Page 20 - SeniorsToday May20

things looked better.
“Guru was very close to our mother but,
like me, he was an introvert. He never
expressed his emotions. He was always
quiet, always living in his mind, he never
said there were problems, he never said he
was sad, he never said anything.

Life walks out
As time passed the environment of their
house became distressful – the fights grew.
Geeta took to alcohol and Guru got into
depression, and this cut the already frail
thread between them. At the end they got His success meant that he spent increasing time at the
separated. studio, and led to tensions at home
curious about things and would never stop
questioning. Everything seemed fine – at
least on the outside, things had actually
begun to look better. Little did anyone know,
however, that there was a tornado inside
Guru’s head that eventually pushed him off
the ledge.
He couldn’t complete his last film; his will
to die prevailed over his capability as a
brilliant filmmaker.
I found him resting on his bed. He looked
at peace. I believe he didn’t take his life;
Reconciling art and the material world was a major theme rather, life walked out on him and there was
for Guru Dutt
nothing anybody could do but accept it as it
Guru began living in an apartment in is.
Peddar Road and kept himself busy with - As told to Sushmita Bhattrai
work. On one of those days he had come to
my house in Colaba to borrow some crockery;
he said he was hosting a small get-together
and left asking me to come home for lunch.
Those days he was working on Baharen Phir
Bhi Aayengi.
The screenwriter of the film Abrar Alvi
later on told me – Guru had asked him,
“What will happen if one mixes sleeping
pills with alcohol?” Alvi casually replied, “It
could lead to death.” It was supposed to be Guru Dutt was sensitive, curious, and observant of the
a casual conversation as Guru was always smallest details

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