Celebrating 100 Years of Guru Dutt - Bollywood reflects on his legacy

As a part of the centenary celebrations of the legendary Guru Dutt, a three-day theatrical retrospective of his most iconic films, restored for today’s audiences, is being shown in over 250 cinemas across the country.

Organised by NFDC (National Film Development Corporation Ltd.) and National Film Archive of India, the event began with notable personalities from Hindi cinema, including Javed Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra, Hansal Mehta andR Balki sharing memories and anecdotes about Guru Dutt and his iconic films. Excerpts...

Javed Akhtar: He was the first filmmaker who spoke through visualsIn college, I used to see a lot of films and decided that after my graduation, I’d join Guru Dutt for a few years and then become a director.

I thought I’d manage to meet him because Sahir saab (Sahir Ludhianvi) was a good friend of Guru Dutt, and he’d written songs for Pyaasa. Unfortunately, I came to Mumbai on October 4, 1964, and he passed away on October 10. While I never met him, he left a deep impression on me when I was a teenager.

I think Guru Dutt was the first filmmaker who spoke through visuals; he taught us this skill.

R Balki: After watching his films, I realised I’d never felt so happy about feeling sadOne day, the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) had organised a homage to Guru Dutt and wanted me to talk about him.

I didn’t know anything about him then, but in the next two weeks, I saw everything that Guru Dutt ever made and acted in. Due to an emergency, I was unable to speak at the event that day, but I was stunned by the repository of emotions within me. I’d never felt so happy about feeling sad. When I was writing Chup: Revenge of the Artist, I used all that I had watched and learnt.

Hansal Mehta: Guru Dutt taught me that heartbreak is very cinematicI started knowing about Guru Dutt because my closest friend was his nephew.

So, I used to hear stories about him. I discovered his films much later. Pyaasa is the first film I saw, and it left a lasting impression on me. I think I have had more heartbreak in love than the number of films I have made. Guru Dutt taught me that pitying oneself can actually be beautiful and that heartbreak is very cinematic. The very first time I shot a film was in 1994 in FTII.

I fully plagiarised Guru Dutt’s song sequence from Kagaz Ke Phool in colour, and it was the most vulgar replication.

Fortunately, those negatives are destroyed! I will make a better tribute to him someday.

Sudhir Mishra: Guru Dutt is an experienceGuru Dutt never left me. I first saw him as a 12-year-old with my grandmother. I have watched Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam about six or seven times. If there was a film that I could take with me to a desert island, it would be this one. Guru Dutt is an experience. You can see him again and again at different ages, and like a great poem, I keep revisiting him.

There is nothing that I have done in my life that is not influenced by him. Guru Dutt has taught us how to make films, how to see a scene, how to take that blueprint which is the script and then rewrite it on film.The nationwide theatrical retrospective (Aug 8-10) includes:

Some of the celebrities present at the event were: Kumud Mishra, Divya Dutta, Abhinay Deo, Vivek Vaswani, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Rituparna Sengupta, Vikramaditya Motwane, Nasir Khan