60th anniversary of release of Bollywood classic 'Guide' | SAM Vignettes by Mayank Chhaya
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00:00Hello, to mark the 60th anniversary of the release of Dave & Vijayanand's Now A Church
00:25Classic guide on February 9th, I decided to read the novel by R.K.Narayan titled The Guide
00:36on which it is based. In particular, I wanted to look for a passage which distilled the
00:42novel's revolutionary theme, albeit controversial for the time, of a married woman and a dancer
00:51to boot, striking up a romantic relationship in order to liberate herself from her stifling
00:59domestic life. I found that passage rather quickly, and here is that passage.
01:07My troubles would not have started but for Rosie. Why did she call herself Rosie? She
01:15did not come from a foreign land. She was just an Indian who should have done well with
01:21Devi, Meena, Lalitha, or any one of the thousand names we have in our country. She chose to
01:31call herself Rosie. Don't imagine on hearing her name that she wore a short skirt or cropped
01:40her hair. She looked just the orthodox dancer that she was. She wore saris of bright hues
01:48and gold lace, had curly hair which she braided and beflowered, wore diamond rings and heavy
01:57gold necklace. I told her at the first opportunity what a great dancer she was and how she fostered
02:06our cultural traditions, and it pleased her. Thousands of persons must have said the same
02:13thing to her, but I happened to be the first in the line. Anyone likes to hear flattering
02:21sentiments and more than others, I suppose, dancers. They like to be told every hour of the
02:28day how well they keep their steps. I praised her art whenever I could snatch a moment alone
02:35with her and whisper in her ear out of the range of that husband of hers. So in those few lines,
02:46R. K. Narayan manages to quickly take you through the life of Rosie and how she is building up a
02:57sort of a romantic relationship, and obviously that lent itself so well to what turned out to
03:05be Dev and Vijayanand's guide. During my nearly 27-year-long acquaintance friendship starting
03:16from 1985 right until his death in 2011 with Mr. Devanand, we spoke about many things,
03:24and the movie guide was occasionally in our conversations. Rather than reconstructing from
03:32memory how the movie came to be, let me read from Mr. Narayanand's autobiography,
03:37Romancing with Life, where he writes about it. I was in London after the festival was over,
03:46for Mona had come back to Bombay to be with our kids. Somebody suggested a book called The Guide.
03:53I had not read it, but felt curious. So I went to Foyles, the largest bookstore in London,
04:00and asked for the book. They did not have any copy left, but the salesgirl at the counter
04:06promised me she would procure one for me if I left my address in London with her, which I did.
04:12The very next day, the receptionist at the Londonderry Hotel called to say she was sending
04:19a parcel up to my room. I opened it to find The Guide waiting to be devoured by me. I read it at
04:28one go, sitting on the balcony of my suite, which overlooked Hyde Park. I thought it had a good
04:37story and the character of Raju, the guide, was extraordinary. Then suddenly I remembered the
04:44novel had won the Sahitya Academy Award as the best work of fiction in the English language. R.K.
04:51Narayan, the author, was a very distinguished novelist and had also made a name in the Western
04:58literary world. After reading the novel, Mr. Arnand called the much-heralded American novelist,
05:05Pearl S. Buck, who had won the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature, with whom he was in contact about
05:13the possibilities of turning The Guide into a feature film. She had mentioned it to him that
05:18there was an off-Broadway performance of a play based on the novel. Once he met Buck in New York,
05:25Arnand went to California to visit Hollywood. That is where he decided to call Narayan. This
05:33is how he writes about his phone call in his autobiography. The receiver was picked up and I
05:42heard a voice say, R.K. Narayan here. Devanand was my reply. Devanand? He was curious. Which Devanand?
05:52Devanand the actor, I clarified. Are you sure? He did not seem to believe me. Yes, it is me, I assured him.
06:00Nice talking to you, Mr. Devanand, he said warmly. Where are you calling from, Mr. Devanand?
06:06I frantically tried to get hold of your number in New York, I said. You did? He interrupted me,
06:13getting interested when he heard the word frantically. Couldn't get it from anyone,
06:19but I'm now calling from Los Angeles, California, I finished. I see. Hollywood, I emphasized.
06:25Hollywood? He said quizzically. A name associated with the best of show business, I enthused.
