Classics Revisited

Gems of Indian Cinema

Pyaasa (Thirsting)

Cinema is an excellent medium to transfer one's thoughts and ideals, quite often we see the filmmaker compromising his ideals to appease the producer and the audience to make his movie a commercial success. Very rarely do we get to see a director becoming the very movie, that he makes, so that the movie and the maker become a single entity.

Guru Dutt Shiv Shankar Padukone was born in Bangalore on July 9, 1925. As far as the Western world was concerned Indian cinema was just song-dance and sentiment, except for Satyajit Ray's works, which were systematically segregated and treated as a separate entity. In my opinion Guru Dutt is the most misunderstood and talented filmmaker in Indian cinema. Like Shakespeare's tragic heroes, he was a great man with a tragic flaw. He accepted defeat too quickly, found solace in alcohol, failed in love and commited suicide. He was found dead on October 10, 1964, he had taken an overdose of sleeping pills mixed with alcohol, nobody knows if it was deliberate or if it was an accident.

Guru Dutt made several films for Dev Anand's NavKetan Productions, like Baazi, Baaz and Jaal. He tasted commercial success with Mr. and Mrs. 55 a sweet comedy which pitted him with Madhubala. The commercial success of Mr & Mrs 55, helped him in producing his Pyaasa.

Pyaasa was the tale of a struggling poet-Vijay, who is rejected by all publishers, and considered as a failure by his family. In anger and frustration his brother sells Vijay's poems to a scrap merchant. Vijay is devastated as he fails to find his manuscripts, one day he hears one of his compositions. He is attracted by the melodious voice and finds that the singer is a courtesan / prostitute Gulabo(Waheeda Rahman).

Vijay's love interest Meena, ditches him and marries a successful publisher, Vijay also learns that his mother is dead. He is depressed and disgusted with his life, he finds solace in alcohol and his only friend is a oil-masseur Johnny Walker(Remember "Sar Jo Ters Chakraye.."). One night he gives his coat to a beggar, the beggar is shocked and follows Vijay to thank him, but he is run-over by a train. The next day when the badly disfigured body is discovered with Vijay's coat on it, people assume that Vijay is the one who died in the accident.

Gulabo publishes Vijay's poems in a book titled "Parchaaiyan" (Shadows), through Mr. Ghosh(played by Rehman). The book becomes a big success, and Vijay who was shunned by everyone becomes a celebrity. Vijay is praised and a ceremony is held to honour him posthumously. Vijay makes an entrance, shocking everybody. He realises that eveybody is corrupt to the core, and the world is full of greedy people who want to take advantage of simple people, he shuns fame and asks Gulabo to join him to lead a new life in some other town. The movie ends with Gulabo accepting Vijay's offer.

The movie describes the troubles faced by artists, be it a poet, a painter, an author a musician, they have to make compromises to lead a normal life. An artist faces a lot of troubles to gain recognition and many talented artists fade away like flowers that just blossom for a few hours and then fade away into ignominy. Sahir Ludhianvi, was the inspiration for Guru Dutt while making Pyaasa, infact Sahir wrote the lyrics for Pyaasa and "Yeh Mehlon, yeh Takhton.., yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya he..." is a timeless classic, which brings out the dilemma of the poet searching for fame and recognition, and his rejection of it, when he finds it. Sahir also published a book titled-"Parchaaiyan," as shown in the movie.

One wonders if the end had not been so quick, what would have been the gems that Dutt saab would have left for us to ponder, wonder and enjoy. As they say he left the world as "pyaasa" and left us thirsting for more. No one can fill the void left by him, Ray was in another world and his movies left an impact far different from Guru Dutt and Ray's work could not be understood by the common man.

Watch Pyaasa, if you have not seen it, you are missing something that cannot be defined in mere words.

My Rating 4.5/5.