Film festival dedicated to legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt in Rajasthan

Jodhpur, Oct.14 : Rajasthan Music and Theatre Academy in cooperation with the Jodhpur Film Society has organised a film festival dedicated to the legendary actor and filmmaker late Guru Dutt on the occasion of academy's golden jubilee. The legendary Dutt is often credited for ushering in the golden era of Indian cinema. He made the quintessential 1950-'60s classics such as Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers), Pyaasa (The Thirsty One), Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam (The Gentleman, the Wife and the Servant) and Chaudhvi Ka Chaand (The Fourteenth Day Moon).

Guru Dutt initially became popular as a matinee idol but with the passage of time, it became clear that he would be remembered the most as a director. Starting in 1973, his films were shown at film festivals across India abroad.

Despite being a commercial director, he was appreciated by the intelligentsia.

Guru Dutt is today remembered for his brilliant satire on the society often conveyed through emphatic lyrics and artistic films in the Indian cinema of the '50s and early '60s, and expanding its commercial conventions, starting with his 1957 masterpiece film 'Pyaasa' (the thirsty).

Arun Dutt, the late Guru Dutt's son inaugurated the festival.

"This is the 44th death anniversary of Guru Dutt. Jodhpur Film Society organised this five-day film festival where everyday five of Guru Dutt's films are being screened. A Naseer Muni Kabir directed 1985 documentary film, based on Guru Dutt's life, was also screened. The documentary has three parts," Arun Dutt said.

The screening of the documentary film, which was produced for Channel-4 of BBC, followed by showcasing of a few selected films of the legendary director.

Many of Guru Dutt's surviving colleagues, directors and technicians have come to Jodhpur to pay their tributes to the maestro and share the moments they spent with him.

Prof. Rashmi Doraiswamy of Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, who penned the biography of Guru Dutt 'Cinema of Guru Dutt' was also present on the inaugural day. She spoke about many lesser-known and unknown facets of Guru Dutt.

"Today, if Guru Dutt would have been alive, he would have faced much more difficulties in making films as compared to his times. But he would have shown what kind of films should be made in India. His cinema was a combo of melodrama with social realism which is not visible in today's mainstream Hindi commercial films," said Prof. Rashmi Doraiswami of Jamia Milia University, New Delhi. By Lokendra Singh

ANI