Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema

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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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nasreen Munni Kabir

Nasreen Munni Kabir is a London-based documentary filmmaker/author who has made several documentaries produced for Channel 4 TV (UK), including Follow that Star (a profile of Amitabh Bachchan, 1989), the series Movie Mahal and The Inner/Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan (2005, Channel 4/Red Chillies). She has also written several books on 
Hindi cinema, including Guru Dutt, a life in cinema, Talking Films/Talking Songs with Javed Akhtar, and The Immortal Dialogue of Mughal-e-Azam. Born in Hyderabad, India, she has lived most of her life in the UK. In 1999, she won the first Asian Womens’ Achievement Award for her work in promoting Indian cinema in the UK, and is a former governor on the board of the British Film Institute, serving a six-year term. A consultant to Channel 4 for over 25 years, she continues to curate their annual 20-part Indian film season. She is currently working on a book on Raj Kapoor’s Awaara.

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Bibliographic information

Title
Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema
Author
Edition
1st ed.
Publisher
ISBN
0195638492
Length
x+142p., Plates.
Subjects