Tragic life of Indian cinematic genius

The landmark Indian director and actor Dautt was only 39 years old when he died in 1964, but he left behind a cinematic heritage that continued to resonance a decade later.

The following week was born on July 9, 1925 in the southern state of Karnatak. But the person behind the camera, his emotional upheaval and the fight against mental health, remains largely under -researched.

Warning: This article has details that some readers can find trouble.

The creator of the classic Hindi -films such as Pesa and the coagaz ke -fol – a film school for its eternal themes – Dautt created a deeply personal, intos special style of film production, which was new in the era after independence.

His complex characters often reflected his personal struggle; His plots touched upon the universal motives, inviting the audience to withstand the uncomfortable reality through the ghost of beautiful cinema.

The beginning of Datta was modest, and his childhood was marked by financial difficulties and a violent family life. After his family moved to Bengal in eastern India, the young soul became deeply inspired by the region’s culture, and this would form his cinematic vision in later life.

He abandoned his last name – Padacon – after entering the film industry in Bombay in the 1940s. He made his debut not as a director, but as a choreographer, but also worked as a telephone operator to bring the ends closer. The turbulence and uncertainty of the decade – the struggle for India’s independence has intensified – influenced the prospects of the newcomer.

It was at this stage that he wrote a nightcash, a story rooted in artistic disappointment and social disappointment, the ideas that would then form his cinematographic masterpiece.

Datt’s friendship with a colleague -assembly of Devan Anandam – who soon rose to glory as an actor – helped him to make his first film in 1951. The Nuar thriller, Baazi, brought him into account.

Soon he found love with the famous singer Roy, and in many information these first years were his happiest.

After Datt launched his own film company, he scored hits with romantic comedies Aar-Paar and MR & MRS 55, both participated in the lead roles. But aspiring to the artistic depth, he decided to do what would become his defining film – a pad.

A heavy shock, ghostly film studied the artist’s struggle in the materialistic world, and decades later he will be the only movie “Hindi in the Journal” from the 100th century films.

The late Datt’s younger sister Lolita Lim, who collaborated with me when I wrote his biography, said Pesa was a “dream project” of her brother and that “he wanted it to be perfect.”

As a director, Dautt was fond of “making” the film, as it was on the shooting, making a lot of changes in the script and dialogues and experimented with the methods of the camera. While he was known for cutting down and reinterpreted the scenes, it reached an alarming level during the pads – for example, he shot 104 taking the famous sequence of climax.

He shouted and flashed badly when everything didn’t go correctly, Laji said.

“The dream evaded him. The abuse and dependence on alcohol began. In the worst case, he began to experiment with sleeping pills, mixing them in his whiskey. The guru datt gave everything to make Pesa – his dream, his dreams and memories,” she said.

In 1956, when his dream project approached completion, the 31-year-old datt tried to commit suicide.

“When the news came, we rushed to the fields -hill (where he lived),” Lim said. “I knew he was in disorder. He often called me, saying that we needed to talk, but he would not say a word when I got there,” she added.

But after his dismissal from the hospital, there was no professional support.

Mental health at the time was “socially stigmatized” the theme, and with the great money traveling on Pesas, Limi said the family tried to move on without faced with the causes of her brother’s internal struggle.

Released in 1957, Pyaasa became a critical and commercial triumph that catapulted datt to the star. But the director often expressed a sense of void despite his success.

Chief Cinematographer Pesa VK Merti reminded that Datt said: “I wanted to be a director, actor, make good movies – I have achieved it all. I have money, I have everything, but I have nothing.”

There was also an amazing paradox between Datt’s films and his personal life.

His films often reflect strong, independent women, but, as Limi reminded, he expected his wife to bring more traditional roles and wanted it to sing only in the films made by his company.

In order for its company to flourish, the dautt had a simple rule: each art gambling must be accompanied by a banal commercial film.

But, who was successful in the success of the pads, he ignored his own management and dived straight to make his most personal, expensive and semi -auto -obiographical film: Kaagaz Ke Phool.

It tells about the unhappy marriage of the director and bewildered relationships with his muse. It is terribly ends with the director’s death after he does not reconcile with his acute loneliness and condemned relationships.

Although now while reportedly, it was a commercial failure, the stroke of the dust never overcame.

In the documentary “channel 4” in search of guru datt it suaLife Mein Do Hi Toh Heezen Hai – Kamyaabi Aur Nain. (There are only two things in life: success and failure) there is nothing in between. “

After Kagaz Ke Phool he never shot the movie.

But his company resumed over time, and he made a strong return as a producer with Chaudhvin Ka Chand, the most commercially successful movie of his career.

He then launched Sakhib Bibi Aura Gula’s director of his trusted screenwriter Abrara Alvi. So far, according to Lim, his personal life was in the heavy shocks, marked by mood swings.

The film deepened the loneliness of a woman who came into a love marriage with a charity, often tyrannical master in a rich but feudal world.

Writer Bimal Mitra reminds that Datt told him about his struggle with the free -grade and dependence on sleeping pills during this time. By then, his marriage collapsed and mental health deteriorated. Mitra reminded of a lot of talk with the Datt’s constant refrain: “I think I was crazy.”

One night, Datt tried to take his life again. He was unconscious for three days.

Lyme says that after that, at the doctor’s advice, his family called a psychiatrist to find out about Datt’s treatment, but they never watched. “We never called a psychiatrist again,” she added with regret.

For many years, she believed that her brother was crying silently for help, perhaps feeling trapped in a dark space where no one could see his pain, so dark that he couldn’t even find a way out.

A few days after the Dautt was fired, the shooting for Sakhib Bibi Avr hum was resumed as if nothing had happened.

When Mitra asked him about the incident, the dates said, “Nowadays, I often think about what worry it was, what was the concern that I leaned to suicide? When I think about it, I terrorized with fear.

The film succeeded, became the official entry of India at the 1963 Berlin Film Festival, and received a national award.

But Datt’s personal struggle continued to install. He separated from his wife and, despite the fact that he continued to shoot in the movies, he fought with deep loneliness, often resorting to alcohol and sleeping pills.

On October 10, 1964, the 39 -year -old Datt was found dead in his room.

“I know that he always wanted this (death), craved it … and he received it,” wrote it co-author Vahid Rehman in the magazine of the film industry, 1967.

Like the main character of the Passass, however, he came to Datt only after he was gone.

Cinema lovers often wonder what he may have lived longer; Perhaps he would continue to remodel the cinematic landscape of India with his clairable, poetic works.

YASSER USMAN is the author of the biography of the guru dat: unfinished story