Acclaimed filmmaker Shoojit Sircar reflects on the profound influence of Guru Dutt’s visual storytelling and emotional depth, highlighting his continued relevance in contemporary cinema.
Like all notable contemporary filmmakers, you seem influenced by Guru Dutt?
It took some time for me to really grasp and understand Guru Dutt’s cinema. But of course, those stark images, light and shadow, those still images left a large impression on me. But for me, I wanted to discover him more, so when I discovered who he was as a director, his personal life, his personal struggles, that’s when actually Pyaasa and Kagaz Ke Phool actually hit me hard.
Whom would you compare with among European filmmakers?
Like Truffaut, from the way he changed the cinema in the European filmmaking, similarly I think somewhere, Guru Dutt came with a certain kind of a vision, an introspection on the status of women in Hindi cinema. So there was a certain kind of a pain which resonated with me and I think that’s why he’s so stark. I still go back to his films, I still watch his films.
Weren’t you keen on making a biopic on Guru Dutt?
At some point, you know, there were many filmmakers in India who wanted to make a film on Guru Dutt’s life, but never got a chance to actually think about it myself. But a lot of my contemporary friend directors wanted to make a film about him. I think it would be really, really wonderful if somebody makes a film about his life, about Guru Dutt. So he remains one of the iconic filmmakers who left a huge imprint in terms of the golden years of Indian cinema.
What makes Guru Dutt so special?
That he was going through such… I won’t say a struggle, but that creative urge to have his say, and also the pressures of not being successful commercially, his films basically. I found a lot of similarities between Guru Dutt and Ritwik Ghatak. The patterns of life, the way they were exploring themselves, their own personal love and pain that they reflected in their films and their frames were not only stunning, but somewhere they move you profoundly.
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