Trailer
Plot summary
Vijay's poems about unemployment and poverty interest no publisher in Calcutta; editors ask for conventional romance, and his relatives want him to take a steady job instead. His brothers sell the manuscripts as waste paper, so he leaves home. He hears Gulabo, a prostitute, reciting one of his poems and follows her; she first mistakes him for an impostor, then seeks him out and admires his work, and the two grow close. Meena, once dear to Vijay, has married Ghosh, a prosperous publisher, for security. Ghosh agrees to bring out Vijay's poems but keeps him as a servant and sets him to watch Meena.
Cast
- Shyam Kapooras Shyam
- Radheshyamas Vijay's Eldest Brother
- Maya Dassas Shyam's Girlfriend
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Pyaasa (1957)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dilip Kumar was the first choice to play the poet Vijay and declined, the toll that intense roles had taken on his health being a major reason; he later named Pyaasa as one of the three films he regretted turning down.
- Guru Dutt wanted to shoot Pyaasa's red-light area scenes on location in Calcutta, but the crew was attacked by a group of pimps, so he rebuilt the sets in Bombay from photos taken in Kolkata.
- Mumbai-based Ultra Media & Entertainment made Pyaasa the first Indian film restored to its original; the original camera negative arrived from the archives completely melted, with parts damaged or lost.
- Waheeda Rehman's prostitute Gulabo was inspired by a real woman: the writer Abrar Alvi, visiting Bombay's red-light district with friends, began talking to a woman there.
- "Sar Jo Tera Chakraye" was composed by R. D. Burman, son of the film's composer S. D. Burman, from a tune in the British film Harry Black; when that film's producer visited India, he heard the song, did not recognise the tune and applauded him.
- Pyaasa was to star Nargis and Madhubala in the roles Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman eventually played, but the two actresses could not decide which role they wanted, so Dutt cast the then-new Mala and Waheeda instead.
- In 2005, Pyaasa was the only Hindi film to make it onto Time magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Films of All Time.
- Pyaasa found international acclaim when it was first released in Europe in the 1980s, becoming a big commercial success there long after Guru Dutt died, with a cult following in France, Germany, South Asia and parts of East Asia.
