Book Excerpt- Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story by Yasser Usman

An exclusive excerpt from Yasser Usman’s Guru Dutt: An Unfinished Story (Published by Simon & Schuster India, 2021)

(Excerpt 1- Guru Dutt and Geeta)

There was a time when I had asked him (Guru Dutt) not to make this film.’

‘Why?’

‘Because, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam is the story of our lives. (Geeta Dutt)

It was the evening of 26 May 1953. After three years of being engaged, Guru Dutt and Geeta Roy decided to get married. The wedding ceremony was performed at Geeta’s mother’s home, Amiya Kutir, in Santa Cruz, Bombay. It was a traditional Bengali style wedding. That morning some of Geeta’s close friends went to Guru Dutt’s flat on 12th Road, Khar with chandan paste and garlands. He was dressed in a white silk kurta and dhoti worn in the Bengali style.

Bridegroom Guru Dutt Padukone arrived in a tastefully decorated Hudson convertible. Geeta looked ethereal as the young bride. ‘She was around twenty-one and made for a beautiful bride in a red Banarasi sari with a thin red veil and lots of gold jewellery.’ The wedding conducted according to Bengali rites was a glitzy affair. It was attended by many well-known personalities of the film industry, including Dev Anand and elder brother Chetan Anand, Nutan, Vyjayanthimala, Geeta Bali, Kalpana Kartik (set to wed Dev Anand), Nalini Jaywant, Ramanand Sagar, Kamini Kaushal and Sumitra Devi. Guru Dutt’s family had never seen such a grand wedding function in their family.