The Eternal Thirst

ye kooche ye neelaam ghar dilkashi ke
ye lut te hue kaarwan zindagi ke
kahan hai, kahan hai muhaafiz khudi ke?
jinhe naaz hai hind par woh kahan hai?

Those unforgettable words light up the screen as the viewer is spellbound by the magic of Guru Dutt. TIME Magazine rated it as one of the 100 best films of all-time, calling it the “soulfully romantic of the lot” among Indian films. Hindi cinema has come a further fifty years since, but “Pyaasa” has managed to carve a niche for itself in the annals of Indian cinema.

har ek jism ghaayal, har ek rooh pyaasi
nigaahon mein uljhan, dilon mein udaasi

Pyaasa tells the story of Vijay, a destitute and jobless poet, whose melancholic poems are rejected by a world which wishes to dwell upon the romantic notes of love. The dark tones in Vijay’s poetry stem from his college days, when his sweetheart, Meena, spurned his love to marry the rich Mr Ghosh, a newspaper publisher. The only person who loves him and his poems is Gulabo, a prostitute. A despondent Vijay is encouraged by his friends to turn to the bottle. In a drunken stupor, he gives away his coat to a shivering beggar, who in turn, saves Vijay from the lights of an oncoming train. The world believes Vijay to be dead, and he achieves demigod status when his book of poems is published on the insistence of Gulabo. His friends and brothers, who are busy making money out of Vijay’s death, refuse to identify him at the hospital where he is recuperating. In a dramatic climax, Vijay announces to the world, his existence. However, now that everyone is willing to acknowledge him, he no longer desires the fame and glory. With Gulabo beside him, he yearns to go away and establish a world of his own.

jahaan ek khilona hai, insaan ki hasti
yeh basti hai murda paraston ki basti

For the modern movie-goer, Pyaasa is too dark and melancholic to perhaps endure the whole distance, and one can pick holes in the script if one really wants to do it (such as how only the coat survived, when the beggar’s body was mangled beyond recognition). But for a connoisseur of the art, in spite of being a black and white film, Pyaasa is awash with colours – colours of despair, compassion, and resplendency. The lead actors give a splendid performance – Guru Dutt as the poverty-stricken poet, Waheeda Rehman – in her first major on-screen role – as the kind-hearted courtesan, and Mala Sinha, as the opulent society woman. Rehman as Ghosh, and Johnny Walker as Sattar Bhai, provide perfect foil to the lead cast. The camera work by V K Murthy is breath-taking. The whole film is dark, conveying the mood of the story perfectly. He paints the portrait of each character in their inherent state of mind – Vijay is shown with his face half obscured in the shadow, to reflect his despair and poverty, Gulabo has an angelic glow around her face, a mark of her kindness and compassion towards Vijay, and Meena’s face is fully lit with a milky effect reflecting on her opulence and suffocation in the marriage that she chose.

jawani bhatakti hai badkaar bankar
jawan jism sajte hai bazaar bankar

The musical score by SD Burman and the lyrical poetry of Sahir Ludhianvi are now part of legends. Mohammed Rafi moves comfortably from the light-hearted “Sar Jo Tera Chakraye” and “Hum Aapki Aankhon Main”, to the powerful “Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye” and “Jinhe Naaz Hai Hind Par”. Geeta Dutt is sensuous in the beautiful “Jaane Kya Tune Kahi” and “Aaj Sajan Mohe Ang Lagao”. And, Hemant Kumar delivers his punch in the soulful “Jaane Who Kaise Log The Jinke”. The film is also interspersed with beautiful poetic lines.

yeh duniya jahan aadmi kuchh nahin hai
wafaa kuchh nahi, dosti kuchh nahin hai

Guru Dutt’s master direction ensures that Pyaasa leaves us with a host of unforgettable cinematic moments – as Vijay lies on the grass, watching the world go by, he is crudely awakened from his dream as a passerby tramples and kills the bee. The image of Gulabo, flirting between the huge pillars of the building as she entices Vijay in her song, is captivating. Gulabo’s unfulfilled love for Vijay is dramatically captured in the song “Aaj Sajan Mohe Ang Lagalo”. The fickle-mindedness of the world is reflected in Vijay’s soulful rendering of “Jinhe Naaz Hai Hind Par”, after he witnesses a pimp who stops the tearful courtesan from attending to her sick baby, and forces her to continue dancing. And who can forget those powerful words that he utters, standing silhouetted against the door in the climactic scene:

yeh mahalon, yeh takhton, yeh taajon ki duniya
yeh insaan ke dushman samajon ki duniya
yeh daulat ke bhookhe rawaajon ki duniyaan
yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye toh kya hai?