NOSTALGIA: Guide (1965)

ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE

Guide, based on a short novel by RK Narayan is one of those rare films about which it cannot be said that the book was better. Director Vijay Anand wove such cinematic magic around the story of an ordinary man’s spiritual awakening, that its literary origins could hardly be discerned.

Anand recalls advising his brother Dev Anand not to touch to the book, he was planning to film planned as a Hindi-English bilingual, with well-known author Pearl Buck doing the English script. Vijay Anand almost didn’t direct the film, but when Raj Khosla (nixed by Waheeda Rehman) and Chetan Anand (busy with Haqeeqat) were unable to do it for Navketan, Vijay Anand was reluctantly roped in again. His condition was that he would rewrite the script and brook no interference (he hated the English script, and said in an interview “The first scene had Marco and Rosie disembarking at the station and encountering Raju. And in the next shot Rosie and the guide were in bed together. Who would accept such a hero in our country, even if he turned into a saint later?  Marco would walk away with all the sympathy that goes to a cuckolded husband.”) 

The director of the English film, Ted Danielewski, made such a hash of it, that Dev Anand found it tough to sell the Hindi version. When it was finally released with great difficulty, industry folk were sure it would bomb. Mercifully they were proved wrong.

When Waheeda Rehman took on the role of Rosie in Vijay Anand’s Guide, she was certain she would never work in the Mumbai industry again. The character of a woman who commits adultery, puts her career over her marriage, dumps her boyfriend when he starts to stifle her, was just too strong for traditional Indian audiences. Rosie is not a heroine, she is vamp, the actress was warned. But she did it, and gave Hindi cinema one of its best female characters.

When she dances like a woman possessed to a frenzied piece of music, laughingly breaks a mud pot singing “Dil woh chala”, stands in the caves her scholar husband is studying and screams, “Marco main jeena chahti hoon,” she spoke for millions of Indian women who were suppressing their talent and suffocating in bad marriages. Rosie was a breaker of rules in a society (and by reflection a cinematic tradition) in which docile, sacrificing, suffering women were (are) the ideal.

The film, though, is not about Rosie but about the spiritual degradation and resurgence of a small town tourist guide Raju (Dev Anand). Researcher Marco (Kishore Sahu) comes to the town to visit and investigate some ancient cave sculptures, accompanied by his unhappy and neglected wife Rosie.

Marco has rescued Rosie from her disreputable surroundings, but treats her with contempt and forbids her from following her passion for dance. Raju’s streetwise charm, support and love comes at the right time, and Rosie leaves with him.

She becomes a famous dancer (and Waheeda danced like a dream with Master Hiralal choreographing some fabulous numbers), and quite daringly for Indian cinema, does not marry Raju, who manages her career. The relationship sours though, and due to Marco’s machinations, Raju commits forgery and goes to jail. Rosie feelings are expressed in the great number Mohe chhal kiye jaaye… dekho na saiyan beimaan, and Raju’s helplessness in Kya se kya ho gaya, bewafa tere pyar mein. A better use of songs (SD Burman surpassed himself) to deal with a highly dramatic situation and carry the narrative forward would be hard to find.

When Raju emerges from prison, he wanders into a village, where he is taken to be a sadhu. When the village faces famine, the people turn to Raju for succour and he vows to starve till it rains. His fame spreads far and the media descends on the obscure village to meet the mysterious “Swami”. Raju had not intended to keep his word, but the faith of the innocent villagers and his own conscience leads him to sacrifice his life for their sake.

Vijay Anand was completely non-judgmental about the characters—all of them, even in their moments of weakness came across as human and vulnerable. It’s not very often that one finds characters with so many complex shades in a mainstream Hindi film.

In spite of its offbeat plot and unusual characters, Guide was successful at the box office. It remains a masterpiece of popular cinema with direction, technique, storytelling, music, dance, drama, performances all coming together as a perfect whole.

Comments

[amar]

Guide is undoubtedly the best Hindi movie of all time. Cannot imagine anyone but Waheeda Rehman in it.. what grace, what poise, what dancing, what emotional range! superb. Music was absolutely fabulous.. S D could not surpass this in any of his future films.

if the movie has to be remade, it can be only with Madhuri Dixit. but who could enact dev anand's role?? and music?? better not remake this classic
amar

[online bollywood movies]

I was fortunate to have attended a film screening at Cinemax, over the past year, with this Waheeda Rehman. Relive the magic on the big screen was something else! Vijay Anand is a director whose films strike a chord with viewers of all generations.

[Harsh]

Navketan films (esp. coloured ones) had the highest quality of Art Direction, possibly the best after Raj Kapoor. The sets, costumes everything was novel and pathbreaking. Jewel Thief and Guide are especially the cases in point...

[Deepa Gahlot]

Harsh... coming up soon.

[Harsh]

Wud love to read something on Vijay Anand, one of the Indian film industry's finest directors, equally good with comedy, thriller, romance, drama...

[Aniruddha Guha]

It's one of my favourites. I was lucky to have attended a screening of the film at Cinemax, sometime last year, with Waheeda Rehman in attendance. Reliving the magic on the big screen was something else! Vijay Anand is one director whose films would strike a chord with movie goers of every generation. Timeless is the word.

[Deepa Deosthalee]

Lovely piece DG. 'Guide' is brilliant. And Rosie is, arguably, the finest heroine figure of Hindi cinema.

[Deepa Gahlot]

Thanks Rajeev.... Kaala Bazaar coming up next. Lovely and quite relevant film.

Deepa

[Rajeev Agarwal]

Nice to read an informed and sensible article about my favourite Hindi film. But I have the impression that Pearl S. Buck was a co-producer and not the writer on the English version. Or was she both?
And do you remember a mostly forgotten gem (despite stunning songs like KHOYA KHOYA CHAND and RIMJHIM KE TARAANE) from Navketan called KAALA BAZAAR? I would like to read something about it. It was the only film ever by the way, in which all the three Anand Brothers acted.

[Deepa Gahlot]

Wonderful to encounter another Guide fan.

Madhuri Dixit is not a current star... I agree, no actress today can do justice to Rosie.

[Ranjib]

And your poll options are quite disappointing I guess. I think Madhuri Dixit is the only one who can justify Rosie.

[Ranjib]

I got the link of your website from I don't know where...
But I am delighted to read this post since Guide is my all time fav Hindi movie; a movie that defied conventions and gave this industry a masterpiece to be proud of. Rosie, for me again is the greatest character to have come out of Hindi cinema. I rate her higher than Nargis' character in Mother India.
To be honest, I can talk and write about this movie till the end of time. I am truly obsessed with everything about the film. So, I will end it here...