Pyaasa (1957)

Essential Viewing

India

Feature Film

Original Title: प्यासा

Director: Guru Dutt

Writer: Abrar Alvi

Cinematographer: V.K.Murthy

Composers: S.D. Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi

Cast: Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman, Johnny Walker, Kum Kum, Leela Misra

Vijay, a down-on-his-luck poet, struggles vainly to get his compositions published, but is met with nothing but hostility from all – including his uncaring elder brothers and, particularly, the vengeful husband of his university girlfriend, who is a successful publisher – except from his doting mother, his loyal friend Abdul, and a smitten tart-with-a-heart, Gulabo; but when he is mistakenly thought to have committed suicide, his work suddenly becomes the talk of the town, in Dutt’s dynamically directed, sumptuously shot, and affectingly acted musical melodrama, a socially conscious masterpiece. Iain.Stott