Showing posts with label Kagaz Ke Phool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kagaz Ke Phool. Show all posts
The dreams and unfulfilled promises of Guru Dutt and Dev Anand
7:51 AM
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 28, 2017)
It was a washerman who forged the connection by inadvertently exchanging their laundered shirts. Dev Anand and Guru Dutt turned up at a Pune studio wearing each other’s shirts and instantly gravitated towards each other, laughing over their dhobi’s mistake. One was the debutante hero of Prabhat’s Hum Ek Hain and the other, an assistant director-choreographer. During the shoot, the two starry-eyed strugglers quickly entered into a pact — if Dev produced a film, he’d take Guru Dutt as the director, and the latter promised to cast him as the hero in his directorial.
Dev saab kept his word and after the debacles of Afsar and Aandhiyan, launched his friend as the director of Navketan’s Baazi in 1951, which turned out to be a big break not just for the duo, but also for its lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi, composer S D Burman, comedian Johnny Walker and actresses Geeta Bali and Kalpana Kartik. Dev went on to marry Kalpana while Guru Dutt tied the knot with singer Geeta Dutt, whom he’d met while recording of the song, “Tadbeer Se Bigdi Hui Taqdeer Bana De.”
“That song brought Guru Dutt and Geeta together, but it also created some friction between S D Burman and Sahir, who was upset that his philosophical number had been turned into a peppy track,” reveals Mohan Churiwala, a close associate of Dev Anand.
Despite the behind-the-scenes friction, Baazi went on to bust the box office and Guru Dutt started a film titled Baaz. Forgetting his promise to his friend, he cast himself in the lead opposite Geeta Bali, but couldn’t replicate the success of Baazi. “Even though he claimed he wanted to be a director, Guru Dutt secretly aspired to be an actor too. Even in Baazi, he popped up in the first scene, sitting on the footpath watching the villain’s sidekick, Rashid Khan, step out of the car and walk into a club where he makes the acquaintance of a card shark played by Dev saab,” informs Churiwala.
After Baaz, Guru Dutt went on to play a cabbie in Aar Paar, which came in the same year (1954) as Dev saab’s Taxi Driver, followed by Mr & Mrs 55. It was only in ’56 that he cast his friend in CID, which he produced, but was directed by Raj Khosla, who’d come to Mumbai with dreams of becoming a playback singer and gone on to assist Guru Dutt in Baazi on Dev saab’s recommendation. Dutt, however, directed TR Fatehchand’s 1952 crime thriller, Jaal, repeating the Baazi jodi, along with K N Singh.
Churiwala recalls how KN Singh had persuaded Dev saab, a teetotaler, to gulp down a glass or two of Feni on the last day of shooting in Goa, assuring him that it was a local, non-alcoholic drink. The next morning, at around 6.30 am, Dev saab left for Mumbai in his Chevrolet Impala, with Geeta sitting beside him, her sister and his chauffeur at the back. “Dev saab was a little drowsy and hungover from the Feni he had drank and was happy to drive sedately. But Geeta egged him on and he put his foot down on the accelerator and the big car was soon racing down the highway. Then, for a split second he shut his eyes, and the car crashed into a tree. His expensive car was totaled and the steering wheel rammed into his chest, cracking a few ribs. Geeta sustained a few bruises on the head. The villagers rushed him to Pune’s Sassoon Hospital where he was treated by Dr Shriram Lagoo, whom he later signed for films like Lootmaar and Des Pardes,” says Churiwala
Despite the crash, Jaal made the cash counters jingle to the tune of Lata Mangeshkar and Hemant Kumar’s chartbuster, “Yeh Raat, Yeh Chandni Phir Kahan, Sun Ja Dil Ki Dastaan.” But the friendship that had begun with rainbow-hued dreams ended with disillusionment, despair and an untimely death. Guru Dutt was a broken man after the debacle of his passion project, Kagaz Ke Phool, and never directed another film. But Churiwala remembers that three days before he passed away, he told Dev saab that he wanted to make a film with him as the hero. Once again he didn’t keep his promise. Their next meeting was in Guru Dutt’s bedroom, as he lay lifeless on the bed. Dev saab outlived his friend by almost five decades. Had he been around, he’d have turned 94 on September 26, and would probably be in the middle of directing a film. For him, dreams didn’t die, and promises were made to be kept.
