Darius Cooper's Book on Guru Dutt's
Cinema WORD-COUNT: 522
This year, Seagull Books, Calcutta, released a book
entitled IN BLACK AND WHITE - HOLLYWOOD AND THE MELODRAMA OF GURU DUTT. Darius Cooper, who teaches literature and film in the English department at San Diego Mesa College, USA, is the
author.
The author offers an unusual point of view into films directed by Guru Dutt, one of the most talented filmmakers in India known for his meaningful insight into the aesthetics of
cinema as much as his exploration of works from Indian literature interpreted/ translated on celluloid. Dutt and his films remain archived in the history of Indian cinema and this book underscores the reality of this history. Divided into seven chapters, the author has explored some hitherto unexplored areas of Dutt's work weaving them seamlessly into his individual style enriched with in-depth research and individual philosophy.
The chapters, namely, Nation and Family in Dutt's Melodrama, The Tragic Trilogy and Audience Response, Typical Features and Narrative Strategies, The Emotional and Freudian Teleology of Dutt's Melodramatic Universe, The Comic in Dutt's Melodrama and last but not the least, Dutt's Aesthetics of the Hindi Film Song offer a rainbow-hued perspective of the films of Guru Dutt, drawiing from works of other authors who have written about Dutt to offer a wider horizon of meaning to the reader.
The introduction traces Dutt's life from birth to death briefly, going back to his roots to his migration with the family to Mumbai then Calcutta, then Mumbai again, outlining the formative years of a young boy who metamorphosed from a talented dancer who trained under Uday Shankar for some time to one of the greatest filmmakers the country has produced
Few books on Indian cinema and Indian filmmakers have attempted Freudian analyses of the makers' films. Cooper's book fills in this gap. This chapter underlines the importance of Dutt's women characters in terms of their construction designed to deepen the emotional teleology of the melodramas. His women, including Chhoti Bahu in SBAG, are presented as spectacle. At the same time, they are catalytic as agents of change in the main male characters that people his films.
Under the trilogy of tragedy, Cooper places Pyaasa, Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam and Kaagaz Ke Phool, respectively, pointing out the crucial role played by the Indian audience itself within the narratives of these three films. However, one must concede that this is a very niche book for niche readership and may not appeal to readers not interested in film scholarship and film studies. It offers a strong frame of reference for students of film studies and of cinema. At the same time, the term "Hollywood" in the title of the book does not bear itself out within the content. Except for the cinematographic aesthetics of his films, Guru Dutt's films are quintessentially Indian in ideology and philosophy. Some trends of Western culture in terms of dress, dance numbers, body language and style were marked in his earlier films. But that is about all. During the latter phase of his career, Guru Dutt focussed mainly on the Indian mindset. Cooper's book adds to the growing number of scholarly studies on Indian cinema.
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