Why did Guru Dutt abandon his Bengali directorial debut starring Geeta?

KOLKATA: When lyricist Gouri Prasanna Majumdar had penned “Jaani bhromora keno” and “Banshi shune aar kaaj naai” for SD Burman, they were meant for Guru Dutt’s Bengali directorial debut. The film titled “Gouri” was launched in 1957 and was supposed to mark the acting debut of the director’s wife - playback singer Geeta Dutt. However, Dutt just shot two scenes of “Gouri” and abandoned the project.
On Monday, as one turned the pages of history on Dutt’s 93rd birth anniversary to trace what prevented “Gouri” from becoming India’s first film in cinemaScope, it threw up some interesting facts.Not only was “Gouri” abandoned, Burman, who had got Geeta to record “Jaani bhromora keno” and had also recorded it in his own voice, eventually used the same tune for “Dr Vidya”. Geeta, who was asked to sing “Aayi hai dilruba are tujh ko kya” with Asha Bhonsle for this film, wasn’t Burman’s choice when he was recording “Jaani bhromora keno” in Hindi. He had opted for Lata Mangeshkar’s voice when the lyrics were transcreated by Majrooh Sultanpuri as “Jaani tum to dole daga deke”. The song was picturised on Vyjayanthimala Bali and Manoj Kumar. Another song from “Gouri” – “Banshi shune aar kaaj naai” - was sung by Burman himself. It was later recorded again in Mangeshkar’s voice when she sung “Neend churaye chain churaye daka dale teri bansi” for “Anuraag”.
It is a matter of coincidence that Dutt’s granddaughter shares her name Gouri with the title of his abandoned Bengali film. “My father was only eight when my grandfather passed away. I know about “Gouri” and that my grandmother was acting in it. Gouri was my grandmother’s favourite name and that’s how I came to be given my name,” Gouri said from Mumbai.
“Gouri” was based on the life of a sculptor who makes idols of goddess Durga. One day when he lands up at a red light district, he chances upon a sex worker whose face resembles that of the goddess he has been sculpting. Moved by her plight, he decides to marry her. The couple would have lived happily ever after had his parents not found out about her past and started ill-treating her. To avoid conflict, she leaves the house. The sculptor searches for her frantically and his loss becomes unbearable. Her face continues to haunt him whenever he makes an idol. Several years later, the story takes a different turn when the sculptor lands in an immersion procession of the goddess. The sculptor recognises his wife’s face when he spots a body being taken for cremation.
A passionate tale of love and longing, however, never made it to the big screen. Unfortunately, Dutt’s family currently has no reels of the two scenes of the film that were shot in Kolkata. “Though we have information about other films and their scripts, there is nothing on ‘Gouri’ that we have on us,” Gouri rued.
She is curious to know more about this film. That’s where recollections of Kolkata=based National Award-winning director Nripen Ganguly come handy. The last time Ganguly had met Dutt was when he had accompanied the director to actor Biswajit Chatterjee’s Jamir Lane residence. Dutt had just watched Biswajit in ‘Maya Mriga’ and had wanted Ganguly to get him to meet the actor. “He wanted to offer Biswajit the role of Bhootnath in ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ (SBAG). It was almost midnight and we picked up Biswajit from his residence and drove to the Grand Hotel. Dutt had offered him an exclusive deal where he would get a remuneration of Rs 25,000 per month and had wanted Biswajit and author Bimal Mitra to go down to Mumbai the very next day,” the 90-year-old Ganguly remembered.
As “badluck would have it”, Biswajit didn’t take up the offer. Incidentally, Ganguly was supposed to assist Dutt for “SBAG”. Except for accepting payments, all other arrangements were done. But the stumbling block was a Satyajit Ray film. “During those days, I was assisting Bijoy Chatterjee and Durgadas Mitra for the film ‘Abhijan’ whose script was penned by Ray. Incidentally, Ray had agreed to direct the first scene of this shooting. But by the end of the day, he was persuaded to direct the entire film. That’s how I ended up assisting Ray in ‘Abhijan’,” Ganguly said.
Once this project began, it became a priority for Ganguly. “That’s why art director Bansi Chandragupta and I had to opt out of ‘SBAG’. Bansi was the one to locate the Gayen house (in Dhanyakuria) where the zamindar house scenes of ‘SBAG’ were shot,” Ganguly said. Both ‘SBAG’ and ‘Abhijan’ were released in 1962.
Though Ganguly never saw Dutt shoot “SABG” in Kolkata, he had got that opportunity before when Dutt was filming “Pyaasa” in Kolkata. Dutt’s distributor in Bengal – Surya Ladia – was known to Ganguly. It was through Ladia that Ganguly had come to know about the shooting of “Pyaasa” and “Gouri” in Kolkata. “I remember landing up at Prinsep Ghat at night. Dutt was shooting ‘Jaane kya tune kahi’,” Ganguly said.
The song – beautifully rendered by Geeta – was picturised on Rehman at Prinsep Ghat. That was decades before Vidya Balan was to shoot “Piyu bole” for “Parineeta” at the same location on Prinsep Ghat. Ganguly remains haunted by the close-up shots of Rehman from this song. “Guru Dutt took such great shots. His cameraman - VK Murthy - for this film was also very good,” he recalled.
After the success of “Pyaasa”, Guru Dutt Films Private Limited had announced “Gouri”. Dutt was so serious about filming “Gouri” that after 20th Century Fox created the anamorphic lenses for the CinemaScope format, he had got Geeta to do some test shots of it. Cinematographer VK Murthy had filmed Geeta sitting on a swing in the garden of Dutt’s Pali Hill bungalow. “As far as I know, Gouri Prasanna Majumdar had also written the screenplay of ‘Gouri’. Dutt had shot extensively in Kolkata in quite a few locations. I was there on the day when he was filming the immersion scene on the banks of the Ganges. Geeta Dutt was present during the shooting,” Ganguly said.
With so much of effort being put into the making of the film, why did it not see the light of day? When Gouri was asked the reason behind Dutt abandoning the project, she attributed it to his untimely death in 1964. Subsequently, she added, “My grandfather may not have liked the end result of the two scenes that they shot. He was a perfectionist and if something was not up to his mark, he would just let the whole project go. Also, there was a fire at the Guru Dutt Films office in which sadly, the negatives of the film could have been destroyed. Again, this is a possibility.”
However, Ganguly hazarded another guess. “During those days, the relationship between Guru Dutt and Geeta Dutt was strained. We had heard that this film was shot to repair the relationship. But, that didn’t happen and the film was abandoned,” Ganguly said.
Neither Dutt nor Geeta lived long enough to revisit why “Gouri” couldn’t mend the lives of those who had longed so much to be with each other. Dutt had died when he was 39. Seven years later, Geeta had passed away. She was 41 then leaving behind two photographs from the film, a rare YouTube recording of herself singing “Jaani bhromora keno” and many unanswered questions.