"By dismissing wife's character & their hellish marriage, Guru Dutt weakened the plot of Kagaz Ke Phool"
7:46 AM
Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 30, 2014)
Today, it is impossible to
imagine anyone but Guru Dutt as Suresh Sinha who
dies a lonely death in an empty film studio, slumped in the
director's chair in Kagaz Ke Phool.
But, according to his writer-director friend Abrar Alvi, Guru Dutt, who had lived with the dream to make this film for eight years, since his days as an assistant director, had initially planned the cult classic with Chetan Anand in mind.
Guru Dutt had sketched out the story of a filmmaker struggling with a troubled marriage, a custody battle for his daughter, a career going steadily downhill, and an ego that won't let him accept favours from his star protégé, to the well-known director Mahesh Kaul. But Kaul wasn't too impressed with this offbeat subject. So Dutt tucked it away till he established himself as a director with Navketan's Baazi and then, decided to direct the film himself.
Kagaz Ke Phool was supposed to roll before Pyaasa and Guru Dutt had taken the role of Suresh to Chetan Anand, who with his salt-and-pepper hair “looked“ the character of the middle-aged director.“He was aghast when Chetan quoted a price which was as high as that of his younger brother Dev Anand, who was a star,“ informed Abrar.
Disappointed but not disheartened Guru Dutt then approached Ashok Kumar. But Dadamoni also declined and thereafter the director got busy with Pyaasa, followed by Raaz, which he shelved after 13 reels, and Gauri, abandoned after four. Kagaz Ke Phool was launched 10 days later to keep the company afloat, with Guru Dutt in the lead.
In later years, many have noted the similarities between the filmmaker and the aging hero of Kagaz Ke Phool. Like Suresh, Guru Dutt too was a man who lived to work in contrast to his fun-loving singer wife Geeta Dutt. The songstress enjoyed the company of friends and was irked that her introverted husband didn't share her fondness for parties. In the film too, Veena, the pampered daughter of an aristocrat, who has committed the cardinal sin of marrying a struggling filmmaker, even though he quickly rises in the social hierarchy with his films, is heard reminding him of a social engagement. Suresh who's in the editing room retorts, “Don't disturb me please.“ The marital problems that follow are inevitable.
Perhaps anticipating that people would find parallels between his real life and reel, Guru Dutt abruptly replaced Shashikala after shooting with her for a fortnight, turning the strongly etched character of the wife into a shadowy figure. “Almost all her best scenes were edited out. By dismissing the character of the wife and their hellish marriage, Guru Dutt weakened the plot because the audience couldn't understand why a man who had name, fame, money and success should be unhappy,“ a despondent Abrar, the film's story and dialogue writer, had said years later.
Many believed that the character of Shanti, the 'other woman', sensitively portrayed by Waheeda Rehman, was also rooted in Guru Dutt's relationship with his own protégé whom he had spotted in a dance number in a Telugu film and later turned her into one of Mumbai's best-loved stars. Abrar acknowledged that Guru Dutt had played Professor Henry Higgins to Waheeda's Eliza Doolittle but insisted that, like in the film, there was nothing physical about the relationship.
It was just a meeting of two minds that were completely in sync and understood each other too well.“Kagaz Ke Phool wasn't Guru Dutt's biography as is often believed, it was just another experimental film that he made.“ An experiment that didn't work commercially when it opened in 1959 but this Paper Flower hasn't withered with time, rather it has acquired the fragrance of a cult classic.
But, according to his writer-director friend Abrar Alvi, Guru Dutt, who had lived with the dream to make this film for eight years, since his days as an assistant director, had initially planned the cult classic with Chetan Anand in mind.
Guru Dutt had sketched out the story of a filmmaker struggling with a troubled marriage, a custody battle for his daughter, a career going steadily downhill, and an ego that won't let him accept favours from his star protégé, to the well-known director Mahesh Kaul. But Kaul wasn't too impressed with this offbeat subject. So Dutt tucked it away till he established himself as a director with Navketan's Baazi and then, decided to direct the film himself.
