Classics, redux

The new version of Guru Dutt’s Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam is only the beginning of a flood of retreads

Almost half a 
century after Guru Dutt’s Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), its updated version is here. Gratifyingly, it is thoroughly engrossing and excellently crafted. Tigmanshu Dhulia’s cheekily titled Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster is certainly not in the classic category, yet it does sufficient justice to the original masterpiece.

Guru Dutt’s dark and brooding film, about an aristocractic woman who revolts on being neglected by her philandering husband, was adapted from a story by the popular Bengali author Bimal Mitra. In the modernised version, he hasn’t been dignified with so much as a token acknowledgement in the credit titles. That’s a pity because without Mitra’s basic plotline, even Guru Dutt’s black-and-white film wouldn’t have existed.

Director Dhulia peppers up the plot, of course, to cater to the current taste for spicy entertainment. Elements of politics, a dangerous liaison, and frankly provocative dialogue have been added. The result has wowed the masses as well as the mandarins. Indeed, the masala-packed dish is served with tremendous technical panache and a brisk tempo, besides extracting a first-rate performance from Randeep Hooda in the role first enacted by Guru Dutt.

Only Hooda’s characterisation of the neglected woman’s confidant is permissive and unconventional, while Dutt’s was meek and platonic. Mahie Gill and Jimmy Shergill may not be a patch on Meena Kumari and Rehman who incarnated the married couple living in the feudal set-up of a baroque mansion, but at the very least they’re competent.

Incidentally, Guru Dutt had 
somewhat soft-pedalled Bimal 
Mitra’s story, perhaps because he was uncertain that the audience wasn’t ready to be startled and shocked back in the 1960s. Moreover, an apocryphal story goes that Guru Dutt credited his scriptwriter Abrar Alvi as the director of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. After the commercial flop of Kaagaz ke Phool (1959), his equity in the film market had hit rock-bottom. No distributor was willing to touch Guru Dutt’s work. By withdrawing his name, the impasse was circumvented.

Of Guru Dutt’s oeuvre, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam has been the only film which has lent itself to a remake. Quite clearly, the complexities inherent in his Pyaasa (1957) — concerning a poet who becomes famous when he is mistaken to be dead — are way beyond the adaptation skills of any filmmaker today.

So are his comedies Aar Paar (1954) and Mr & Mrs 55 (1955) which have stood the test of time. Lighthearted and yet touching on social issues, these were the film legend’s early forays into entertainment before he turned irrevocably introspective. Forming a trilogy of despair and darkness, Pyaasa, Kaagaz ke Phool and Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam did receive their deserved praise but only posthumously. The filmmaker committed suicide it is believed, at the age of 39, some 47 years ago.

Doubtlessly it’s a belated tribute to Dutt’s artistry that his Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam has inspired a film which dares to be outspoken and unorthodox. In fact, Dhulia returns to the form he had once displayed with his debut work Haasil (2003), in which he had lambasted political corruption. Since then, he had appeared 
to have lost his grip over the 
medium, what with a barrage of ordinary to unbearable films like Charas (2004) and Shagird (2011). Now, he is back in the frontline of directors of substance.

A while ago, another gifted filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, had announced a remake of the Guru Dutt classic. In fact, posters showing Priyanka Chopra in the Meena Kumari role had even been released to the press. After an official announcement, though, the project appears to have been shelved.

Of late, a sizeable number of remakes of the golden oldies have been announced. Salman Khan is eager to refashion the Kishore Kumar laugh riot Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958) as well as Manmohan Desai’s Amar Akbar Anthony (1977). There has been news too of David Dhawan redesigning Chashme Buddoor (1981), for which Rishi Kapoor has already been pencilled in for the part of the streetside shopkeeper performed by Saeed Jaffrey in the original version.

When you ask the film’s originator Sai Paranjpye about her response to the remake, she snaps, “I was quite upset when I heard about the remake. Imagine, Mr Dhawan hasn’t even informed me about this.”

All you can say is that for sure, Tigmanshu Dhulia has done Guru Dutt proud. Others on the same route, however, should retread cautiously. Classics in any genre — drama, comedy or action — are best left alone. After all there’s the cautionary example of Ram Gopal Varma’s Aag (2007), the wannabe Sholay (1975), which went down in ashes.

(The writer has been reviewing Bollywood since he was in diapers. 
He has scripted three films and directed three others. Currently, he is working on a documentary and a book of short stories.)