The Abiding Politics of Poetry and Pyaasa

On the occasion of filmmaker Guru Dutt's centenary, we look at how the maverick filmmaker's works still stand the test of time

- NAMRATA JOSHI

GURU DUTT cuts to the chase early on in Pyaasa. He opens the film, about a brilliant but unsuccessful poet, with a verse "Ye hanste hue phool" (These smiling flowers), in which Mohammed Rafi as the inner voice of poet Vijay (Dutt himself) claims that he has very little to share with the world other than a few tears and sighs. It is followed shortly by a polemical scene on the nature of poetry in which a publisher criticizes Vijay for using his precious words to launch a crusade against hunger and unemployment rather than talking about beauty, love and romance.

While Vijay considers him too hollow to be able to understand his thoughts and feelings, forget those of his revolutionary idols, Josh [Malihabadi] and Faiz [Ahmed Faiz], the publisher considers Vijay's dossier worth nothing more than tossing it into the dustbin.

It sets the stage for Dutt to engage potently with some of his deep-rooted concerns in what's arguably the most influential work of his short but significant career as a filmmaker. These issues continue to stare back at us even now, much more starkly at that, 68 years after Pyaasa's release.