Pyaasa – Poignant, Painful, Profound

Pyaasa – Poignant, Painful, Profound

Pyaasa highlights the classical human failings of envy, deceit, greed for money and power, and opportunism with such poignancy that you feel the film was made for the times we live in.

I finally watched Guru Dutt’s 1957 classic Pyaasa, considered a text book in film-making, and thereby eradicated from my life the stigma that comes with not having watched this film if you call yourself a Hindi film lover. 

Films that get elevated to the pantheon of the great are given that status because of the timeless relevance they depict. Great film-makers seem to have the ability to latch on to certain supreme human behaviours that haunt society with their negative influence for ages and weave a story around them that shakes the very human conscience. Pyaasa highlights the classical human failings of deceit, envy, greed for money and power, and opportunism with such poignancy that you feel the film was made for the times we live in. Fifty years from now too, a film like Pyaasa will look contemporary and relevant.

Hindi film-makers over the years have tried to depict pain on celluloid by providing that emotion a standing of its own. In Pyaasa, Guru Dutt elevates pain to cult status as he marks out pain in its various forms as effortlessly as an artist marks out the various figures on canvas. Pyaasa highlights the pain of loss in love, the pain of being used for the gain of vested interests, and the pain of living in such an opportunistic and unjust world, where people change colours faster than a chameleon.  

The film, released just ten years after independence, served notice to the internal contradictions of Indian society. India’s challenge, after the British had left was not external, it was internal. The challenge pertained to remaining united even in the face of immense cultural diversity. Being a large country with a huge population, besides cultural contradictions, the crass side of human nature also manifest themselves quite noticeably, but their effects are not always obvious due to the depth of tolerance and apathy that run simultanoeusly in our veins. The twin qualities of tolerance and apathy have provided an imperfect, yet enigmatic backdrop to defining the great Indian character.    

India’s independence came with a huge price in the form of partition and riots, but the greater challenge always was to stay united, which the country has achieved with remarkable grace and maturity, despite the various internal and external threats it has faced since 1947. There is therefore no taking away from the fundamental strength of the Indian democratic fabric, but Pyaasa haunts you at the core of your nature. It provokes you to look within and drive away  enemies inside like jealousy and opportunism from your system.  

Maybe Pyaasa is good remake material too, as Bollywood is in the midst of a season of remakes. But the film and the message -- highlighted in such painful detail, and with such poignancy and profoundness – have the capacity in their original format too to arouse the better side of our nature and send us on a self-introspection trip. 

Watch Pyaasa, if you haven’t already. It will make you thirsty to contribute towards building a more humane society.