Remembering Guru Dutt

Today is the 88th birth anniversary of India’s legendary director, writer and actor Guru Dutt. It was this day in 1925 when he was born. Known as one of the finest filmmakers of all time, Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone aka Guru Dutt Guru Dutt bid adieu to the world on 10 October 1964. He breathed his last in his bed in his rented apartment at Pedder Road in Mumbai.

Considered to be the torch-bearer of the golden era of Hindi Cinema, Guru Dutt directed 8 films, produced 7 and wrote 4. Most of his films are quintessential cult classics and his seminal work still arrests the imagination of new brigade of film directors not only in India but all over the world. His films appealed to the same intelligentsia who made Satyajit Ray a distinguished name across the world.  

Film lovers still enjoy the cinematic treat Guru Dutt offered through his thought-provoking films in his short life of 39 years. Some of the finest films he was associated with include Baazi, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and C.I.D. Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool have been included among the greatest films of all time by Time magazine. Guru Dutt is one among the greatest film directors of all time also.

As an obsessed fan of Indian cinema, I remember this visionary on his 88th birth anniversary. I have seen only two of his films and they are undoubtedly the classics.