Guru Dutt's 1957 film Pyaasa (Thirst) was the opening selection of the NYFF Masterworks retrospective Guru Dutt: A Heart as Big as the World. This was my introduction to the work of the Indian auteur and is considered by many to be Dutt's masterpiece. I found it to be a work of remarkable visual intelligence, with expressionistic, almost Wellesian play of light and shadow. It's also a fiercely angry condemnation of the values of a world that shuns artists except in death, when their posthumous fame is exploited as an opportunity to cash in. This is a very dark vision of a society whose most admirable character is a prostitute, Gulab, who acts purely out of love and admiration for the poet Vijay, played by Dutt himself.
The 1950's was basically the beginning of the Hindi musical film industry that came to be known as Bollywood, and despite my near total lack of familiarity with the genre, I would have to assume that Pyaasa represents the pinnacle of Hindi cinema. There are several wonderful songs throughout the film, but the most powerful and beautiful is a lament by Vijay about the prevalence of prostitution, seeing it as a stain on the honor of the relatively new state of India. The top photo above shows Vijay, with Christlike pose and lighting, returning from presumed death to condemn the hypocritical mourners at his memorial ceremony. There is a sort of compromise happy ending in which Vijay is reunited with Gulab, but they are forced to leave town and head off to an uncertain future together.
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