Guru Dutt's greatest flop is now one of India's great films
In 1959 Guru Dutt released Kaagaz Ke Phool, the first Indian film shot in CinemaScope. It bombed so badly, costing him over Rs. 17 lakh, that he never again put his name on a film as director. Today it is a cult classic and has appeared among critics' greatest films of all time.
He was born Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone in Bangalore in 1925; after a childhood accident his family renamed him Gurudatta, believing the name auspicious. He grew up partly in Kolkata and spoke fluent Bengali. His early working life was bumpy. He trained at Uday Shankar's dance school in Almora, left a telephone operator's job at a Lever Brothers factory, and lost a later post at Prabhat Film Company in Pune. During ten jobless months he wrote short stories in English for The Illustrated Weekly of India.
At Prabhat he had befriended the actor Dev Anand, and the two made a pact: whoever broke through first would hire the other. Anand kept it, giving Dutt his directing debut with Baazi (1951). Its compromised hero, dangerous siren and shadowy lighting paid homage to Hollywood noir and set the style of Bombay noir for a decade. A run of hits followed, including Aar Paar (1954) and Pyaasa (1957), which Time later placed on its list of the 100 greatest films.
Dutt built a loyal circle often called the Guru Dutt team: the comedian Johnny Walker, the cinematographer V.K. Murthy, the writer Abrar Alvi and the actress Waheeda Rehman, with whom he was romantically involved. After the Kaagaz Ke Phool disaster, the team's Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960) more than recovered his losses; its title song is the only footage of Dutt in colour. Alvi then won the Filmfare Best Director award for Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962).
Admirers single out his close-ups, his handling of light and shadow and his feeling for melancholy. His private life was troubled; his brother described him as disciplined at work and undisciplined at home, and he had separated from his wife, the singer Geeta Dutt. He was found dead in his Bombay flat in October 1964, aged 39; whether it was suicide or an accidental overdose is disputed, and his son believed it was an accident. India Post issued a stamp in his honour in 2004.
Source: Guru Dutt
