Wearing a crisp white choga-pyjama, filmmaker, storyteller Mahmood Farooqui walked on to the stage to applause. The lights were dimmed, Farooqui took his seat atop a thick mattress flanked by two bolsters on the side, ready to narrate a 140-minute rich and complex story of cinema icon Guru Dutt — a setting that felt closer to a mehfil than a modern gathering.Farooqui then began to tell a diverse tale of the Hindi cinema legend, replete with jokes, an uncanny imitation of Dutt’s superstar friend Dev Anand, sher-o-shayari and songs.Beyond the tragic geniusThe oral performance was punctured by some asides Farooqui made about his own views regarding the Pyaasa director, a few dialogues from Dutt’s films, and poetry recitals.A highlight of the performance was when Farooqui would pause his narration to croon some of Dutt’s songs, adding a touch of lightness and joy to an otherwise heartbreaking story.Midway through the melody, Farooqui would elegantly clear his throat, sip from his silver bowl and gesture towards the audience to continue with the singing. Suddenly, over 300 people could be heard singing along — softly, haltingly but determinedly — to a playful 1950s track. In those moments, the solo performance would transform into a collective memory.For Farooqui, Guru Dutt’s ability to invoke these emotions is what makes him so unique. “He combined both a sense of idealism as well as a sense of cynicism. This is the contradiction which was missing in most of the filmmakers of that time.” While other directors were attempting to highlight the poverty and the fragmented condition of the society post-Independence, Guru Dutt was the only one who spoke about “a deep sense of lamentation with his fate.” A specific kind of grief that could not be rid by changed circumstances or financial success.The performance captured Dutt’s intense early-days struggle, dynamics with wife Geeta Dutt and frequent collaborator and actor Waheeda Rehman, and his relentless pursuit of perfectionism, stating instances when the director would arrive on set and change most of the film and start from scratch if he felt it wasn’t working.While these were the circumstances that continued to inform his creative world heavily, Farooqui argued that to look at Dutt merely as some kind of a tragic genius figure would be unfair. “I don’t think he was just a tragic genius. He had a lot of humour and wit in his work.”Why Guru Dutt continues to resonateMore than six decades after his death, Guru Dutt’s films and songs continue to find resonance in the way people interpret and interact with art. Speaking about his relevance, Farooqui shared, “A true artiste (like Dutt) creates with his gut. Art is unpredictable. But it is also cathartic and induces a sense of empathy as it allows us to imagine ourselves in someone else’s position.”Dastan-e-Guru Dutt embodied that empathy as it gave the audience a shared experience of a story about a celebrated filmmaker which moved beyond the screen and ultimately became a conversation between the artiste, the storyteller and his audience.
