Birth: 9 July, 1925 BangaloreDeath: 10 October 1964 Mumbai
Known: Actor,Director, Producer, Choreographer
Spouse: Geeta Dutt
Personal Life:
Guru Dutt was born to Shivashankar Rao Padukone and Vasanthi Padukone. His parents were Chitrapur Saraswats, originally settled at Panambur, a village in South Kanara district of Karnataka.His father was initially a headmaster, and then a bank employee. His mother Vasanthi, while initially a housewife, later taught in a school, gave private tuition and also wrote short stories and translated Bengali novels into Kannada. Vasanthi was only 16 when Guru Dutt was born.
Guru Dutt was initially named Vasanth Kumar at birth at the suggestion of his mother's elder brother, but after a childhood accident, he was renamed Guru Dutt, which was felt to be a more auspicious name.
Guru Dutt As Choreographer:
While Guru Dutt was hired by Prabhat Film Company as a choreographer, he was soon pressed into service as an actor, and even as an assistant director. At Prabhat, he met Dev Anand and Rehman, who both became stars.
After Prabhat failed in 1947, Dutt moved to Bombay, now Mumbai, where he worked with two leading directors of the time, with Amiya Chakravarty in Girl's School, and with Gyan Mukherjee in the Bombay Talkies film Sangram. Then, Dev Anand offered him a job as a director in his new company, Navketan, after the first movie had flopped.Thus, Guru Dutt's first film, Navketan's Baazi, was released in 1951 . It was a tribute to the Forties' Film Noir Hollywood with the morally ambiguous hero, the transgressing siren, and shadow lighting.
Guru Dutt as Director:
Baazi was an immediate success. Guru Dutt followed it with Jaal and Baaz. Neither film did well at the box office, but they bring together the Guru Dutt team that performed so brilliantly in subsequent films. He discovered, and mentored, Johnny Walker (comedian), V.K. Murthy (cinematography), and Abrar Alvi (writing and directing) and many more.
His 1959 Kaagaz Ke Phool was an intense disappointment. He had invested a great deal of love, money, and energy in this film, which was a self-absorbed tale of a famous director (played by Guru Dutt) who falls in love with an actress (played by Waheeda Rehman, Dutt's real-life love interest).
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, a box office flop, was directed by his protege, writer Abrar Alvi, which won him the Filmfare Best Director's award. The film's star Waheeda Rehman denied rumors that the film was ghost-directed by Guru Dutt himself.[6] Guru Dutt also has his influence on his last box office smash hit Chaudhvin Ka Chand.
Some Facts about Guru Dutt:
Guru Dutt was at first mourned as a matinee idol but as the years passed, his films were shown at film festivals throughout India and the rest of the world. He made Satyajit Ray an international favorite. He also has a place in the hearts of many ordinary Indians for his song picturisations and the many vivid characters sketched in his films.
Once is quoted failure of Kaagaz Ke Phool and success of Chaudhvin Ka Chand : "Life mein, yaar, kya hai? Do hi toh cheezen hai – kamyaabi aur failure. There is nothing in between."What is there in life, friend? There are only two things - success and failure. There is nothing in between."
Populer Films by Gurudutts:
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Sailaab (1956), Mr. & Mrs. '55 (1955), Aar Paar (1954), Baaz (1953), Jaal (1952), Baazi (1951), Aar Paar (1955), C.I.D. (1956), Pyaasa (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962) are the some of the popular movies played by gurudutt.
