The maverick genius of Indian cinema, Guru Dutt would have been 100 today. His brilliant career was tragically cut short by his untimely demise in 1964, by an overdose of sleeping pills and alcohol, which in turn could have been a suicide or an accident. In a short career of 20 years he worked as assistants for directors, choreographers and camera personnel before becoming director, producer, writer and actor. His uninitiated sense of dance, music, color and form, his temperamental and moody relationship with his surroundings were all evident in his work. He is essentially regarded as the master of light and shade and close camera work. He proved to be a largely commercially successful filmmaker and had the unique ability to indulge the masses in his seemingly esoteric style of filmmaking and subject. His films like Pyasa raised the bar for Indian cinema as a whole. Bringing ontological alienation and retreatist engagement into characters, he explored frontiers of Indian cinema. Kaagaz Ke Phool was way ahead of its time and was acclaimed by posterity. That His passion could communicate to the masses immediately, testifying the honesty and truth of his passion often articulating the abstract for them.
His friends and colleagues like Dev Anand, Johnny Walker and Abrar Alvi kept making cinema with a visible influence of his style. 60 years after his death, he is familiar with the young and old alike. A Truly timeless artist.
A life of light and shadows
