Still talking Dutt

“Understanding my father completely would never be possible. Not by me or even his closest associates. Because in many ways he was ethereal,” says Dutt. Adding to it he says that while his films gained popularity only in the 80’s after audiences across the globe and India started to understand the depths of his stories. He always remained a person who altered between bouts of childlike innocence and pensive brooding.

And it is to re package and restore these emotions of his father that were portrayed by him on screen,Dutt is now planning to restore all the prints of his father’s films so that they can be converted to a digital format in order to preserve them and enhance their life. Speaking about it he says,“What my father thought during his times was too progressive or modern for audiences,who believed in watching typecast Bollywood films. These films now have gained immense popularity,sadly after his death,and that is why I am planning to restore them so that they can reach out to wider audiences across the world.”

Moving on to Anurag Kashyap and the film that he is planning to make on the late filmmaker,Dutt feels that there are very few actors who can do justice to the role. “I personally feel that Aamir Khan is well suited for the role,” he says,adding, “While as of now every thing is still on the drawing board and nothing concrete has materialised,I feel that as an actor Aamir is the only guy who can portray the same intensity as my father on screen while enacting out a role based on him because just like my father,he too pays a lot of attention to minute details,and is a perfectionist when it comes to film making.” In addition to this film Nasreen Kabir,who had written a book on Guru Dutt is working on another docudrama based on two years of his life,namely 1956 and 1957,when he was making Pyaasa,he adds.

While Guru Dutt began his career as a commercial filmmaker,his heart was always set on questioning the moralistic frailties of the society. “Post Mr. and Mrs. 55 he began to delve into the realms of serious film making; Pyaasa being a sneak preview of the change,” says Dutt. He also adds that,Pyaasa was a story that Guru Dutt had worked on during his initial days in 1946-47,when he was struggling as an assistant director.

As far as future plans regarding the restoration of his films is concerned Dutt says,he will scan all the films and convert them to a digital format,and rework the entire film using various soft wares and re-transfer it back on film to obtain a fresh copy of the same. “While the process of doing so,is very technical,it is also very expensive. Each film can cost up to 2-3 crores to be restored. As of now,we are converting his iconic,Sahib Biwi aur Ghulam into a colour format,” says Dutt.

While the enigma surrounding the late filmmaker refuses to die down,it continues to charm millions. “No one,not even my mother (Geeta Dutt) knew the way his mind worked. While his thoughts harboured on the edges of fantasy and realism his personal outlook towards life and its vagaries was morose and depressive,” says Dutt.

On summarising the life of his father in one sentence Dutt says,“That’s really difficult to do. I mean how can someone summarise a person who was a bunch of contradictions,in himself? Yet the best way I can sum up his is that he lived somewhere in between,Suresh and Vijay,his two characters from Kaagaz Ke Phool and Pyaasa respectively. Living amongst the real world and yet spending time in a mystical fantasy land,that was how he was,that was who he was.”