Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam
Tum rahe na tum
Hum rahe na hum...
The heartrending lyrics, picturised against the dichotomy of light and shade in Kagaz Ke Phool, can be viewed as the montage of director Guru Dutt’s life. It spotlights Guru Dutt as director Suresh, left devastated in love. And muse Waheeda Rehman as debutante actress Shanti overwhelmed by the complexity of that emotion. Both victims of the tyranny of Time, convention and showbiz. The poetry of Kaifi Azmi inadvertently spilled several universal truths. Of love that could never find culmination. Of the inevitability of separation. And the infidelity of fame. Wife and singer Geeta Dutt, said to be the third angle in this much-speculated upon reel-life couple of the ’50s, also became an immortal part of this composition. Rendered by Geeta with unmasked hurt, the number came to be regarded as her soul cry. Where the real and the unreal symphonised to create the surreal! Geeta and Guru Dutt. Two great talents. But both damned and doomed. With each other and without each other. But while decades dissolve, genius endures. Here, artist and Guru Dutt’s sister Lalitha Lajmi, reminisces about bhabhi Geeta Dutt, who was as beautiful as her melodies...
Geeta Dutt and sister-in-law, Lalitha Lajmi
MY BHABHI - GEETA DUTT
It was at the song recording of my brother Guru Dutt’s directorial debut Baazi (1951) in Famous Studio, Mahalaxmi, that I first met Geeta Roy. She was to record Tadbeer se bigdi hui taqdeer bana le. She was just 18 and at the peak of her career having already sung 900 songs in various languages. Apart from her honeyed voice, I was struck by beauty. She was exquisite like an Ajanta fresco, dark and beautiful!
Then one day my mother Vasanti Padukone invited Geeta and her father Debendranath Ghosh Roy Chowdhary to our house in Matunga for lunch. They lived in the Hindu colony near Tilak Bridge in Dadar. Then on whenever Geeta didn’t have a recording, she’d drop in at our home. She could play the harmonium with ease and often sang her Bengali songs. Mera sunder sapna (Do Bhai) and those from Jogan were steeped in emotion, reminiscent of Bengali culture. There was an inborn pain in her voice. Those days she travelled in a limousine but was so humble! Guru Dutt, on the other hand, was struggling. My father Shivshankar Padukone was a clerk at Burmah Shell. My mother was a teacher. We lived in a small house, which had just a table and a chair on which Guru Dutt wrote all his films, including the script of Pyaasa (1957). My other three brothers – Atmaram (filmmaker), Devi Dutt (producer) and Vijay (advertising) also lived there. I was studying commercial art.
Geeta’s personality was so charming that I took to her easily. I looked up to her as a sister and so did she. She called me Lali. Sometimes I’d walk down with her to drop her home. Soon, Guru Dutt and she fell in love. They had a long courtship, almost for three years. They’d exchange letters through me. Those days she gifted me a gold ring, which I still possess. Sometimes she’d get the car and we’d drive to Powai Lake, Lonavala and Khandala. Raj Kholsla, who was an assistant to my brother then, would also accompany us.
I remember Raj and Geeta singing Khayalon mein kisike from Baware Nain. Many a time, she’d even sing songs on the phone to me. Then one full moon night in the balcony of her bungalow at Amiya Kutir (by then her family had moved to Santacruz) she confided, “I’m going to marry your brother!” I was elated.
THE MARRIAGE…
Geeta’s family was never fond of Guru Dutt. Also, she was the earning member. They didn’t want to lose her. Her brother Mukul Roy (composer) never came to terms with my brother. She had to lie when she met Guru Dutt. She’d say I am meeting Lali. Geeta and Guru Dutt got married on May 26 in 1953. The wedding was conducted according to Bengali rites (she being a Bengali) at Amiya Kutir. It was a Godhuli lagan (evening marriage). She was around 21 and made for a beautiful bride in a red Benares saree with a thin red veil and lots of gold jewellery.
