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Guru Dutt, The Romantic in Hindi Cinema

Guru Dutt, The Romantic in Hindi Cinema
Guru Dutt, The Romantic in Hindi Cinema

If ever there was a passionate romantic in Hindi Cinema, it was Guru Dutt. He was perhaps the only one to create something of a personal cinema within the commercial format, complete with song and dance. He is the one who came nearest to a form fashioned out of drama, story and song, with one complementing rather than interrupting the other. He also combined the most romantic elements of both Urdu – Muslim and Bengali- Hindu culture.

I found these lines scribbled in a diary of a dear cousin brother of mine.

Searching for the source of these lines about Guru Dutt, I found that these lines were written by Chidananda Dasgupta, filmmaker, film critic, film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society along with Satyajit Ray in 1947, a man passionate about Cinema of Guru Dutt and Ritwik Ghatak. The source of the lines turned out to be an article written by Chidananda Das Gupta titled New Directions in Indian Cinema, leven pages written for Film Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Autumn, 1980), pp. 32-42

An article to which I have no access.
Searching more about Chidananda Das Gupta and Guru Dutt, I came across a news story in The Hindu that informed me that:

[…]there is a book he is penning. Interestingly called "Unpopular Cinema", it is likely to be brought out by Macmillan early next year. "It focuses on individuals and films. It talks of the Guru Dutt-Ghatak filmmaking and the like[…]"

In the same interview, Dasgupta says:

"[…]Dutt's Kagaz Ke Phool was a monumental failure but a good film, and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam was not a big failure, not a big success either."
-0-

About the poster of Guru Dutt:
Guru Dutt
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Kaagaz Ke Phool'
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Raaz'
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Chaudvin Ka Chand'
with Shyama in 'Aar Paar'
in 'Pyaasa'
with wife Geeta and two sons
with Mala Sinha in 'Pyaasa'
with Madhubala in 'Mr. and Mrs. 55'
with Waheeda Rehman in 'Pyaasa'

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