Remembering (GURU DUTT) Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone - TopicsExpress

Remembering (GURU DUTT) Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone (Kannada ವಸಂತ ಕುಮಾರ ಶಿವಶಂಕರ ಪಡುಕೋಣೆ) (9 July 1925 – 10 October 1964), better known as Guru Dutt, was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He made 1950s and 1960s classics such as Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool , Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Chaudhvin Ka Chand (The Fourteenth Day Moon in Muslim calendar but actually means full moon, a metaphor for beauty). In particular, Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool are now included among the greatest films of all time, both by Time magazines All-TIME 100 best movies and by the Sight & Sound critics and directors poll, where Dutt himself is included among the greatest film directors of all time. He is sometimes referred to as Indias Orson Welles. In 2010, he was included among CNNs top 25 Asian actors of all time. He is most famous for making lyrical and artistic films within the context of popular Hindi cinema of the 1950s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 film, Pyaasa. Several of his later works have a cult following. His movies go full house when re-released; especially in Germany, France and Japan. The latest book on him is Ten Years with Guru Dutt: Abrar Alvis Journey by Sathya Saran based on the recollections of his chief scriptwriter and friend. Guru Dutt was born on 9 July 1925, in Bangalore to Shivashanker Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone in a Konkani Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. His parents were originally settled at Panambur, Mangalore in South Kanara district (present day Dakshina Kannada) of Karnataka. His father was initially a headmaster, and then a bank employee. His mother Vasanthi, while initially a housewife, later taught in a school, gave private tuition and also wrote short stories and translated Bengali novels into Kannada. Vasanthi was only 16 when Guru Dutt was born. His mother outlived him and died in 1994, 30 years after his death. Guru Dutt had a tough childhood with financial difficulties, and was also affected by the fact that the relationship between his parents was strained. As a child he had some bad experiences; the hostility from his maternal uncles family, a frightening encounter with his insane adopted maternal uncle, and the death of his seven-month old brother (Shashidhar). Guru Dutt spent his early childhood in Bhowanipore area of Calcutta (now Kolkata) and he grew close to Bengali culture and intellect. He even adopted the name Guru Dutt, Dutt (more commonly Datta or Dutta) being a common Bengali surname. He spoke fluent Bengali. He was joined by three younger brothers, Atmaram, Devidas and Vijay and a younger sister, Lalitha. The Indian film director, Kalpana Lajmi, is Lalithas daughter. His sister recalls that at age 14 Guru Dutt would use his fingers to shape images on a wall lit up by the flickering light of their grandmother’s diya (candle) as she performed the evening arathi (prayer). Though untrained, he could produce inspired movements as he did when he persuaded his uncle, B.B. Benegal, to photograph him performing a snake dance, based on a painting by the latter. The snake dance was later performed at a gathering of Saraswat Brahmins at Calcutta for which Guru Dutt was even given a cash prize of 5 Rupees. Guru Dutt wired home to say he had got the job of a telephone operator at a Lever Brothers factory in Kolkata. But soon he disengaged himself from the job, and joined his parents in Mumbai in 1944. However, his uncle found him a job under a three-year contract with the Prabhat Film Company in Pune (then called Poona) in 1944. This once premier film producing centre had already seen the departure of its best talent, V. Shantaram, who had by then launched his own Kala Mandir. It is here that Guru Dutt met two people who would remain his good friends - actors Rehman and Dev Anand. Guru Dutt acted in a small role as Sri Krishna in Chand in 1944. In 1945, he acted as well as assisted director Vishram Bedekar in Lakhrani, and in 1946 he worked as an assistant director and choreographed dances for P. L. Santoshi’s film, Hum Ek Hain. This contract ended in 1947, but his mother got him a job as a freelance assistant with Baburao Pai, the CEO of the Prabhat Film Company and Studio. However, after that, for almost ten months, Guru Dutt was unemployed and stayed with his family at Matunga, Mumbai. During this time, Guru Dutt developed a flair for writing in English, and wrote short stories for The Illustrated Weekly of India, a local weekly English magazine. It is during this time that he is supposed to have written the script for the almost autobiographical Pyaasa (Hindi: the thirsty one). Its original name was Kashmakash (Hindi: struggle), which was changed later to Pyaasa and was written at his home in Matunga. While Guru Dutt was hired by Prabhat Film Company as a choreographer, he was soon pressed into service as an actor, and even as an assistant director. At Prabhat, he met Dev Anand and Rehman, who both became stars. These early friendships helped ease his way into the film