After marriage they shifted to a rental flat in Khar. Gradually, she gave up singing for others and concentrated on Guru Dutt’s films. Together they gave the best songs be it in Baazi, Aar-Paar, Mr. & Mrs. 55, CID, Pyaasa and Kagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam and Baharen Phir Bhi Aayengi (it was lef). I never got down to calling her ‘Bhabhi’ and addressed her just as Geeta.
Amongst my other sisters-in-laws, Geeta was the most loving and generous. She’d say, ‘Open my cupboard and pull out whichever saree you want to wear. I was included at all the parties that were held at Pali Hill (the house they later shifted to). When Guru Dutt went abroad, he’d always get me perfume. He’d also buy pairs of gold earrings for all the sisters-in-laws. Geeta had the same quality. I love Kolkata sarees and she’d bring those for me whenever she visited the city during Durga Puja. Once I happened to mention that I’d never travelled in a plane or watched her perform at a show. She immediately flew me to Delhi for a show, where we stayed at the Imperial hotel. She took me to most of her song recordings. That’s how I met Lataji (Mangeshkar). I even met stalwarts like Majrooh Sultanpuri, OP Nayyar, Sahir Ludhianvi and SD Burman at their Pali Hill home.
In the early years of their marriage, Guru Dutt and Geeta shared much love and affection. They enjoyed a great rapport regarding music. Both of them loved their children. My brother’s birthday fell on the same date as his older son Tarun’s – July 9. Arun’s birthday falls on July 10. So she’d celebrate all their birthdays with great pomp and have a huge birthday cake cut! She was ecstatic when, Nina, their daughter and last child was born (1962). She loved to doll her up.
Timeless memories:
Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman in Kagaz Ke Phool
THE MIRAGE…
Soon, there were several issues including a clash of egos and perhaps a feeling of hurt, which troubled Geeta. They had 11 years of a tempestuous marriage. Both of them were brilliant as artistes but as a couple faced constant friction. Geeta wanted to be an actress. Guru Dutt began making Gauri (1957) with her in Kolkata. But I’m afraid it didn’t work. Soon he scrapped it. Also, the problem with Geeta was that she was extremely possessive. That’s a huge letdown in any marriage. A creative person like a director/actor works with many actresses. It’s a world of make believe. They have to express love on screen and make it look real. She was suspicious of every actress he worked with. If all the time you question a man, you’ll eventually turn him away. She kept tabs on him all the time. That was her only undoing. There would be frequent quarrels and she’d take the children away to her mother’s home. He’d beg her to return. The next day he’d get into a depression and call us to tell that Geeta has taken the children away. Once during their courtship too, she had disappeared after a tiff. She went off to a friend’s house in Nasik, leaving everyone worried. But undeniably, Guru Dutt loved Geeta deeply. Given Guru Dutt’s suicidal tendencies, he had attempted suicide twice before. The second time he was admitted to the Nanavati Hospital and had slipped into a coma for three days. One afternoon when he came through, the first word he uttered was ‘Geeta!’ But by then both had begun on a self-destructive journey.
THE MAYHEM…
Slowly, stories about Geeta’s alcoholism were heard. I never saw her drinking openly though. But she had some friends, who led her astray. It first began with sleeping tablets. Then it went on to some kind of drugs... I don’t know whether they were downers or pills just to make her feel happy. Alcohol came in much later. I believe her brother Mukul once wrote to Guru Dutt saying that Geeta had gone too far with alcohol and that when she goes on stage she’s unable to sing. I don’t believe it was Guru Dutt’s alleged relationship with Waheeda Rehman that was the cause of all their woes. Also I detest Guru Dutt being labelled as ‘an alcoholic’. He was not an alcoholic or else he wouldn’t have been able to make the films he did. An alcoholic is someone who begins his morning with a drink. Guru Dutt never went so high that he had to be handled. Perhaps, it was his sensitive nature, troubled marriage and the failure of some films that left him devastated.
