Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone popularly known as Guru Dutt was an Indian film director, producer and actor. He is often credited with ushering in the golden era of Hindi cinema.
Background
Guru Dutt was born on 9 July 1925, at Bangalore to Shivashanker Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone in a Konkani Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. His father was initially a headmaster, and then a bank employee. His mother Vasanthi, while initially a housewife, later taught in a school, gave private tuition and also wrote short stories and translated Bengali novels into Kannada. Vasanthi was only 16 when Guru Dutt was born. Guru Dutt grew close to Bengali culture and intellect.
Career
Guru joined his parents in Mumbai in 1944. However, his uncle found him a job under a three-year contract with the Prabhat Film Company in Pune (then called Poona) in 1944. This once premier film producing centre had already seen the departure of its best talent, V. Shantaram, who had by then launched his own «Kala Mandir». Guru Dutt acted in a small role as Sri Krishna in «Chand» in 1944. In 1945, he acted as well as assisted director Vishram Bedekar in «Lakhrani», and in 1946 he worked as an assistant director and choreographed dances for P. L. Santoshi’s film, «Hum Ek Hain».
This contract ended in 1947, but his mother got him a job as a freelance assistant with Baburao Pai, the CEO of the Prabhat Film Company and Studio. However, after that, for almost ten months, Guru Dutt was unemployed and stayed with his family at Matunga, Mumbai. During this time, Guru Dutt developed a flair for writing in English, and wrote short stories for The Illustrated Weekly of India, a local weekly English magazine.It is during this time that he is supposed to have written the script for the almost autobiographical «Pyaasa «(Hindi: the thirsty one). Its original name was «Kashmakash» (Hindi: struggle), which was changed later to «Pyaasa» and was written at his home in Matunga.
While Guru Dutt was hired by Prabhat Film Company as a choreographer, he was soon pressed into service as an actor, and even as an assistant director. At Prabhat, he met Dev Anand and Rehman, who both became stars. These early friendships helped ease his way into the film world. After Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Mumbai, where he worked with two leading directors of the time, with Amiya Chakravarty in «Girl's School», and with Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film «Sangram». Then, Dev Anand offered him a job as a director in his new company, Navketan, after the first movie had flopped.
Thus, Guru Dutt's first film, Navketan's «Baazi», was released in 1951 . It was a tribute to the Forties' Film Noir Hollywood with the morally ambiguous hero, the transgressing siren, and shadow lighting. Baazi also highlights two early key technical developments in Indian movie-making that are attributed to Guru Dutt. The use of close-up shots with a 100 mm lens - there are over 14 in the movie - which became known in Indian movie-making as the "Guru Dutt shot", and the use of songs to further the narrative in the movie. Guru Dutt also introduced Zohra Sehgal (whom he met at Almora) as the choreographer in the movie, and he also met his future wife, Geeta Dutt during the making of the movie. «Baazi» was an immediate success. Guru Dutt followed it with «Jaal» and «Baaz». Neither film did well at the box office, but they bring together the Guru Dutt team that performed so brilliantly in subsequent films. He discovered, and mentored, Johnny Walker (comedian), V.K. Murthy (cinematography), and Abrar Alvi (writing and directing), among others. He is also credited for introducing Waheeda Rehman to the Hindi cinema. «Baazi» was notable in that Guru Dutt both directed and starred, not having found a suitable actor for the principal character.
Fortune smiled on Dutt's next film, the 1954 «Aar Paar». This was followed by the 1955 hit, «Mr. and Mrs.55», then C.I.D., «Sailaab», and in 1957, «Pyaasa» - the story of a poet, rejected by an uncaring world, who achieves success only after his apparent death. Guru Dutt played the lead role in three of these five films.
His 1959 «Kaagaz Ke Phoo»l was an intense disappointment. He had invested a great deal of love, money, and energy in this film, which was a self-absorbed tale of a famous director (played by Guru Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutt's real-life love interest). «Kaagaz Ke Phoo»l failed at the box office and Dutt was devastated. All subsequent films from his studio were, thereafter, officially helmed by other directors since Guru Dutt felt that his name was anathema to box office.
«Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam», a critically and commercially successful film, was directed by his protégé, writer Abrar Alvi, which won him the Filmfare Best Director's award. The film's star Waheeda Rehman denied rumors that the film was ghost-directed by Guru Dutt himself. Guru Dutt also has his influence on his last box office smash hit Chaudhvin Ka Chand.
His legacy to direction of Hindi cinema is unmistakable and accepted by many leading Hindi directors of the day, including another of his protégés, Raj Khosla.
In 1964 he acted in his last film «Sanjh Aur Savera» directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. (Classic Legends aired on Zee Classic TV Channel on 27 May 2012)