Pyaasa
Director: Guru Dutt
Year Released: 1957
Rating: 1.0
Talk about a vanity picture: Dutt plays this poet who is constantly misunderstood and endlessly tortured - he flails around his sets looking miserable and out-of-sorts for the full two plus hours, and loved by every woman he meets for being so 'sensitive.' When there isn't misery, there's song: he routinely cuts from the drama to endless scenes of singing or poetry-reciting, and the poems are supposed to be so devastating that people can't help but swoon (I'm not a poetry buff, but I wasn't impressed). The film's message is preachy and self-righteous, and Dutt's character isn't just an artist: he's a savior, a prophet and martyr.