Kagaz Ke Phool was supposed to roll before Pyaasa and Guru Dutt had taken the role of Suresh to Chetan Anand, who with his salt-and-pepper hair “looked“ the character of the middle-aged director.“He was aghast when Chetan quoted a price which was as high as that of his younger brother Dev Anand, who was a star,“ informed Abrar.
Disappointed but not disheartened Guru Dutt then approached Ashok Kumar. But Dadamoni also declined and thereafter the director got busy with Pyaasa, followed by Raaz, which he shelved after 13 reels, and Gauri, abandoned after four. Kagaz Ke Phool was launched 10 days later to keep the company afloat, with Guru Dutt in the lead.
In later years, many have noted the similarities between the filmmaker and the aging hero of Kagaz Ke Phool. Like Suresh, Guru Dutt too was a man who lived to work in contrast to his fun-loving singer wife Geeta Dutt. The songstress enjoyed the company of friends and was irked that her introverted husband didn't share her fondness for parties. In the film too, Veena, the pampered daughter of an aristocrat, who has committed the cardinal sin of marrying a struggling filmmaker, even though he quickly rises in the social hierarchy with his films, is heard reminding him of a social engagement. Suresh who's in the editing room retorts, “Don't disturb me please.“ The marital problems that follow are inevitable.
Perhaps anticipating that people would find parallels between his real life and reel, Guru Dutt abruptly replaced Shashikala after shooting with her for a fortnight, turning the strongly etched character of the wife into a shadowy figure. “Almost all her best scenes were edited out. By dismissing the character of the wife and their hellish marriage, Guru Dutt weakened the plot because the audience couldn't understand why a man who had name, fame, money and success should be unhappy,“ a despondent Abrar, the film's story and dialogue writer, had said years later.
Many believed that the character of Shanti, the 'other woman', sensitively portrayed by Waheeda Rehman, was also rooted in Guru Dutt's relationship with his own protégé whom he had spotted in a dance number in a Telugu film and later turned her into one of Mumbai's best-loved stars. Abrar acknowledged that Guru Dutt had played Professor Henry Higgins to Waheeda's Eliza Doolittle but insisted that, like in the film, there was nothing physical about the relationship.
It was just a meeting of two minds that were completely in sync and understood each other too well.“Kagaz Ke Phool wasn't Guru Dutt's biography as is often believed, it was just another experimental film that he made.“ An experiment that didn't work commercially when it opened in 1959 but this Paper Flower hasn't withered with time, rather it has acquired the fragrance of a cult classic.
'Guru Dutt shaped bromance, which we saw later in Sangam, Dosti, Dil Chahta Hai'
7:45 AM
Dinesh Raheja (right) and Jitendra Kothari have come up with their next original screenplay, Chaudhvin Ka Chand. Here Raheja talks about his fascination with Guru Dutt and his films
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; April 2, 2014)
What is it about Guru Dutt that fascinates you?
I wish to be associated with Guru Dutt’s films one way or the other because he was such a genius. For reasons I can’t fathom, I was always drawn to cinema that was sensitive and appealed to the intellect. Guru Dutt’s films are thought-provoking and at the same entertaining. His films hold you spell-bound. The other day, I was talking to somebody about Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. He said he knows about it, but what he had in mind was Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster! I had to tell him, they are not the same! That’s why a certain awareness has to be created. In fact, there are other directors like Bimal Roy, K Asif and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who I would like to archive. If I get to do the original screenplay of Anand, I will be excited. This is a Vinod Chopra initiative and I am happy to be a part of it.
Which is your favourite Guru Dutt film?
Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. I think it’s a masterpeice. There’s a whole ambiguity in the man-woman relationship, which is left to your intepretation. Our films usually give answers, Guru Dutt’s films don’t. Do you want to value fame or not is left to you, like in Kagaz Ke Phool. His films have open endings. In my first book on Sahib Bibi... I gave my interpretation to what I felt was the relationship between Meena Kumari and Guru Dutt. I also wrote why so many scenes were left in a grey zone. What I liked about them was they were not completely black or white.
