When Guru Dutt Had Fun

As the first film from the Guru Dutt banner,Aar Paar enjoys the distinction of being that rare film where hes having fun on screen. It was,of course,way before the master director claimed the tag of the Angsty Artiste in films like Pyaasa and Kaagaz ke Phool.

The fun and games begin when Kalu meets Nikki Shyama looking megawatt in trousers and overalls with ribbons in her hair. They spar with each other,stare at each other,and somewhere between sparing and staring,they fall in love. Theres a delightful scene in which Kalu is practising the English alphabet and says G for garal… garal maane ladki. To which Nikki snaps and says,Aye,yeh kya badtameezi hai? He says,Badtameezi nahin,memsaab,English hai. She shoots back,Kya garal garal kehta hai… Bolo girl. Then he asks what does L for Love mean? To which she says,Love maane tera sarr. And so Kalu starts chanting,L maane tera sarr. Abrar Alvi has written the dialogue.

Our protagonists love story is not an easy ride. Before Nikki can sing Ae lo lo main haari piya in Kalus taxi,the young lovers will have to face the wrath of Nikkis father Lalaji Jagdish Sethi,who has misgivings about Kalus character since hes been to jail. Even though Kalu obtains a character certificate from his jailor,Lalaji is not impressed. Kalu wants to elope with Nikki and asks her to toss a coin and decide,aar ya paar.

As Nikki dithers,Kalu cant wait. In his zeal to earn Lalajis respect,Kalu unknowingly becomes a part of a gang of crooks and his taxi is used for smuggling. Kalus new job leads him to a nameless sexy dancer,played by Shakila. With her pain-misted eyes,head tilted to the side,pointed heels,and accordion,Shakila sexes up the noir quotient brilliantly. She also gets to enact the sensuous Geeta Dutt song,Hoon abhi main jawaan. In an earlier interview,Shakila had explained what working with Dutt entailed. Guru Dutt used to explain things well to us artistes. He was very mild,and patient. But hed get angry when he didnt get what he wanted. Then he would be very picky. There was a scene in which I had to look down and then fling my head back. We had five or six retakes. He wanted me to look exactly the way he had imagined. He was particular about the way my hair fell. About the famous Hoon abhi main song,she said,It was my first day for Aar Paar. I went to the sets and saw a room with cardboard boxes lying everywhere. Everyone asked Guru Dutt how he could possibly film there. But he did and how fantastically he picturised it.

OP Nayyar got a fresh lease of life with the films success and came up with tunes so fresh and forward that they continue to be remixed till date. Nayyar was recommended by Geeta Dutt and was paid Rs 5,000 for composing the tracks. Geeta is sensational in Babuji dheere chalna and the twin refrains of Sun sun sun sun zalima as well as Ja ja ja ja bewafa.

Its all about the atmosphere for Dutt. For the Shamshad Begum magnum opus title track,which is set on the street,he uses the location to perfection and gets street urchins and construction workers to enact the song. Watch closely and you can see actress Kum Kum as the construction worker her first screen appearance. Aided by his faithful lieutenant,cinematographer VK Murthy,Dutt shot the songs in a garage,a taxi,a club,a garden and even a zoo featuring Johnny Walker.

For the song Sun sun sun zaalima,he requested lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri to use the word humko. Majrooh felt this was grammatically wrong if it was suno,then humko made sense. Dutt told him,Log gaana sunte hain8230; wahan koi tumhari grammar check nahin karega. People listen to the song. No one will judge your grammar there. And so we got the lines,pyaar humko tumse ho gaya.

harneet.singhexpressindia.com