THE MYTH
When Waheeda Rehman, first came from Hyderabad as a young actress, Guru Dutt signed her for a four-film salaried contract CID, Pyaasa, Kagaz Ke Phool and Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam. Waheeda was not a beauty but she was photogenic. She was simple looking had a charming smile but was a great actress .Waheeda lived with her mother in Colaba those days, close to my house. She dropped in almost every evening after shooting and we became good friends.
Guru Dutt’s speculated relationship with Waheeda has become a sort of a myth today. She’s been unnecessarily blamed for his disturbed marriage. Maybe, Guru Dutt saw a muse in Waheeda. Love is a difficult emotion to define. And let me tell you he did not commit suicide over either of the two women. Professionally, Waheeda and Guru Dutt had moved away much before he passed away. In fact, for the last scene of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), he had to request her to come on the set and complete it.
Geeta with a young Lalitha Lajmi (L) Guru Dutt and Geeta on their wedding day (R)
THE TRAGEDY
A suicidal tendency is generally a biological disorder. It could also be a result of childhood trauma. Honestly, our childhood was not a conducive one. My parents fought a lot. My mother never loved my father. Every evening it was hell in that small house. Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa was perhaps based on my father’s frustrations. Though my father was a poet, he could never realise his dreams. Suicidal tendencies often run in your genes. A close cousin of ours also committed suicide. So did Guru Dutt’s son Tarun.
Writer Abrar Alvi was with Guru Dutt that fateful evening of October 9, 1964 at his flat in Peddar Road. It’s said that Guru Dutt spoke to Geeta on the phone that evening asking her to send the children across over the weekend as his shooting had got cancelled. Apparently, Geeta refused. The children were always the bone of contention between them. Abrar even advised him never to mix alcohol with sleeping tablets, Guru Dutt being an insomniac. That night Abrar left without having dinner. Guru Dutt also didn’t eat. Perhaps, it became a lethal combination of sleeping tablets and alcohol on an empty stomach and not intentional suicide as is believed.
The next morning they had to break open the door. Guru Dutt’s half-open eyes and his hand positioned in a particular manner suggested that he was about to say something. It was what you in cinematic parlance call ‘freeze’! It brought untold trauma to my mother and me, something which affects me till date!
Waheeda was shooting with Dilip Kumar in a film for Madras. When she heard about the demise from Johnny Walker, she immediately took a flight back. She didn’t even pause to wipe off the make-up.
I hoped that she come to pay the last respects and she did. And she arrived just when they were taking his body to the crematorium.
His death remains a mystery to us family members,. He looked so young and handsome even in his death. Nina, who was just two, kept saying, “Papa wake up!” Kafi saab (Azmi) wrote a beautiful poem on him, which was published in Filmfare then.
LOSING GEETA
Geeta was devastated by his death and wore white for a year as per Bengali tradition. As a widow, she was also made to eat kanji (rice porridge) for 10 days. In the later years, I met her often but most of the time she was drunk. She’d hide small bottles of liquor in the book shelf, in the bathroom... She began facing financial crisis too. But Basu Bhattacharya’s Anubhav (1971), a year before her death, proved her timeless genius.
By then she was suffering from ‘cirrhosis ‘of the liver. That particular evening (July 20, 1972) when she took her last breath remains haunting. She was unconscious and had tubes all over. Blood was oozing from her nose, ears... it even splashed on the walls. It was heartbreaking to see our Geeta whom I loved and who loved me equally suffer such a violent death. I prefer to remember her as the beautiful woman in Benarasi sarees and gold jewellery and those perfume bottles and colourful bangles on her dressing table that lent so much music in her life.
Raj Kapoor and Geeta Bali in Bawre Nain and Guru Dutt and Meena Kumari in Saheb Bibi Aur Ghulam
GEETA DUTT’S GEMS
Mera sundar sapna beet gaya - Do Bhai
Mat ja mat ja jogi - Jogan
Khayalon mein kisike - Baawre Nain
Tadbir se bigdi hui taqdeer- Baazi
Na yeh chand hoga - Shart
Yeh lo main hari piya - Aar Paar
Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo - Pyaasa
Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam - Kaagaz ke Phool
Na jaao saiyan - Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
Meri jaan - Anubhav