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Lost To Life: Guru Dutt
The authors were having a free flowing discussion today, behind closed doors. Talking about the classic songs of Guru Dutt. It brought quite a few nostalgic feelings in me. My dad was always a big fan of Guru Dutt…not to forget that he was a Dev Anand fanatic ……on a side note…isn’t it always that when one of your family member is a fan of someone, you automatically become a fan of that person?…anyways
So, back in 2006 when i had discovered desitrain, i came in contact with one crazily film obsessed guy called kartik krishnan…and we used to discuss cinema online….and this dude, wrote one of the finest pieces ever read by me on Guru Dutt on desitrain, well why the hell am i talking about all this?
Because, i am having a single malt with Haldiram’s Aloo Bhujiya and getting nostalgic about Guru Dutt…why is this guy such a genius? Well you better ask me this after i finish my Single malt session for today, else face the consequences….So, i started doing a bit of youtubing( is it a word now?)…and found this little gem called ” Lost To Life: Guru Dutt … So, my dear PFC’ites, for your viewing pleasure, here we go
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
You will see a lot of legends like Kaifi Azmi, Waheeda Rehman, VK. Murthy, Mani Kaul talking about the master himself…and to end the last part…one of the best poem written by kaifi saab ( which was mentioned in the book by Nasreen munni kabeer as well)
Rehne ko deher mein aata nahi koi..tum jaise gaye..jataa nahi koi….
Lets discuss, Guru Dutt here….
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Why not! Let’s discuss Guru Dutt. I do not know when I liked his movies. I do not remember when I fell in love with his narration style. I can’t tell you how much I love his work. All I can say is I haven’t seen anyone close to him! I am going to get his movies now and watch them all over again! Thanks for sharing desitrain and your nostalgia………
I just finished watching all the videos. Thanks for Sharing them….. I wouldn’t have known otherwise….
The two songs of guru dutt are just mind blowing ..
one is yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye and the second one is jaane woh kaise log the ..mesmerizing stuff ..thanks for the article bro..
Thanks Sarang, Thanks Anand..
We can keep on talking about Guru Dutt…the lightings he used, how eccentric he was…closely followed by Kishore Da, Guru Dutt’s friendship with Dev Anand, Guru Dutt the classical dancer….
But to throw in just a bit of trivia..lets see who can answer this
Guru Dutt did a role of an extra in one of his own movies…name the movie and where and in which role does he appear
@OM
Classical Dancer! I did not know that. I have read a little about his friendship with Dev Anand.
To answer your trivia: Is it Jaal? (This is just a guess) I would not be able to tell what role (Obviously!) (Since I think it is Jaal, I would further guess the role to be a gambler or may be better guess would be a modern guy looking down upon our hero….? :) ) (Oh! how I love to guess! :D )
Anyway, coming back to his direction, the earliest education I had from movies about movie making was ffrom his movies. Especially, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool. I saw those when I was in my 6th or 7th class and I could ‘feel’ the camera move and give an effect that I still not able to describe. I had never felt that in any other movie. All I knew was there was something special about those movies. When I actually began to appreciate cinema and talk as a literate, using photography, cinematography, lighting etc in my sentences, I realized how much of it I had learnt from his movies. Simple Amazing!!!!!
In the the movie pyaasa, the picturization of the song sequence of Jaane woh Kaise is simply brilliant! One has to look at the flow of emotions within the sequence. From Rehman (My Favourite actor!!) to the swinging chair to Mala Sinha (One of her best roles, may be the only one)is still clear in my mind…
I shall wait for the result of this trivia, but I would love to discuss more Guru Dutt!!! (While writing, I just realized some parallels with Sidney Lumet! more on that later….)
Sarang, yeah..he was a Classical Dancer and he was a Kannada…now, when i heard that for the first time…i was shocked…obviously one would think he was a Bengali…but, he started as a dancer…the one called a “peacock dance” where his talent got recognised and he was aloowed to stay away from his home and and enroll himselves in a dance scholl..the name of hi teacher evades me at this moment…but Sarang, you should really read his biography by Nasreen Munni Kabeer, it is a keep…amazingly written…how he rose from poverty and how he always longed for love, and when he got it…he was not happy…kinda…
Yes Jaane woh kaise…song is one helluva picturized…not to mention Yeh Duniya Gar mil bhi jaaye tho kya hain and that ‘ jesus christ-self cricification” pose of his…ufffff…now he wa not a great actor..but…but…he knew how to act infront of the camera…take for instance ” Hum aaapki ankhon mein” from Pyasa..
