Watching Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa over fifty years ago was a mesmerizing experience for me. But looking back, I think what impressed me the most were the delectable songs and their picturization, sequences of high-quality acting by Waheeda Rehman, and the fluidity of images that his films are noted for.
Reading the book in the birth centenary year of Guru Dutt (1925-64), one gets a fair impression of his tumultuous life, as dramatic as his cinematic oeuvre. Some of his films, made within the commercial framework of Hindi popular cinema and yet carrying a distinct flavour, are being watched again with renewed interest and are being reassessed. But where does he stand as a director in the over-all context of Hindi cinema, and what has been his impact on the younger filmmakers in India? Was he a rebel without a cause, or a creative person, deeply dissatisfied within, moving inexorably to destroy himself? Usman seeks to find answers to these questions.