06:33Of course, Mr. Devanand. He played with my name and gave a friendly laugh. Tell me what can I do
06:39for you? We could shake hands on a project that can conquer Hollywood, I remarked. He listened
06:46silently. We want to put your story on the screen for the world to look at and admire your work, I
06:52said. What do you mean by we? He was inquisitive. Have you heard of Pearl Buck, I asked. The famous
07:00author? Who hasn't? She and I are keen to film your great work of fiction, I flattered him.
07:07Which one? He asked. The Guide. The Guide? He laughed. There was a triumphant note in his voice.
07:15The Guide, I repeated. And I want to play The Guide. I like the idea, he said.
07:22The movie was to be made both in English and Hindi. Arnand writes in his autobiography,
07:29Ted Danielewski, and I finalized the details of the partnership between Stretton Productions of
07:36New York and Navketan International. Then I flew back to Bombay, where the film industry was
07:41agog with the news that R.K. Narayan's famous novel The Guide was to be an Indo-American
07:48co-production, to be shot simultaneously in Hindi and English, that the world-renowned
07:54writer Pearl S. Buck was collaborating on the script and that Tejwanan was to star
08:00in both the versions. Pearl and Ted arrived in Bombay soon after. I hosted a big reception
08:07for them at the Sunninside Hotel in keeping with Pearl's stature. Important people from different
08:14walks of life were invited and they all turned up to meet her. I also held a press conference
08:20for Pearl and the Taj. The entire journalist elite of the city attended. Later at Nagpur,
08:28I was a special invitee for an All India Congress Committee session and was asked to sit next to
08:34Pandit Nehru. I broke the news of my new project to him and he gave me a pat on the back.
08:42Originally, the two versions were to be shot parallelly with Danielewski directing the
08:48English one and Anand's older brother Chetan, the Hindi one. But soon enough, as Tejwanan writes,
08:57a clash of creative egos came to the fore. Tejwanan then decided to finish the shooting
09:06of the English version first and then the Hindi one later. That offered a chance to Chetan Anand
09:12to leave the project and instead make his much celebrated war classic, Hakikat. It was later
09:21that Anand roped in his younger brother Vijay Anand. The two decided that the Hindi version
09:27would have an entirely different script keeping in mind Indian ethos and sensibilities.
09:35I would suggest you read Anand's biography for some extra details about what transpired
09:43behind the scenes during the shoot of the Hindi version, including some consternation and
09:49otherwise suave and urbane. Tejwanan, the star, playing a disheveled sadhu with a beard
09:57towards the end of the film. Guide was a triumph at several levels,
10:03including and particularly at the level of its astoundingly inspired music scored by the
10:10brilliant Sachin Dey. By many measures, the Guide songs are considered to be
10:17among his all-time great songs, as they are for the iconic lyricist Shalindra, as well as the
10:25singers Lada Mangeshkar, Mahmud Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey. In my estimation, the song
10:39contains what are perhaps the most compelling two lines in Hindi cinema song history,
10:45capturing the exultation and conflict of love. Shalindra rose to the very top of his poetic
10:53genius when he wrote, I had asked Mr. Anand about the song and those
11:06particular lines. He told me, and I'm quoting him now, Shalindra surpassed himself with those lines
11:14as a lyricist. Dada, that is S. D. Berman, surpassed himself as a composer with that composition
11:21and Lada Mangeshkar surpassed herself as a singer with that song. Every song in the movie
11:30was better than the other. In fact, another point I had discussed with Mr. Anand was about
11:42and he told me something quite interesting. He said,
11:45that song would easily be among his most favorite in terms of what he had to do to go
11:54inside his interior self to represent the melancholy of that particular song. He regarded
12:04Din Dhal Jai as one of his all-time favorite songs. You can see that notwithstanding his
12:12sometimes accentuated mannerisms in other films. In that particular song and in the movie generally,
12:19Mr. Anand was quite remarkably measured and to a considerable extent, I think Vijay Anand
12:28can be credited for that. Before I sign off, I found that although of course he regarded
12:36Tevarand as an absolute landmark of his career, Tevarand would sometimes get somewhat
12:48riled that people almost obsessively talked about Guide while talking about his filmography.
12:55But of course, he knew that Guide would always remain sort of an identifier of his career.
13:03To mark the 60th anniversary, I suggest you watch the film. It might be interesting.
13:10Thank you for spending your 15-20 minutes with me.