I also liked his nonchalant way of acting in Babujee dheere chalna from Aar Paar…or hwne he see’s mala sinha for the first time in Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam…if u had noticed that shot…the camera is like Guru Dutt’s eyes…he has his head bowed down and can only see mala Sinha’s feet..and then when she says she likes the name Bhootnath, he turns his head up is speechless…superb
And for the trivia..yes sir, you got it right..it is Jaal..its in a song, where Guru Dutt plays a fisherman…check it out here
@OM
I am sure you meant Meena Kumari instead of Malasinha in Sahib Biwi or Ghulam and yes, I know what scene you are talking about. Simply amazing!!!
ohh shit yeah…Meena kumari…how cud i miss that…gimme a chullu bhar paani ( give me an ocean, wink wink)
@OM
ive read his biography by nasreen m kabir .. nice book :)
Yep filmybhai..it is surely a good read…unfortunately, i have that book in California, with my ex-roomie..and he happens to be lazier than me…have asked him to ship that with my other books 2 months ago…the shipment hasnt arrived yet :(
Are there any good dvd;s covering the works of Guru Dutt…or are there any clippings of Guru Dutt giving an interview or any of that sots? I have never seen/heard him talk…
@OM
The amount of talking (to us film lovers) that Guru Dutt has done through his movies is awesome! By the way, Id brought up Sidney Lumet in my earlier post because, I felt the way the camera angles were handled by him and Guru Dutt are for alack of a better word similar and brilliant! The movie I am talking about is 12 Angry Men and Guru Dutt’s Kaagaz ke Phool/Pyaasa
sry man thats the only book i knw abt ..
ive also read nasreen’s interview with Javed Akhtar (book) . and yesterday i bought the book ‘Sholay-making of a classic’ from book fair at pragati maidan .. another lovely read :)
Sarang…yaar..i have not seen any of Lumet’s works..so, i am not the right person to talk about it…but, one day..hum honge kamyaab and watch few of his..
Filmibhai…Yes..i have read Sholay-Making of a classic by Anupama Chopra, it is very entertaining and heartfelt, when you read about all the trouble that Ramesh Sippy had to go through…some funny instances also, like the Viju Khote one, Dharamendra mixing alcohol in the naariyal paani one….and those 28( i guess) days they took to shoot the train fight one…
Havent read the Javed Akhtar interview..do you have an e-book on it?
no yaar .. i read javd akhtar’s book frm some library …
7 weeks for the train fight .. btw uve seen the uncensored ending ?
7 weeks huh..wow…ya, i saw the “other” ending..where Thakur mercilessly kills Gabbar….i think its on youtube somewhere
@filmibhai and OM
sorry to bust into your conversation, but the scene you are talking about is a very poignant scenes. I do not say that the alternate ending is better but it is definitely a very interesting watch to understand what the director actually envisioned.
Yeah Sarang…i hate you for busting into our conversation…hehe j/k…now cmon..
There is a mention of the alternate ending in the book and why did Ramesh finally opt for the ending which is now present in the movie…i dont rem. why…filmibhai, might be able to help us here
@sarang .. sippy argued with the censor board that the police ending wud look idiotic coz one cud wonder where the police was all this while .. but he cudnt make them agree .
in the original, when thakur breaks down competely aftr killing gabbar, the makers wanted to impress upon the viewer that satiating one’s all consuming thurst for revenge is all fine but after it one also has to contend with the crushing emtiness that follows.
@om , is the full original movie really so rare to find .. in that case im lucky i dwnlded the original 1.5 gb dvdrip frm somewhere :)
waaah…nicely put filmibhai…Sholay, though was categorised as action movie..i think it had only 3 action sequences…
@filmibhai yeah, that’s why he also added that scene where Om shiv Puri appears suddenly in the village after Gabbar’s visit on Holi.. Also, the death of Ahmed is slightly more detailed in the original version it is not just killing the ant on Gabbar’s arm. Hmm what else, I know that there is a sequence of how jai and veeru get their motorbike that was cut anyway…….
a lot of scenes were cut down .. macmohan(sambha) almost cried when he saw his edited role in the movie’s premier .. he hardly had one dialogue .. he asked ramesh sippy to cut out his part altogether but he didnt agree.
the strangest thing happened .. ppl started recognizing ’sambha’ on streets .. he thought probably sippy had added back some of his parts and went to see the film at a theatre (he had decided to not watch it till then) where he got mobbed like crazy .
he once went to the US .. the customs officer at the airport recognized him and waved him through !
probably the only character in world cinema who got immortalized saying just 3 words ‘poore pachaas hazaar’ :)
@om i think thats becoz action was more suggestive than visual .. like ahmad’s killing scene .. thankur’s hand chopping scene .. they were chilling .
i think there should be a separate thread for sholay :)
The Guru Dutt documentary videos posted above were originally posted by me on Youtube. I’ve been a huge Guru Dutt fan for a long time and I’m really glad more people, especially non Indians are embracing his work. He’s a genius that elevated our Indian cinema to a higher standard in it’s golden years. I’ll be posting more documentaries of Guru Dutt on my website later on, so feel free to check up on it.
http://youtube.com/user/kireedam
@filmbhai
How about discussing the goofs in the movie? Wouldn’t that be fun?
@Biju
Thanks for posting thsoe videos. I wouldn’t have seen them otherwise…….
Oh! another thing I forgot, remember the line “James Bond Ke Pote…”? There is a version of it saying “Taantiya Tope ke Pote…”
I have a question here: I somehow seem to think that there was a dialogue in the movie when Basanti is learning to fire the gun, saying “Daal mein kuchh Kaala hai”. Was there a line from Jai saying “Yahaan to Dal hi Kaali hai…”? something of that sort?
Guru Dutt is one of the most thoughtful actors who had glorified bollywood cinema during the 50s and 60s. Although he had impressed the viewers with films like Aar Par and Mr. & Mrs.55,