The ENIGMATIC Genius

His mothers cousin,Balakrishna B. Benegal whose nephew is filmmaker Shyam Benegal was a painter of cinema posters. Dutts destined connection with cinema began with this slim linkhe spent a lot of time with this favourite uncle.

Dutts father became an administrative clerk with the Burmah-Shell company and began living in Kolkata,so by the time he finished his schooling Dutt could speak fluent Bengali. All this conspired to give the impression,along with Dutts later cinema,that he was a Bengali,because Dutt is a name common to that province. But there is little doubt that Bengal had a major influence in his life,beyond just wife Geeta,especially in the sober and dark films that were really close to his heart.

As a teenager,his sister Lalitha recalls,Dutt would use his fingers to shape shadow images on a wall lit by a diya in their pooja room. He even performed a snake dance at a gathering of Saraswat Brahmins at Kolkata for which he was even given a cash prize of Rs 5! A good student,he never went to college but joined the performing arts troupe of Uday Shankar and was with them for three years till he joined his parents now based in Mumbai in 1944. A three-year job contract with the post-V.Shantaram phase of Prabhat Film Company in Pune was his first job.

A friends promise and a winning Baazi
After the contract ended,he soon returned to Mumbai,developed a flair for writing in English,and wrote short stories for a magazine. Dutt first acted in a small role as Lord Krishna in Chand 1944. In 1945,he acted in as well as assisted director Vishram Bedekar on Lakharani,and in 1946,he worked as an assistant director and choreographed dances for P. L. Santoshis Hum Ek Hain,incidentally Dev Anands debut. Dutt also assisted Amiya Chakravorty in Girls School and Gyan Mukerji in Sangram. But his life changed when Dev Anand asked him to direct his company Navketans second film,Baazi 1951. And this was a promise fulfilled.

As Anand put it,Dutt and I used the same dhobi in Pune. One day,I found that one of my shirts had been replaced with a different one. I was the hero of Hum Ek Hain,and to my surprise I found Dutt,who was the films choreographer,wearing my shirt on the sets that day! I accosted him,and he admitted that he was wearing it because he didnt have a spare and his dhobi had misplaced it. And so we became friends,and one day,we promised each other that whoever makes it big first would give the other a break. And so I gave him Baazi,but though he cast me in C.I.D.,which is his banners biggest hit,he never directed me in his own companys film,but we did Jaal for another producer.

Anand once termed Dutt his only true friend in the film industry but his famous remark that Dutt should not have made such depressing films as a young man became both perceptively prophetic and controversial.

Dev Anand and Baazi,indirectly,became responsible for sweeping developments in both Dutts life as well as Hindi cinema. Baazi saw the pioneering use of close-up shots with a 100 mm lens when mid-shots and long shots were the norm and he also met his future wife,its playback singer Geeta Roy whom he married in 1953 during the making of the songs. He also met his future cinematographer,now Phalke laureate V.K.Murthy,when they were shooting a song sequence in Mumbais Famous Mahalaxmi Studios.

Recalls Murthy,In those days when an outside filmmaker hired a studio,even if he had his own team,the staff would be available to assist them. I was working with Famous and Guru Dutt was shooting a cabaret sequence on a hotel set. I remember taking more interest in the proceedings than his cameraman and conceiving a rather difficult shot that I boldly suggested to Guru. He liked his idea but felt that his cameraman would not be able to execute it. I will take the shot if he has no objection, I said. The cameraman was happy to let me do it,and that evening,Guru told me that we will work together.

And so began a historic combination that worked magic from Jaal 1952 to Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi 1966 with just one exceptionthe M.Sadiq-directed Chaudhvin Ka Chand. The list includes the cream of Dutts workMr amp; Mrs 55,Pyaasa,C.I.D.,Kagaz Ke Phool and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam,and this pair has been declared one of the greatest filmmaker-DOP teams in the world.

Success streak
Baazi was followed with Jaal and Baaz,both flops,but they cemented Dutts bonds with a lot of associates like,besides Murthy,writer Abrar Alvi,character actor Johnny Walker and composer O.P.Nayyar. Dutts next two films,the 1954 Aar Paar and the 1955 Mr. amp; Mrs. 55 were major hits and he acted in them just as he had in Baaz. Dutt then went on to launch two films simultaneously Pyaasa,the story of a poet in a mercenary world starring himself,and the frothy crime drama,C.I.D.,which he entrusted to his promising assistant Raj Khosla and was his last professional association with Anand. The latter released first,and became Indias first film to gross a lakh,while the Pyaasa came a year later and became a major hit too. This phase was to be the filmmakers peak in all senses.

