In Black and White: Hollywood and the Melodrama of Guru Dutt

In Black and White: Hollywood and the Melodrama of Guru Dutt Hardcover – 1 Feb 2005

by Darius Cooper  (Author)

Born on 9 July 1925 into a Saraswat family of Mangalore and educated in the liberal climate of Calcutta, Guru Dutt started his own production company in 1954 with Aar, Paar, and never looked bakc till Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, 1962, his last film. On 9october 1964, he committed suicide. His oeuvre is now widely regarded as one of the most rich and significant legacies of Indian cinema, amongst the fines examples of the melodrama mode. This volume aims to lay before the reader the particular melodramatic tradition of the Hindu film that Guru Dutt typified. The critical fragments spread over the book's six chapters are taken from the body of work done by critics in elevating the Hollywood melodrama, primarily of the forties and fifties, to ciritical acceptability and respectability. Dutt's Indian melodramas, functioning around the same time, seen to be assembled in very similar ways and when examined under these rubrics, reveal a high level of vision and craftsmanship.