Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema

This biography traces the life and works of a remarkable director and actor. The sensitivity and compassion Guru Dutt brought to his depiction of screen characters endowed them with a rare depth, and during his brief thirteen-year career, he succeeded in replacing the repetitive ingredients of formulaic cinema with an individual and lyrical vision. The enigmatic, romantic, often tragic undertones of Guru Dutt’s screen personae became closely associated with his persona off-screen. From the days when he was an unknown actor to his eventual suicide at the height of his fame, his own life seemed to acquire the characteristics associated with the doomed, disillusioned men he played. Nasreen Munni Kabir traces the life of this unusual man through accounts of his films and a series of interviews with his family, colleagues and friends. Several years of painstaking research and conversations with Guru Dutt’s associates have yielded a complete and compelling account of the artist. The book describes the making of such classics as Pyaasa, Kaagaz ke Phool and Mr and Mrs 55 in careful detail, providing an invaluable fund of information for those interested in Guru Dutt’s films. Technicians, music directors, actors and other colleagues describe how it was to work with him; family and friends uncover aspects of him that are less known but much speculated upon. This book is essential reading for all interested in Indian cinema and biographies.