Guru Dutt wasn’t a great actor, found him ‘fairly blank’, says Hansal Mehta: ‘His cinema overpowered his inadequacy’

Mehta argued that it was the other aspects of filmmaking, besides acting, that combined to make even a lacklustre performance excellent. “It was all the elements of cinema coming together — lighting, framing, the way scenes were staged. When you talk about craft, you often say, ‘Arey, performance itna achha nahi hai‘ (The performance isn’t that great). You don’t notice (other aspects of filmmaking),” he argued.

“Because the cinematic experience is so powerful, it overpowers his own inadequacy as an actor. So, you remember that frame — “Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye toh kya hai,” him standing like Jesus Christ — but as an actor, I found him fairly blank if I look at him. I don’t need to because everything else in that is so complete,” added Mehta.

Interestingly, Guru Dutt wasn’t meant to play the lead in Pyaasa, the 1957 tragedy Mehta referred to. Veteran screenwriter and lyricist Javed Akhtar, who was also present on the same stage as Mehta at the event, recalled how Dutt initially approached the late thespian Dilip Kumar to play the role of the protagonist, a dejected poet, in a love triangle story also starring Waheeda Rehman and Mala Sinha.

But Kumar passed it on because he’d just done another love triangle tragedy story — Bimal Roy’s Devdas (1955), also starring Suchitra Sen and Vyjayanthimala. “He went back, cast himself, made seven reels of himself, and went back to Dilip Kumar. He said, ‘You watch these seven reels. This role belongs to you! Because you said no, I did it. But even now, if you feel (like doing it) after looking at these seven reels, I’ll scrap these and we’d make it again,” recalled Akhtar.

Also Read — Guru Dutt@100: Here’s looking at the man behind the artist

But Kumar found that impractical and turned the generous offer down. “Dilip sahab told me he repents three films he refused. Baiju Bawra (1957) was one of them. That’s maybe he couldn’t understand the intensity. And Pyaasa. And third, I’m very shyly saying, Zanjeer,” added Akhtar. He and Salim Khan co-wrote the 1973 Prakash Mehra blockbuster that launched Amitabh Bachchan as the Angry Young Man.

From the homepage

‘Pursue before ECI’: Supreme Court refuses to entertain plea seeking SIT probe into Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ allegations

In Prashant Kishor’s second list, expansion of promise in first – representation to all castes, classes

Husband and wife claiming same benefit? Centre flags 31 lakh PM-Kisan cases after review