world. After Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Mumbai, where he worked with two leading directors of the time, with Amiya Chakravarty in Girls School, and with Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film Sangram. Then, Dev Anand offered him a job as a director in his new company, Navketan, after the first movie had flopped. Thus, Guru Dutts first film, Navketans Baazi, was released in 1951 . It was a tribute to the Forties Film Noir Hollywood with the morally ambiguous hero, the transgressing siren, and shadow lighting. There exists a very interesting anecdote behind this new job. Guru Dutt and Dev Anand used the services of the same laundry man when they were at Prabhat in Pune in 1945. One day Anand found that one of his shirts had been replaced with a different one. On arriving at work as the hero of Hum Ek Hain, he found the films young choreographer (Guru Dutt) wearing his shirt. On being questioned, Guru Dutt admitted that it was not his shirt, but since he had no other, he was wearing the replacement. This developed into a great friendship, since they were of the same age. They promised each other that, if Guru Dutt were to turn filmmaker, he would hire Anand as his hero, and if Dev were to produce a film then he would use Guru Dutt as its director. Dev Anand fulfilled his end of the bargain with Baazi, but regretted that his friend Guru Dutt did not. Guru Dutt indirectly did fulfill his promise. His studio, Guru Dutt Movies Pvt. Ltd., produced C.I.D. which starred Dev, but the film was directed by Raj Khosla (an assistant director to Guru Dutt). Thus, technically, Guru Dutt never directed Dev Anand under his production company. Guru Dutt and Dev Anand would make two super-hit films together, Baazi, and Jaal. Creative differences between Guru Dutt, and Chetan Anand (Anands elder brother), who was also a director, made future collaborations difficult. Remembering his old friend Guru Dutt, Anand quotes, “He was a young man he should not have made depressing pictures…” Recently, Anand quotes, my only true friend in the film industry. We got close to each other while working for Prabhat, one of the big banners of those days. I gave him his big break in Baazi and he cast me in some of his movies like C.I.D. In 1978, Prabhat Chitra Mandal held a ceremony in Mumbai near Marine Lines station in honour of Guru Dutt on his birth anniversary which was attended by Guru Dutts mother as well as Shri Dev Anand. Guru Dutts mother told a touching story in her speech about their friendship. In his young age, Guru Dutt was about to commit suicide, it was Dev Anand who succeeded in preventing him. The mother said, thus the Guru Dutt you all know is not the son I gave birth to but one whose life Dev Anand saved. Baazi also highlights two early key technical developments in Indian movie-making that are attributed to Guru Dutt. The use of close-up shots with a 100 mm lens - there are over 14 in the movie - which became known in Indian movie-making as the Guru Dutt shot, and the use of songs to further the narrative in the movie. Guru Dutt also introduced Zohra Sehgal (whom he met at Almora) as the choreographer in the movie, and he also met his future wife, Geeta Dutt during the making of the movie. Baazi was an immediate success. Guru Dutt followed it with Jaal and Baaz. Neither film did well at the box office, but they bring together the Guru Dutt team that performed so brilliantly in subsequent films. He discovered, and mentored, Johnny Walker (comedian), V.K. Murthy (cinematography), and Abrar Alvi (writing and directing), among others. He is also credited for introducing Waheeda Rehman to the Hindi cinema. Baaz was notable in that Guru Dutt both directed and starred, not having found a suitable actor for the principal character. Fortune smiled on Dutts next film, the 1954 Aar Paar. This was followed by the 1955 hit, Mr. and Mrs.55, then C.I.D., Sailaab, and in 1957, Pyaasa - the story of a poet, rejected by an uncaring world, who achieves success only after his apparent death. Guru Dutt played the lead role in three of these five films. His 1959 Kaagaz Ke Phool was an intense disappointment. He had invested a great deal of love, money, and energy in this film, which was a self-absorbed tale of a famous director (played by Guru Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutts real-life love interest). Kaagaz Ke Phool failed at the box office and Dutt was devastated. All subsequent films from his studio were, thereafter, officially helmed by other directors since Guru Dutt felt that his name was anathema to box office. Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, a critically and commercially successful film, was directed by his protégé, writer Abrar Alvi, which won him the Filmfare Best Directors award. The films star Waheeda Rehman denied rumors that the film was ghost-directed by Guru Dutt himself. Guru Dutt also has his influence on his last box office smash hit Chaudhvin Ka Chand. His legacy to direction of Hindi cinema is unmistakable and accepted by many leading Hindi directors of the day, including another of his protégés, Raj Khosla. In 1964 he acted in his last film Sanjh Aur Savera directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee opposite Meena Kumari. Source: Wikipedia youtu.be/EhDCAmXKBBs