Guru Dutt was one of the finest filmmakers that the Indian Hindi Film Industry had seen. He lived a really short life yet his works are worth remembering. He created some of the finest Hindi Cinema and they are critically acclaimed till today. Today on his 94th Birth Anniversary, let’s take a look back at his life.
His style of filmmaking was quite different than that of his contemporaries. He had a modern outlook and was way ahead of his time. His movie “Pyaasa” is listed in Time Magazine’s All Time 100 best movies list. His movies were extremely sensitive and delved into the emotional complexities of humankind. Both his movies “Pyassa” and “Kagaaz Ke Phool” were examples of the same. These movies showed pain and rejection. Although, “Pyassa” turned out to be a commercial success but “Kagaaz Ke Phool” incurred him a heavy loss of 17 Lakhs. Although his later movies like, “Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam”, “Chaudhvin Ka Chaand” helped him recover the money, the fact that “Kagaaz Ke Phool” didn’t work out affected him a lot.
He’s also said to have gifted Bollywood with some gems like, Waheeda Rehman, Johnny Walker, VK Murthy and others. His contribution to Bollywood can never be forgotten. Although, the reason of his untimely death is still unknown. Dev Anand, Dutt’s life-long friend had once said in an interview that he couldn’t digest failure. Some also had an opinion that he suffered from depression, due to personal reasons. But on the 10th of October 1964, he was reportedly with his close friend Abrar Alvi and was under the influence of alcohol. He went to sleep without dinner and had popped sleeping pills. The next day, the door was broken and he was found dead with his eyes half open and his hands gesturing, “freeze”, just has he would command on his film set. This supremely talented actor, producer and director breathed his last at the age of 39.