Kagaz Ke Phool Analysis

Kagaz Ke Phool (1959)

Directed and Produced by: Guru Dutt
Starring: Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman
Ranked #160 in greatest films of all time by Sight and Sound in 2002.

This film is about a filmmaker Sinha, and his struggles with various aspects of the society like success, the stigma around art as a profession. In this film, Sinha's wife files a divorce because her wealthy family considers filmmaking as a job which lacks social status - note that in this film Sinha is already a successful director. For Sinha it is important to be successful, because otherwise he would only prove his in-laws correct. This reminds me of what A. R. Rahman said in a conversation with Arijit Singh recently, 'It is important for you to succeed, if you be a loser the stigma around it will only get reinstated'.

This film also talks about loneliness, being burned out, dealing with failure and probably depression too - this film feels like it came from a very personal space. Sinha at one point says, 'I'm tired of all this' and by all this he means, the amount of struggle he has to go through to just meet his daughter, to face his daughter for him just falling in love, and to make a film amidst all this which turns out to be a flop. 

At the ending, Sinha doesn't take up the job because of his self respect - I think artists having self respect totally makes sense - and this doesn't have anything to do with their current successes or failures, I think it's because of their journey and when an artist creates something very personal, and if it becomes a success - it feels like people are enjoying a part of their personality and that adds to their self respect. Vetrimaaran quoted Balu Mahendra saying that an artist's creativity is similar to a person's sex drive - it starts and peaks for a while and gradually fades out after a point. I think we should remember an artist for their successes and not for their mistakes.