Guru Dutt's female characters were mirrors to a changing India

The Print

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Scholars and professors are examining the women in his films through a feminist lens. Even actors such as Ratna Pathak Shah have spoken about the portrayal of women in Dutt's films, although she found the depiction 'offensive'.
The impact Guru Dutt made on Hindi cinema can be understood through the fact that, even six decades after his death, his female characters continue to be studied and written about in research papers.
New Delhi: Guru Dutt's female protagonists reflected the changing tides of Indian society and helped shape his noir narratives. Through these characters, Dutt explored themes of love, loss, and the struggles of living within societal rules.
Yet it's clear that in Dutt's films, women were integral to the storytelling. They weren't just mothers or weak, feckless side characters, like those played by Nirupa Roy in later Bollywood films. In his cinema, women were the emotional and moral centres of the plot.
'In Dutt's films, these characters influence the journey of the male protagonists. These women represent society's darker sides, for example corruption, betrayal and moral issues. Their actions often lead to tragic endings,' wrote Chinmoyee Das, research scholar, and Pankaj Kumar, assistant professor, department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Central University of Haryana, in their 2025 paper titled The Role of the Femme Fatale in Shaping Guru Dutt's Noir Narratives.
A man ahead of his time, Dutt used female characters in films such as Pyaasa and Kagaz ke Phool to express deep emotions and complex ideas. These women are etched in memory like brushstrokes on a canvas: vibrant, poignant, and hauntingly beautiful. Through their nuanced portrayals, they embody the struggles, desires, and contradictions of their era.
'In Guru Dutt's movies, the femme fatale reflects society's contradictions at that time,' the paper reads.
In Guru Dutt's centenary year, ThePrint revisits some of the unforgettable women characters from his films.
Also read: 'He never spoke about why he wanted to die'—Guru Dutt's sister broke her silence
Guru Dutt's complex women characters
In one of the conversations in Pyaasa, Meena, played by Mala Sinha, asks Gulab, played by Waheeda Rehman, how a gentleman like Vijay (Guru Dutt) could know someone like her, a prostitute. Gulab answers quietly: 'Saubhagya se (by good fortune).'
Dutt indulged in reflecting the realistic state of post-Independence India. In the film, Vijay's college sweetheart Meena chooses wealth over love. As she tell him during an argument: 'Sirf pyaar kaafi nahi hota (Love alone is not enough).'
In Pyaasa, the female characters are intricately woven into the complexities of the narrative. Gulab and Meena represent contrasting aspects of womanhood.
Gulab, despite being marginalised and objectified, shows strength and becomes Vijay's emotional anchor. Meena, on the other hand, represents an idealised figure trapped in societal expectations, highlighting the limitations placed on women at the time. Dutt critiques the very norms that restrict women's autonomy and agency.
'Pyaasa is a poetic, cinematic representation of a pseudo-modern world,' writes Tamanna, an English educator, in a 2024 paper titled Cinema Through Guru Dutt's Gaze.
Das notes in her paper how Dutt's women characters reflect the changing role of women in 1950s India. 'It shows independence, the conflict between old and new values and criticism of materialism. Guru Dutt gives strength, vulnerability and ambition,' the paper reads.
Dutt's characters were nuanced but written with such simplicity that new actors could easily navigate them on the sets. Waheeda Rehman once admitted in conversation with TV producer and director Nasreen Munni Kabir that she did not know much about acting before Pyaasa.
'All the credit goes to Guru Dutt in the way he built the character of Gulab,' she told Kabir for her book Guru Dutt: A life in Cinema.
Also read: Guru Dutt built Bollywood's most unlikely dream team—bus conductor, unknown writer, dancer
Challenging patriarchy, marriage, zamindari system
A turning point in Guru Dutt's cinematic life came with the much-celebrated Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), which is widely believed to be based on his personal life.
The entertainment industry was awash with rumours of an affair between Rehman and Gutt, affecting his married life. In Kaagaz Ke Phool, Dutt played the role of a film director, Suresh, whose troubled marriage reaches a breaking point after he discovers an orphaned girl (Rehman) and turns her into a famous movie star while falling in love with her.
Although the film failed at the box office upon its release, it had a revival of sorts in the 1980s and is now remembered as a classic that remains an inspiration for filmmakers and actors.
In Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), directed by Abrar Alvi and produced by Dutt, the story takes on patriarchy, the institution of marriage, and the zamindari system. Chhoti Bahu, played by Meena Kumari, is a complex character defined by loneliness and longing.
Despite her elite background, Chhoti Bahu's life is surrounded by the emptiness of her aristocratic life. The character broke the traditional view that a pious Hindu wife could neither drink alcohol nor be close to a man outside her marriage, such as Bhutnath (played by Guru Dutt).
'The film undoubtedly is based on the decay of feudalism in the British Raj when masculinity posed problems for women in the patriarchal order. Guru Dutt, however, unleashes the pain and trauma of a lonely 'aristocratic' wife who later reduces herself to an alcoholic in order to get attention of her husband,' wrote Prerana Sinha, assistant professor at Delhi University in her 2021 paper Guru Dutt, an auteur or an existentialist: A Critical Evaluation of his Art.
His focus on women, irrespective of class and social position, makes the film special, Sinha added.
Meena Kumari was at the peak of her career when she agreed to play the role of an alcoholic wife. For Sinha, the scene where Kumari gulps down liquor is 'really revolting'.