Pyaasa - An unquenchable thirst

It won’t be an exaggeration to say ‘You are indeed Pyaasa if you haven’t seen Pyaasa’. A lot has been written about this movie, it is a classic, one of the best from the yester-years that Hindi Cinema has to offer. It is Guru Dutt’s magnum opus. Yes, it is all of these and more. It is a movie that will make you see and understand the society we live in. It’s not just a story about a pariah shaayar, it’s about a man’s attempt to embrace society at every step. It’s about a youth’s creativity getting muted in Post-colonial India. Vijay is not just a tormented soul, he is not just an outcast, he is someone who tries and fails and someone who eventually manages to find himself by understanding the nature of the society he lives in.

He falls for Meena, woos her with his nazams, she loves him back and leaves him wretched to marry a filthy rich businessman. Failed at love, Vijay finds life in his nazams. Rejected by his brothers, he is the black sheep of the family. The only person who belongs to him is his mother. The scene where Mausi begs him to take her with him speaks volume. It speaks of the unconditional love that a mother has to offer. Where do we search for acceptance when there is none that exist? Where do we go when family, society, your own love betrays you? One may think friends? Vijay is lucky in having an aaiyaash friend who loves to spend nights with concubines, who doesn’t mind renting his soul for a few bucks. The scene where he goes to sleep at his friend’s place and the concubine knocks at the door is one of the finest subtle scenes ever depicted. Guru Dutt’s excellence at hinting and conveying the underline meaning is fabulous. The way he folds the bedding he makes for himself on the floor and puts the pillow next to the pillow on the bed followed by that one pat on the pillow and a wily smile with which he leaves the place, says it all. No one could have done justice to the character of Vijay but Guru Dutt himself. A man of excellence does a marvelous job as an actor and director.

Left with no one to find, Vijay finds acceptance on street amongst the deplorable. His relationship with Gulabo, a prostitute (Waheeda Rehman) is one of the best relationships ever depicted on the silver screen. No wonders Pyaasa ranked amongst the top 5 romantic movies in the list of romantic movies of all time by Times Magazine in the year 2011.  Gulabo buys his nazams from a raddivala’s and makes a living from singing his nazams. She feeds him when he his hungry, waits for him when he is not to be found. She shares something in common with him, they are one in the contempt they receive from the society. The scene where she is not paid for her time and thrown out from the car, when Vijay saves her from the policeman and states she is his wife is beautiful.  

The scene where he meets his lost love Meena (Mala Sinha) and the mirror image of happy and sad version of her that leads to flashback is simply flawless. His confrontation with her when she gives justification for rejecting him and begs him to have an affair with her portrays the predicament of many women who choose money over love and suffer for the choice they make. Guru Dutt was much ahead of his time to envisage this predicament.

Pyaasa would be incomplete without the contribution of Sahir Ludhianvi. His nazams is the soul of the movie. The bazaar scene where a concubine is forced to continue her dance while her son is crying for her depicts the sheer, ruthless culture of Indian mehfil and bazaar. The song followed immediately by the scene ‘Jinhe Naaz hai hind par woh kahan hai’ was banned by Indian Government for it spoke of the brutality against women, the society and its hypocrisy, the sheer haplessness of women.  

Pyaasa is the complete journey of a man who is ostracized by society and who later on finds courage to reject it outright and makes no attempt to fit in it anymore. The last twenty five minutes where he rejects all the fame he had yearned for and shouts out loud ‘yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye toh kya hai’ is the best. The closing scene where Meena stops him and he says ‘I don’t have a problem with people, I have a problem with society that makes a brother betray a brother, that forces man to be everything but human’ is the best scene ever made.

The close up shot in the end where Waheeda Rehman and Guru Dutt walk towards each other just calls for a perfect happy ending.

Pyaasa is flawless. It has something for all movie freaks in it.  Movie has some light moments that are entwined perfectly. Johny Walker and his champi song ‘Sar jo tera takraye’ went on to become a cult song. It is cherished, loved and in demand even today.

I will conclude with the words of Waheeda Rehman ‘Guru Dutt remains the greatest film maker of Indian Cinema and his movies are to be showcased as the best that Hindi Cinema has to offer’.