Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Pyaasa and Filming Hunger




            Directed by Guru Dutt, Pyaasa is one of the most cherished films to come out of India in the past century. The movie tells the story of Vijay, a troubled young poet searching for recognition of his art. Vijay experiences a taste of fame only to have it stripped away from him by the scheming of his employer, brothers, and supposed friends. Pyaasa is a social film that reflects the feelings of loss and disenfranchisement felt by many in postcolonial India. In particular the theme of hunger is of particular importance to the film; hunger is not only an important plot point, but inspires critical compositional themes that set the tone for the entire film. The title, Pyaasa, translates to thirst, and is a perfect metaphor for the film, that of longing for what you need to live, but also suffering. The film includes lines like, “In life, besides love and poetry, there’s hunger,” which further underscores the motif of hunger.

           
            Pyaasa is a film of shadows and light, and represents a monumental achievement in natural cinematography. Dutt and Murthy used natural lighting and shadows to create scenes that are full of depth, and skillfully draw the audience’s attention to certain areas on screen while carefully veiling others. The use of shadows and light enhance the motif of hunger, as the exchange of what is seen and unseen creates an imbalance that leaves the audience yearning for realization. When Vijay first encounters Gulab he follows her through the columned walkways and alleys of the city as she lures him to her home (and place of work); there is mystery and allure in this scene, as our eyes are pulled to the dark places where we can not see but our hearts encourage us to search. The dark and unknown spaces are fetishized throughout the film to such an extent that the cinematography even bleeds into the writing. Vijay’s book of poems for which he achieves great fame is entitled “Shadows,” harkening to the influence of shadows on the Guru Dutt’s vision for the film. When Vijay reveals himself to the crowd at his memorial service, his frame is backlit, so his features are hidden in shadow; this speaks to the fact that he has lost his identity, and has become disembodied through the betrayal of personhood by his family and friends. During the ensuing riot brought about by the revelation of his existence, shadows are used to highlight the intensity of the scene, as people in the crowd lose their defining features and become more like monsters or beasts lurking in the shadows, hungry for the opportunity to lash out in the confusion of chaos behind a veil of anonymity. The final shot of the film depicts Gulab and Vijay walking hand in hand away from the camera and into a hazy mist; their identities become blurred, and we recognize them as allegories for the lost and disenfranchised voices of their generation.




            The music of S.D. Burman plays a very prominent role in Pyaasa, particularly in heightening the melodrama of particular scenes or creating moments of cognitive dissonance. For example, when Vijay is first spotted by his mother walking the streets of the city at the beginning of the film, Burman’s score soars to a dramatic crescendo, with all the strings plying to imbue the scene with a sense of pathos and longing; it lets us know that this encounter is meaningful, and painful, particularly for Vijay’s mother, who feels as if her son has abandoned her. Her only desire is to feed him, to provide sustenance for her favored son, and in doing so to give her life meaning as a mother. Later, I was struck by the shrill quality of the speaking voice of the masseuse, Abdul Sattar, particularly in comparison to his pleasant singing voice. There is a clear disconnect hear, with Guru Dutt and Burman saying that appearances are not always as they seem. Ambient sound also plays a subtle role in the film. We often hear the chirping of crickets in night scenes involving Vijay, which beckons the audience to view him as in communion with nature. The sounds of nature such as the crickets are a reflection of the emptiness inside Vijay as he searches for recognition that he hopes will give his life meaning; he is ravenous for artistic achievement, but is met only with the sounds of silence. When Vijay is committed to an insane asylum for claiming to be himself (ironically), there is a great scene where we see Vijay sitting on the floor surrounded by his fellow inmates. Dutt masterfully uses sound and silence to create beautiful tension on screen; despite being the only sane person in the room, Vijay is the only one who is quiet, refusing to project his frustration.



            Eyes are extremely sensual objects. Over the centuries, stories about eyes have emerged insinuating that eyes can bewitch men, turn people to stone, or even kill. In Pyaasa, Guru Dutt uses the close up, particularly drawing attention to actor’s eyes, to create scenes of tension and expressiveness. “To get proper expressions from the artist, to convey to the audience the intensity of those expressions. Shooting mainly in mid or long shots would not have given those expressions in that way. For him, everything had to be in close shot. (Murthy, 1999) Dutt utilizes close ups through a large portion of the scene where Gulab and Vijay first meeting, focusing particularly on Gulab’s eyes, which are sharp and alluring. Gulab’s hypnotic gaze entices Vijay to follow her to her home, where she hopes to make him a customer; her eyes are not glamorous, but that of a cunning albeit playful predator. She enamors Vijay, and we can see the hunger in his features as he stumbles seemingly without choice after her; his curiosity creates a burning desire inside him to learn how she knows of his poetry. Later, when Vijay and Meena encounter each other in the elevator, Dutt and Murthy use a close up to create the impression that they are the only two people in the elevator. They drink up each other’s faces, and become lost in the carnal orgy of reverie over their past romantic relations.

