Guru Dutt the master film maker gave some timeless classic like Kaagaz ke Phool, Pyaasa, Mr & Mrs 55, Aar Paar, Baaz, Jaal & Baazi. Pyaasa & Kaagaz Ke Phool being his best.
“Kaagaz Ke Phool” which released on 2nd Jan 1959, was a disaster at the box office then, but later it has been considered as a cult classics and Guru Dutt’s best work.
“Kaagaz Ke Phool” told the story of a successful film maker Suresh Sinha ( Guru Dutt) who his going through a turmoil in personal life with his wife Bina (Veena Sapru), as Bina hails from a rich family and Suresh as film maker is beyond her social status. Both Suresh & Bina have a daughter Pammi (Baby Naaz) who is sent to a boarding school in Dehradun due to the family issues. One day Suresh on rainy night meets Shanti (Waheeda Rehman) and gets impressed by her beauty and casts her as Paro for his movie Devdas. Both Suresh and Shanti come close to each other in course of time, this infuriates Suresh’s daughter Pammi, and Pammi meets Shanti and asks her to leave her father alone. Shanti leaves Suresh and shifts to a small village and starts working as a teacher. In the mean time both Suresh and Bina separate and Suresh looses the custody of his daughter to Bina. Shanti is forced to return to films as she has an obligation as per her contract. Suresh defeated from life finds solace in alcohol, and looses all his name and fame. Shanti seeing Suresh’s condition tries to help but Suresh due to his ego declines. Suresh dies a tragic death in the same studio which was once his…
Guru Dutt was inspired by the famous film maker of the 40’s Gyan Mukherjee’s life for the story of “Kaagaz Ke Phool”. Guru Dutt was closely associated with Gyan Mukherjee and he closely saw the rise and fall of Gyan Mukherjee. The Story & Screenplay was written by Guru Dutt’s close associate Abrar Alvi.
The principal cast of the movie comprised of Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman, Veena Sapru, Johnny Walker, Mehmood & Baby Naaz.
“Kaagaz Ke Phool” was the first cinemascope movie of India and its cinematography by V. K. Murthy is still considered to be masterpiece. For song sequence “Waqt ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam” , V. K. Murthy experimented various lighting patterns which still remains a technical masterpiece. V. K. Murthy won the Filmfare Award for Best Cinematography for “Kaagaz ke Phool”.
The soulful music of “Kaagaz Ke Phool” was composed by S D Burman. The ever green songs of the movie still haunt us and are still alive in people’s memory. Lyrics were by Kaifi Azmi. Two songs that became immensely popular and are still heard by music lovers, one being “Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam” sung by Geeta Dutt and second being “Dekhi Zamane Ki Yaari” sung by Mohammad Rafi. Both the songs were rich in poetry and the composition a masterpiece.
It is rumoured that Guru Dutt after the completion of “Kaagaz ke Phool” invited many film dignitaries for a trial show which was held at his garden in his bunglow, after the trial show film personalities like Bimal Roy, K Asif, Mehboob Khan refrained from commenting on the movie, so Guru Dutt re-shot the entire movie with some changes in the cast which resulted in escalation of the production cost. The cinemascope format also cost him a lot, hence when the movie flopped Guru Dutt faced financial issues and vouched never to direct any more movies. So “Kaagaz Ke Phool” remains Guru Dutt’s last directed movie.
“Kaagaz ke Phool” set many standards in Indian cinema whether it was the cinematography or the script which was so intense or the performances. “Kaagaz ke Phool” scored high on every department. Today “Kaagaz ke Phool” is shown to film making student for the sheer brilliance that it was, but unfortunately the movie did NOT get its due when it released.
“Kaagaz ke Phool” is a must watch for every cinema lover around the world even today.