Guru Dutt's voice missing in stories about him: biographer Yasser Usman

Hindustan Times

09-07-2025

New Delhi, Guru Dutt lives on only in the memories of those who knew him personally or professionally, his own voice "completely absent", says his biographer Yasser Usman describing the actor-director as a "chronic introvert". Guru Dutt's voice missing in stories about him: biographer Yasser Usman
As reams get written about the legendary filmmaker, who would have been 100 on Wednesday, Usman says he remains an enigma despite so many books and documentaries analysing his life and works.
Usman, the author of the 2021 "Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story", said he researched various archives, magazines and newspapers of Guru Dutt's time but couldn't find a single cover story on the filmmaker, one of the most influential cinema personalities of his time with a body of work that included "Pyaasa", "Kaagaz Ke Phool" and "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam".
Guru Dutt was found dead on October 10, 1964 at his rented apartment in Mumbai's Peddar Road from a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills. He was just 39.
"Everything we know about Guru Dutt, almost 98 per cent, is through the memories of people who knew him professionally or personally," Usman told PTI in an interview.
"I think that is the major reason of him carrying this mystique throughout. Even on his 100th birthday, we are talking about him, and there is a major amount of mystery surrounding his life and even his death," he said.
The writer-journalist said Guru Dutt's masterpiece "Pyaasa" was a great commercial success and one of the biggest hits of 1957. However, during his deep dive on the filmmaker, he couldn't find a cover story or interview of the director.
"I interviewed a few people who were alive then, most importantly, his younger sister, Lalita Lajmi. She was a witness to Guru Dutt's life, his cinema, as well as his turmoil and his childhood. But you need a person's voice to understand them better... The books, magazine stories of those times, none of them include his voice. It is completely absent.
"There were many magazines that were covering all other stars and filmmakers, including Mehboob Khan, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, everyone got a cover story, except Guru Dutt... He was a chronic introvert, and he did not want to speak."
The writer, who has also penned biographies of Rajesh Khanna, Sanjay Dutt and Rekha as well as the fiction book "As Dark as Blood: A Roshan Rana Mystery", said his fascination with Guru Dutt began after he saw the filmmaker's movies at a retrospective in Delhi in 2004-2005.
"I realised that these films don't feel dated though they were made in the 1950s and 1960s. They were entertaining. When we talk about the greatness of a filmmaker or a writer, we never use such words. He was mainstream but artistic."
Usman said he became more intrigued when he realised that the filmmaker made some of his biggest classics while his personal life was going through great turmoil.
"He was trying to end his life. There were multiple suicide attempts. This was fascinating to me that someone who, on the sets while shooting or making his cinema, is creating such free-flowing, excellent artistic films, but simultaneously his personal life is completely devastated.
"When I collaborated with Lalita Lajmi for the book, she told me that he was really suffering from mental health issues, but there was really no awareness in those times. So they didn't contemplate getting psychiatric treatment. She regretted that Guru Dutt, in a way, was crying for help, but they couldn't get the help he wanted or needed in those times," he said.
His films, particularly "Pyaasa" and "Kaagaz Ke Phool", were intensely personal, giving a glimpse into his life and thought process, Usman said. " 'Pyaasa', of course, was based on the struggles of his father. His father wanted to be a writer, a poet but he was a clerk and he was busy paying bills for his big family and could never become a creative artist that he wanted to be."
Guru Dutt's own struggles when he came to Mumbai from Pune and went without a job for months are reflected in "Pyaasa", which he initially wrote as a story titled "Kashmakash". "Kaagaz Ke Phool" was a semi-autobiographical story about a filmmaker with a fractured relationship with his wife and a confused relationship with his muse and one that tragically ends in the death of the filmmaker. "It was really close to his own life story... He put his heart and soul into the movie. At that time it was a major disaster and it completely broke his heart so much so that he never directed a film again. You know it's strange to see that now the film is considered a classic. It is like 'Pyaasa' playing all over. After an artist is dead you're going to praise his film which you rejected completely when it was released," Usman said. In his view, Guru Dutt's life can be divided into pre and post "Kaagaz Ke Phool" phases.
"Commercially, his biggest blockbuster came right after 'Kaagaz Ke Phool' which was 'Chaudhavin Ka Chand'. It remains his most successful film and he made a brilliant comeback like eight-nine months after the disaster of 'Kaagaz Ke Phool'. His mental health completely went berserk. His constant refrain to many people who were working with him or were personally close to him was, 'I'm going mad. I think I'll go crazy'.
"His sister told me that they after his second suicide attempt, which was after 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam', a year or two before his death, the family called a psychiatrist but they never followed it up. They regretted it because they said that they had no clue."
Usman added that there was really little awareness in those times about such issues and Guru Dutt kept crying for help.
He also reflected on the tumultuous marriage between Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt, two very successful people who really could not come to terms with each other's creativity. When Guru Dutt married Geeta Dutt, she was the bigger star while he had just made his debut film, "Baazi".
"Before they got married, he never said that you cannot sing outside my banner but after his marriage, he wanted Geeta Dutt to sing only for his films and he wanted her to take care of his house and kids. He had become a major star after 'Pyaasa' and she regretted the fact that she had lost her stardom and this kind of poisoned their bonding... But neither Guru Dutt nor Geeta Dutt ever talked about it. Their voices on the matter, and it's such a personal matter, are completely missing."
The writer said he was so inspired by Guru Dutt's life that after writing the biography, he wrote his first crime fiction and modelled his lead protagonist as a brooding cop just like Guru Dutt."
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.