What does your second book on Chaudhvin Ka Chand bring forth?
I have talked about how Guru Dutt shaped bromance, which we saw later in films like Sangam, Dosti and Dil Chahta Hai. Chaudhvin Ka Chand laid the seed of bromance. Of course, Waheeda Rehman is integral to the film because two friends fall in love with her but the friendship between Johnny Walker, Guru Dutt and Rehman is pivotal. It was very layered and beautifully done. Even Johnny’s track is not an independent one. His girlfriend is a courtesan and it’s to her Guru Dutt goes when he wants Waheeda to feel insecure, and go to Rehman. It’s intricately woven together. It was a purely commercial film, but when I was writing the script, I realised how seamlessly one scene falls into the other.
How did you go about writing the screenplay of these films?
I was given a rough screenplay, which must have been salvaged. But in those days there was no bound script. There were minimum instructions in it and the scene changed several times. So, I saw the film at least 40-50 times. In fact, there was a time when I could hear Meena Kumari’s voice in the night, the way she says tumne mujhe sharaabi kaha. It would keep ringing in my ears. I also wanted to find how many times she says that line in the film. It’s no less than 19 times in different ways! I really enjoyed doing the project, I found it very involving. I could go into the director’s mind, while writing and mulling over it. I could appreciate each scene. I also did the song translations in English keeping the rhyme and meter intact.
What next?
I will be coming up with the third book, this one on Kagaz Ke Phool.
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; April 2, 2014)
What is it about Guru Dutt that fascinates you?I wish to be associated with Guru Dutt’s films one way or the other because he was such a genius. For reasons I can’t fathom, I was always drawn to cinema that was sensitive and appealed to the intellect. Guru Dutt’s films are thought-provoking and at the same entertaining. His films hold you spell-bound. The other day, I was talking to somebody about Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. He said he knows about it, but what he had in mind was Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster! I had to tell him, they are not the same! That’s why a certain awareness has to be created. In fact, there are other directors like Bimal Roy, K Asif and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, who I would like to archive. If I get to do the original screenplay of Anand, I will be excited. This is a Vinod Chopra initiative and I am happy to be a part of it.
Which is your favourite Guru Dutt film?
Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam. I think it’s a masterpeice. There’s a whole ambiguity in the man-woman relationship, which is left to your intepretation. Our films usually give answers, Guru Dutt’s films don’t. Do you want to value fame or not is left to you, like in Kagaz Ke Phool. His films have open endings. In my first book on Sahib Bibi... I gave my interpretation to what I felt was the relationship between Meena Kumari and Guru Dutt. I also wrote why so many scenes were left in a grey zone. What I liked about them was they were not completely black or white.
What does your second book on Chaudhvin Ka Chand bring forth?I have talked about how Guru Dutt shaped bromance, which we saw later in films like Sangam, Dosti and Dil Chahta Hai. Chaudhvin Ka Chand laid the seed of bromance. Of course, Waheeda Rehman is integral to the film because two friends fall in love with her but the friendship between Johnny Walker, Guru Dutt and Rehman is pivotal. It was very layered and beautifully done. Even Johnny’s track is not an independent one. His girlfriend is a courtesan and it’s to her Guru Dutt goes when he wants Waheeda to feel insecure, and go to Rehman. It’s intricately woven together. It was a purely commercial film, but when I was writing the script, I realised how seamlessly one scene falls into the other.
How did you go about writing the screenplay of these films?
I was given a rough screenplay, which must have been salvaged. But in those days there was no bound script. There were minimum instructions in it and the scene changed several times. So, I saw the film at least 40-50 times. In fact, there was a time when I could hear Meena Kumari’s voice in the night, the way she says tumne mujhe sharaabi kaha. It would keep ringing in my ears. I also wanted to find how many times she says that line in the film. It’s no less than 19 times in different ways! I really enjoyed doing the project, I found it very involving. I could go into the director’s mind, while writing and mulling over it. I could appreciate each scene. I also did the song translations in English keeping the rhyme and meter intact.
What next?
I will be coming up with the third book, this one on Kagaz Ke Phool.
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