            Movement and framing are other important compositional elements to the film. Unlike many other directors of the time, Guru Dutt utilized movement to create dynamic shots that personified emotional undercurrents of the film or created dramatic tension. “Others just used to keep the camera fixed, have the actors perform the song, walking in or out of frame and have a few cut to close-up shots, that’s all. But Guru Dutt was not like that at all. He emphasized movements and that too in close-up shots.” (Murthy, 1999) For example, during the scene where Vijay and Meena meet in the elevator, as Vijay is leaving the elevator screen closes shut and Meena is left behind. Her face is framed by the bars the screen, giving the impression that she is trapped against her will; she is like a caged animal, her eyes hungry with sensual yearning for times past. Later, Dutt and Murthy uses movement to create wonderful tension in the scene where Gulab runs away from a police constable; beginning with successive shots of Gulab’s and the constable’s feet, followed by panning shots of the two running, the scene is reminiscent of a scene in nature, that of a hawk bearing down on a helpless field mouse, hoping for a kill. My favorite shot occurs when Vijay’s paper are scattered by the wind in Gulab’s home after his supposed suicide; his poetry assaults her, and she is shocked by the onslaught of his words as they now drift about without him. We can sense her longing for his presence, and the words – which one comforted her – now bring her pain, but she clings to them nonetheless, because they are all she has left to remember him.

            Pyaasa broke a number of conventional cinema norms upon its release; the use of camera movement in musical shots, a female heroine who is also a prostitute, an unhappy editing. The film is a powerful melodrama that utilizes unique compositional elements designed to propel the emotional tension of the story. In Pyaasa, hunger becomes a motif that speaks to the disenfranchisement of the common man, and the desire for self actualization that – for most – never materializes in the face of overwhelming societal pressure to perform and be productive.

8 comments:

  1. I found your blog post to be very interesting in its detailing of the symbolism of Pyaasa. Symbolism plays an important role in film in general, but is often ignored by the audience. I particularly liked your analysis of the symbolism of shadows. This is particularly effective as Pyaasa is a black-and-white film.
    You also explored Pyaasa's soundtrack and composition. Sound usually coordinates with the action of a movie, so it had hardly occurred to me that it could also be used to generate dissonance - different speaking and singing voices, silence in the midst of noise. Your interpretations of the movement and framing used in the film - the close-up of Meena's face shown behind the bars of the elevator like the face of a caged beast, the movement of the camera while Gulab runs from the constable reminiscent of the point of view of a hawk swooping down on its prey - were also intriguing.

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  3. While I will comment in a more detailed manner later, I just have to write that I really love this post! Your attention to cinematography is so great! We'll done

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  4. While I will comment in a more detailed manner later, I just have to write that I really love this post! Your attention to cinematography is so great! We'll done

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  5. To Patrick, I very much enjoyed your theme of hunger that you found in the movie and your attention to the title being Thirst made me realize even more how important hunger really was for the film. The importance behind names always seems to escape me in my reviews as my brain defaults to accepting any other languages at face-value when it seems that both Bollywood films have made deliberate use of heavy-handed symbolism in the choice of names for characters. So, noticing the title being Thirst and recognizing the many scenes that incorporate an element of hunger/thirst to me was quite intriguing to hear.

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  6. I thought the details you mentioned about the cinematography was fantastic. I am so used to thinking about more modern cinema, so I hadn't considered the natural lighting in the film. I appreciate that you mentioned the specific scene where Gulab is singing to Vijay for the first time, because I noticed myself leaning up to the screen during that scene because I wanted to see. I like how many symbols our classmates are pointing out, this film has many different symbols and interpretations. But I especially enjoyed the idea of hunger and the disenfranchisement of man.

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  7. I thought the details you mentioned about the cinematography was fantastic. I am so used to thinking about more modern cinema, so I hadn't considered the natural lighting in the film. I appreciate that you mentioned the specific scene where Gulab is singing to Vijay for the first time, because I noticed myself leaning up to the screen during that scene because I wanted to see. I like how many symbols our classmates are pointing out, this film has many different symbols and interpretations. But I especially enjoyed the idea of hunger and the disenfranchisement of man.

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  8. Very well-written post, Patrick! I especially liked your attention to cinematic elements, such as the use of sound as well as the use of light and shadows. The latter is especially important in black and white films as it adds depth to characters and creates a certain moods. I think that your post is really about the symbolic use of shadows more than it is about hunger although the latter too is a very important trope in the film (it is actually even more important in the next film we're watching, Mother India). In its focus on a tragic character, Pyaasa follows the very popular film Devdas, which was based on S.C. Chattopadhyay's novel of the same name. However, Pyaasa combines powerful social critique along with a focus on a disenfranchised protagonist.

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