Aar-Paar (Heads or Tails)
Guru Dutt, India, 1954; 146m
Losing his job and family over a night in jail for speeding, Bombay taxi driver Kalu (Dutt) tries to reinvent himself as a mechanic. But all-too soon, he looks up the underworld contacts he made in prison. With the Guru Dutt creative team fully assembled—including screenwriter Abrar Alvi, cinematographer V. K. Murthy, and composer O.P. Nayyar—Aar-Paar was a huge success, ultimately establishing Dutt’s career image: the romantic outsider, cut off from the networks of caste, family, and class and, consequently, the master of his own fate. Thu Oct 8: 8:50pm
Baaz (The Hawk)
Guru Dutt, India, 1953; 145m
When Nisha (Geeta Bali), the daughter of a wealthy Indian merchant, is kidnapped and sold into slavery by the Portuguese General Barborosa, she leads a mutiny and turns her supposed prison, the Baaz, into the most fearsome predator on the Seven Seas. A heady mix of swashbuckling romance and anti-colonial sentiment, Baaz shows off Dutt’s innovations in blending musical numbers into the story’s action, not to mention his standout performance as Prince Ravi, the initially reluctant actor’s first starring role. Thu Oct 8: 6:00pm
Baazi (The Gamble or A Game of Chance)
Guru Dutt, India, 1951; 143m
Dutt debuted as a director with this noir-inflected crime thriller. An out-of-work taxi driver turned card shark (Dev Anand) attracts the attention of a cabaret dancer (Geeta Bali) at the Star Club, a notorious underworld hangout. But he only has eyes for Rajani (Kalpana Kartik), a young doctor who harbors her own dark secret. The film’s remarkable stylistic and technical confidence proved so influential that other filmmakers later referred to its frequent tight close-ups as Guru Dutt shots. Wed Oct 7: 9:15pm
Chaudhvin Ka Chand (Full Moon)
M. Sadiq, India, 1960; 168m
Feeling that a Muslim story deserved a Muslim director, Dutt entrusted this project to an old friend who had fallen on hard times, Mohammed Sadiq. The result is a provocative love story built on the Muslim tradition purdah—the veiling of women to all men outside of the immediate family—as a wealthy young man in love escapes tradition by convincing his best friend to marry his mother’s choice for him, with tragic consequences. Dutt clearly influenced the filming of Full Moon’s musical sequences and also served as producer and co-star. Oct 10: 12:30pm
In Search of Guru Dutt
Nasreen Munni Kabir, UK, 1989; 85m
Few have done more to spotlight the unique achievements of Guru Dutt than filmmaker and writer Nasreen Munni Kabir. Produced for the U.K.’s Channel 4, this highly informative look at the Dutt’s life and art is peppered with generous clips from many of the director’s films. It also features fascinating interviews with his siblings and collaborators (screenwriter Abrar Alvi, cinematographer V.K. Murthy, actress Waheeda Rehman), as well as contemporary film directors Shyam Benegal and Mani Kaul. Sun Oct 11: 12:30pm
Kaagaz Ke Phool (Paper Flowers)
Guru Dutt, India, 1959; 153m
A passionate film about filmmaking, Paper Flowers follows a successful director who sacrifices all he’s earned for a chance at true love. Dutt and his faithful cinematographer V.K. Murthy consistently undermine the sense of space—creating the illusion of openness as characters become more trapped in their worlds—while a fractured treatment of time led some critics to regard the film as India’s Citizen Kane. Sadly, this now-celebrated work was a box-office disaster, and Guru Dutt would never again take directorial credit for his work. Fri Oct 9: 3:00pm Sun Oct 11: 5:30pm
Mr. & Mrs. ’55
Guru Dutt, India, 1955; 157m
Following on the great success of Aar-Paar—and now a considerable film star himself—Guru Dutt ventured into this screwball-flavored comedy alongside one of India’s most celebrated stars, Madhubala. Poor little rich girl Anita plans to marry and immediately divorce the first fool she meets, allowing her to inherit her late father’s considerable fortune while remaining free. Enter Preetam (Dutt), an impoverished cartoonist tailor made for the scheme. But will true love make an unexpected appearance? Dutt brings an extraordinary sense of visual invention to the film, especially in the musical sequences. Fri Oct 9: 9:15pm
Pyaasa (Thirst or The Thirsty One)
Guru Dutt, India, 1957; 146m
If Guru Dutt had only made Pyaasa, his honored place in cinema would still have been assured. This achingly powerful melodrama rails against the growing hypocrisy and callous indifference of contemporary Indian society, as a poet (Dutt) is taken from abject failure and destitution to runaway success tempered by the incorrect belief that he is dead. Dutt handles the many intricacies of his multiple plots with impressive dexterity, containing his social critique within a moving human drama. Wed Oct 7: 6:00pm
Sun Oct 11: 2:30pm
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (Master, Mistress and Servant)
Abrar Alvi, India, 1962; 152m
Directed by Dutt’s longtime screenwriter Abrar Alvi, Master, Mistress and Servant (“slave” in some translations) won four prestigious Filmfare awards, including Best Film, yet proved only a moderate commercial success. As in Paper Flowers, a rich period drama is told through flashbacks: an architect (Dutt) arrives in Calcutta, meets the beautiful young woman helping to manage his wealthy relatives’ estate (Meena Kumari), and, through her sadness, witnesses the end of India’s upper class. It became Guru Dutt’s final significant work: He died just over a year later, at age 39. Fri Oct 9: 12:00pm Sun Oct 11: 8:20pm |
