I am going to watch ‘Kagaz Ke Phool’ today, at Jagran Film Festival. I missed ‘Pyasa’ this time but have seen it a number of times, including the time it was released. I don’t intend to miss ‘Kagaz Ke Phool’, not that I’ve not seen it earlier.
Press didn’t value him, and in fact ignored him during his life time – partly because he didn’t flaunt his love life like, say, Raj Kapoor. And mainly because they found him a little ‘boring’ and not one of ‘the beautiful people’. He got his due share of limelight when he died mysteriously at 39 and recognition when he was included in Time magazine’s “All-TIME” 100 best movies in 2005 and by the Sight & Sound critics’ and directors’ poll in 2002, where Dutt himself is included among the greatest film directors of all time.
At the same time, I feel sorry for the kind of media we have. There have been books and now someone is making a biopic but there has been no serious attempt to explore the mystery behind his death. Alcohol and sleeping pills – Sonarils.
My info is that Raj Kapoor managed the report of postmortem.
But the family has always come in the way of finding the complete truth.
Abrar Alvi who wrote a book was the writer of Guru Dutt’s films and a personal friend. He would sweep the love life – which answers the question: what led him to alcohol? – and any possibility of abetment to suicide under the carpet.
Bhavna Talwar who is making the biopic has an uphill task. Guru Dutt’s niece Kalpana Lajmi has reservations about a specific phase in Guru Dutt’s life.
Says Lajmi, “Why do I get the feeling that any biopic on Guru Dutt uncle would focus on his relationship with Waheeda aunty? Everyone thinks he committed suicide because of her. But this is not true. Guru uncle and Waheeda aunty parted ways in 1958. He committed suicide in 1964. So if Bhavna Talwar intends to shoot the film from the perspective of the romantic link-up then I’m afraid my cousin Tarun Dutt (Guru Dutt’s son) would take legal action.”
(Kalpana, how do you know they never met? This all happened over half a century ago when you were a four-year-old?)
Talwars have already buckled. Sheetal Talwar, the producer says, “My wife Bhavna’s film is not about the suicide at all. So there’s no question of sensationalizing the cause of his death.”
I want to make only one point.
Should the families be allowed to browbeat the makers – or writer (for I’m concerned for the creative freedom) – and restrain him from discovering truth in case of public figures?
I didn’t allow this to the families of the three divas (Madhubala, Meena Kumari and Rekha) but find myself in the minority of one. Sometime back, a photographer friend of mine who wrote a coffee table book on Amitabh Bachchan said something like, ” How can one write a book on Amitabh without his permission?”
My answer is: you do not need any permission from the family whether you’re writing a biography or biopic of a public figure.
It is only the work without family’s consent which will be considered authentic.
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