Born on 9 July 1925 into a Saraswat Family of Mangalore and educated in the liberal climate of Calcutta. Guru Dutt started his own production company in 1954 with Aar Paar, and never looked back till Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, 1962, his last film. On 9 October 1964, he committed suicide. His oeuvre is now widely regarded as one of the most rich and significant legacies of Indian cinema, amongst the finest examples of the melodrama mode. This volume aims to lay before the reader the particular melodramatic tradition of the hindi film that Guru Dutt typified. The critical fragments spread over the books six chapters are taken from the body of work done by critics in elevating the Hollywood melodrama, primarily of the forties and fifties, to critical acceptability and respectability. Dutt’s Indian melodramas, functioning around the same time, seem to be assembled in very similar ways and when examined under these rubrics, reveal a high level of vision and craftsmanship.
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