Crucial decision
It was his semi-autobiographical 1959 Kagaz Ke Phools failure that unsettled the fragile introverted psyche that was Dutt this was his second tryst with serious cinema and somewhere he had become a bigger loner than ever. All the critical accolades for Indias first Cinemascope film that too in black-and-white meant nothing to him,and Dutt is said to have vowed that he would never direct a film again because he could not connect with his audience.

He signed hit-maker M.Sadiq Barsaat Ki Raat for Chaudhvin Ka Chand 1961 and his writer Abrar Alvi was given the helm of his Bengali story on celluloid,Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962. Though many speculated that Dutt had ghost-directed the latter,there is sufficient evidence and testimony notably from Murthy to show that Dutt gave only creative inputs to the film,besides playing the lead. Once again,the more commercial Chaudhvin8230; was the blockbuster,but by that time,Dutts troubles with wife Geeta they had three children 80s filmmakers Tarun and Arun and daughter Nina over his alleged romantic liaison with Waheeda Rehman had brought in fresh turbulence in his life.

Oddly enough,in the early 60s,Dutt was actually doing well as an actor outside his banner with hits like Bharosa,Bahurani,Suhagan and Sanjh Aur Savera. He is said to have even decided to direct again and produce and act in Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi,which marked his return to old favourite O. P. Nayyar. However,it wasnt to happen. The film was finally completed by Shahid Lateef as director and starred Dharmendra in his role.

At the time of his death,Guru Dutt had signed Picnic opposite Sadhana and also his biggest film as actor K. Asifs epic Love And God,which was finally done by Sanjeev Kumar and released,after both Asifs and Kumars death,by K.C.Bokadia in 1986!

The tragic end
While it is generally assumed that Dutt,who had increasingly become cynical,morbid and depressed,committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills on October 10,1964,the filmmakers son Tarun has stood by his ground that it was the lethal effect of alcohol to which Dutt had taken recourse to battle his sorrows and the sleeping pills that he took to combat insomnia. His argument was that Dutt had scheduled multiple professional commitments the very next day,including a meeting with Raj Kapoor who had made Sangam to discuss color films,because Dutts oeuvre only had a few sequences in color in Chaudhvin Ka Chand. Whatever be the truth,India lost one of its finest filmmakers on that day.

Documentary evidence
Two books by Nasreen Munni Kabir and others by Sathya Saran and Dutts own mother have fantastic contributions from associates,family and admirers and provide tremendous personal insights. But so deep and closed was Dutt that even those closest to him,in a broader sense,could not figure out the man who gave so much and so many new talents,including Waheeda Rehman,who he introduced in C.I.D. as a negative lead and Pyaasa,O.P.Nayyar in his breakthrough film Aar Paar and others to Hindi cinema. Much later,for example,two other filmmaker titans with an exceptional music sense and a rare mastery over song- and shot-taking Dutts one-time protégé Raj Khosla and Manoj Kumar openly and repeatedly acknowledged their brilliance to what they learnt from Dutt.

Far from his morbid self-evaluation as a failed director,his serious films found global applause and his more commercial ones remain evergreen in India along with the serious Pyaasa and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam.

As a filmmaker,his favourite lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri summed him up best: He conveyed words and thought visually. He had art in his soul. And perhaps the most illuminating yet paradoxically mystifying insight comes from his son Arun Dutts memories that reconcile Dutts seriousness and long periods of silence caused by his serious movies understandably terrifying for a child who was only eight when Dutt diedwith a keen interest in kite-flying,fishing,a great love for animals that abounded in their house including a chimpanzee and a tiger cub and his taking the family to holidays.

But the glories as well as the tragedies were,perhaps,all pre-destined. For as Vasanthi,his mother,states in the documentary,I was 12 when married and 16 when Guru was born. Before he was born,an astrologer had predicted that I would have a son who would become world-famous.

The prediction came so dazzlingly true,but the search for the real human being within that famous son is still on.

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