As an actor, Guru Dutt gave his soul to the role of the tormented poet Vijay. He believed that the eyes were the most expressive part of a person and they spoke more than anything else. When you recall any famous Guru Dutt photograph, or any of his scenes from a film, you will instantly remember his intense eyes. But a fact often overlooked is that Guru Dutt used to wear thick eyeglasses due to poor eyesight. While in front of the camera, however, he used to remove the glasses to look natural. It, in fact, worried him that he did not have the capabilities of projecting intense expressions through his eyes. He may have not been able to see the camera clearly without glasses but he worked really hard to express through his eyes. And the magic was there for all to see.

More than sixty years have passed but you utter the word Pyaasa and what comes to mind are the songs, and the way Guru Dutt captured and immortalised them. Lyrics and poetry by Sahir were put to tunes remarkably by S. D. Burman. The song sequences were replete with symbolism that has been repeatedly decoded over the years. The shot-taking practices prevalent in Indian cinema at that time were mid-shots and long shots. Guru Dutt was perhaps the first to use an establishing shot followed by close ups in his films. He was obsessed with close-ups and extensively used long focal-length lenses (75 mm and 100 mm). Even after so many decades, those close-up shots stand out. Devi Dutt remembers, ‘The close-up shots with a 100 mm lens in his films, which became known as the “Guru Dutt shot”, the masterful play with light and even his melancholia-soaked frames, still enthral cineastes.’

Most songs in the film begin in the true Guru Dutt tradition— without introductory music. The songs were an extension of the conversations in the script. V.K. Murthy recounted, ‘His filming of songs and scenes was unique. Others just used to keep the camera fixed, have the actors perform the song, walking in or out of frame and have a few cut to close-up shots, that’s all. But Guru Dutt was not like that at all. He emphasised movements and that too in close-up shots.’ He undoubtedly had a very good sense of movement owing to his dance training at Uday Shankar’s Dance Centre.

Having closely observed Baul singers in the streets of Calcutta as a child, he recreated the imagery in the song ‘Aaj saajan mohe ang laga lo’—a devotional love song where the desire of the lover is projected as spiritual and divine.

Guru Dutt’s obsession with Bengal can be clearly seen in Pyaasa. He wanted to shoot in Calcutta, so some scenes were rewritten to include locations from the city in the story. This led to an amusing incident. Actor Mehmood was cast in Pyaasa, as Guru Dutt’s elder brother. It was the scene of their mother’s last rites and the location was the Calcutta Ghats. Abrar Alvi was responsible for the dialogues and accent of the actors but on this particular day he was absent from the shoot. Mehmood asked about the location of the shot and when told that it was to be shot at the Calcutta Ghats, he decided to say his dialogues in a Bengali accent, whereas the rest of the family spoke in a North Indian/ Benares accent. The scene is still there in the film.

People close to Guru Dutt have gone on record to say that he did not believe in shooting a film with a bound script or strict planning of shooting schedules. He was rather fond of ‘creating’ the film as it took shape on the sets, making a lot of changes in the script and dialogues.

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This is an excerpt from Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story by Yasser Usman, published in 2020. No part of this excerpt may be quoted or reproduced without prior written consent from its publisher, Simon & Schuster.