right
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but nitzse (you get it, otherwise i have to look for right spelling )
do not agree with this
he talks about super man
the evolution of man
from sheep to camel to lion
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a dog is a dog and he has all of the doghood
in between two dogs there is no difference between them in there doghood
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no dog is less dog, then the other dog
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all dogs are equal dogs
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this is ‘existance precceding essence’
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there is no possibility of growth for a dog
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is the man in same situation ?
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but nitzse says that man can evolve
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khalil gibran says that man is a bridge
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man is a possibility
he has the possibility to become a god
or he has the possibility to become a devil
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the possibility of growth in man
emphasize that for man essence is not fulfilled with existence
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man can become something
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what man can become ?
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here enters Buddha
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a very famous existential line is
‘life of man is a tale told by an idiot full of blood and fury, signifying nothing’
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Buddha at the beginning give four noble truths
the first one is
“jeevan dukh hai”
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the first thing Buddha says is the conclusion of existentialism
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where existentialism ends, Buddha begins
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in europe existentialism is the logical conclusion of whole western thought
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in india talking about existentialism is like reinventing the wheel
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in india talking about existentialism is more of a intellectual fashion
and not a very intelligent one at that
Anurag has written in one of his blogs that he is working on the guru dutt project-Quote: “Figured out how to approach Gurudutt’s life for screen, sorting through the endless research and interviews”
This is already a masterpiece. For me the reason why I want Anurag to be directing this is not only because he is wonderful craftsman but because he has more or less lived Guru Dutt’s life. He can understand his absurdities, his angst because he has gone through similar ones. He is IMHO the only person who can put his story on celluloid.
@ vishrant – i understand that existentialist ideas have existed in india long before they came to europe and also that a lot of buddhist philosophy overlaps with it. but to dismiss all of existential works on the 19th and 20th century europe as reinventing the wheel is a little too much and arrogant. but i really wish they would teach more of buddhist and ancient philosophies in schools in india because we only get exposure to western literature and nothing else.
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@ Neeraj – i was referring to dostoevsky’s “notes from underground”. it’s a short novel and i don’t remember much cuz i read part of it 5 years ago. so i can’t tell you any more because i don’t remember it.
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“With this can we conclude existentialists are egoists in the sense that they want their instincts to be rewarded?” – hmm..maybe i guess. they are egoists but i wouldn’t want to attach the negative meaning that generally goes with the word. what’s ironic i think is that existentialist literature was produced after these ‘egoists’ felt like their instincts and feelings were not in sync with the world – that they were not being rewarded. but then, why would they write and try to spread their ideas if they thought that even writing their ideas down is meaningless and absurd. so in a way they did want to have a little bit of the cake…granted they wanted vanilla when everyone else wanted black forest.
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as for your sister’s remarks, isn’t that a cop out? i mean, people say that about film enthusiasts like us too. ‘tu sochta bahut hai yaar…araam se baith ke movie enjoy kar.’ does this mean if we sit back, leave our brains home, we will enjoy the movie more? that’s a meaningless question because it’s not possible for some of us. also, we enjoy movies a lot…otherwise we wouldn’t be here writing and commenting on this blog. for some people questioning what’s taken for granted is a turn on in itself. i’m sure kafka and camus etc enjoyed (in a very non-traditional sense) constantly thinking about life and meaning.
@ Vishrant: Existentialism is not a country’s asset, I dont believe in it originating from the west and poorly understood in the east. I think its a state of human being, its got to be universal. Many mythological characters, politicians, kings etc have grown to be Existentialists. They werent named as existentialists. If someone puts a name to that philosophy, doesnt mean they own it. Existentialism is the truth of life which cant be owned by an individual/doctrine/culture/nation. Like Vijay in pyaasa, he sings “Duniya” to explain absurd and existentialism. Can we deny the fact that he is not an existentialist just because he doesnt call it “Existentialism” and sings a song instead?
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I agree with you on the evolution bit. I think Man’s evolution/ nemesis is a function of his choices and the interpretation of his choices.
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@ Papaji: I will read that book to understand more. What I meant was that those who keep questioning the logic of life are in most times bombarded with more absurdities of life. Hollow people who just exist a materialistic life are less ambitious, dont go through a lot of sufferings because they don’t take life that seriously. But existentialists questions the logic of life, they reject the sufferings and question their misery, in return they experience more, like a domino effect.
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I finally saw Gulaal last night. I am really glad thy way Anurag has added hues of rebellion/power/literature/mythology/Existentialism to the song’s interpretation. This it totally IMHO but I think the strongest person who goes through the feeling of absurd or rather “Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya ho” was Kiran. She planned everything possible and everything went well but she couldnt realize what she wanted from life. The tear trickling from gulaal smeared cheek sort of conveys the song in a subtle way, as in, what was the point of everything and what is the point of everything for her.
Hi, thanks for a thought provoking article.
You say – “we are what we can become”. In the context of existentialism, I am wondering if you actually meant to say “we are what we become”? The word “can” indicates that there are various *possible* ways we can end up in life, while implying (my interpretation!) that one is less or more absurd/meaningful/different than the other.