Book Review

Guide The Film: Perspectives
Lata Jagtiani & Other Writers
Blue Pencil, New Delhi, 2019
ISBN: 978-81-939555-2-9

An unintended blessing of Corona-enforced lockdown, I thought, was that I would be able to finish some half-read books and watch and rewatch some of my favourite films. With this thought I resumed ‘Guide The Film: Perspectives’ which had been sitting on my desk for a while. My desire appeared to be facing a serious setback as Doordarshan decided to take us back to their golden era by carpet-bombing DD National and DD Bharati with their classic serials, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Buniyad, Dekh Bhai Dekh and NFDC films etc. I didn’t want to miss the nostalgia, but by then I was quite engrossed in the book and I had to finish it by rationing my time between different pulls.

Book review is not a regular feature on my blog, though I have done a few, but some readers have been requesting me off and on to write book reviews – a reader specially mentioned a well-known book written by Manek Premchand. I have read his books, but I became his admirer after I read his blog which showed his wide interests and command over language. Alas, that blog seems to have vanished. On my query, Manekji replied that there was some technical glitch which he hoped to resolve soon. I wish it comes to life again. He happens to be associated with ‘Guide The Film: Perspectives’, too, as is evident from the cover of the book. He has written an excellent introduction laying out before us the contours and objective of the book. It is a compilation of 14 essays written by different authors, including the ‘Introduction’ by him, each dealing with some aspect of Navketan’s path-breaking film Guide (1965), based on RK Narayan’s English novel The Guide. I am familiar with some of the contributors whose writings I like. That is plenty of reasons to give my perspective on the book, though belated.

There are many aspects about the cult movie which evoke awe and admiration. The bold theme of an Indian wife trapped in a loveless marriage with a self-obsessed, insensitive husband, breaking free to live-in with another man who lets her realise her artistic talent and bloom as a famous dancer. Their romantic love going terribly awry as the man gets ensnared in temptations of money, good life, gambling, liquor, high society; and the woman now feeling driven like slave through endless programmes, travels – not for the sake of her art, but for life in the fast lane for the man. Alienated from each other, the man becomes more and more possessive at the slightest hint of the husband being generous towards the woman, lest she should go back to him. In one such moment, the man stoops to forging the woman’s signature, which is soon caught and lands him in jail when the woman refuses to testify in his favour. There are contrasting perspectives of the two protagonists on this episode. His motive is not ‘cheating’ but only to keep her from her husband. For her, it is plain forgery and cheating for money, which she would have happily given had he asked her. Thus, both feeling wronged and betrayed by the other person. On release from jail, the fallen man is at a crossroads – his city 1 ½ miles, and Anjanpur (the Unknown Place) 685 miles away. Since Wahan kaun hai tera, he decides to go to the unknown. He finally lands up at a village temple, tired, emaciated, hungry, covered in a saffron shawl thrown at him by a kindly sadhu to protect him from the cold. The simple villagers led by Bhola (The Innocent One) take him as a swami who would mitigate their suffering caused by drought and famine, by bringing rains by fasting, as in the legends.

And, finally the fallen man accepting the enforced sainthood, moved by the faith of the villagers, and achieving the ultimate redemption when nothing remains except the union between his Physical Self and the Real Self, in a detailed exposition of Vedant never attempted before.

And all through this epic journey are great lyrics of Shailendra which are a vehicle for moving the story forward. And equally superb music by SD Burman. Most importantly, Vijay Anand’s masterly direction who also wrote the dialogues and the script, and edited the film. He was the true auteur of Guide the film.

Despite Guide being such a masterpiece on various counts, RK Narayan was very unhappy about the major departures from his novel. As the English version of the film (with the same cast, but screenplay by Pearl S Buck, and directed by Tad Danielewski), released earlier, failed miserably, Vijay Anand knew what was required to make the Hindi version acceptable to the Indian audience. There had to be a justification for the married woman to leave her husband for another man – the husband had to be darker than in the novel, with womanising added to his vile traits. The lady had to be a damsel in distress who is given a helping hand by the guide who cannot bear the woman suffer the misery and let her talent be stifled. Thus the lead characters are given a soft, romantic hue, though with some human failings. And the climax cannot be left ambiguous as in the book, hence the elaborate metaphysical ending when the enforced saint achieves real sainthood by his ultimate sacrifice which brings in the rains.

Does this book do full justice to all the above aspects about the movie? Lata Jagtiani’s omnibus article of about 70 pages, following the Introduction, is titled ‘Guide: A Perspective’ – almost a replica of the title of the book. And she covers all possible perspectives one could think of, in different sub-sections: ‘The Origin of the Novel The Guide’; ‘RK Narayan’s Novel The Guide’; ‘Enter Dev Anand; The Hindi Film Guide’; ‘Vijay Anand’s Changes’ – she elaborates five major changes; ‘The Long Playing Record’ – she discusses eight tracks including the ‘Snake Dance’. She finally quotes RK Narayan that loneliness is the only truth in life, and draws a very perceptive conclusion that “Marco discards Rosie, who, in turn, discards Raju, and, finally, Raju discards the physical world to self-actualise”, because there is room for only one at the peak of self-actualisation. With such a comprehensive article there is bound to be an overlap in the following articles, about which Manekji gives a forewarning in his Introduction.

Shailendra, Lyrics and SD Burman’s music

The next article is quite grandiosely titled, ‘Kaanton Se Kheench Ke Ye Aanchal: Women’s Emancipation‘ by Ajay Kanagat. I have to come back to this article at the end of my review. The one after this, by Antara Nanda Mondal, too, is devoted to a single song – ‘Wahan Kaun Hai Tera, Musafir, Jayega Kahaan…Life in a Nutshell‘. Antara is the Editor-in-chief of the site learningandcreativity.com, and a regular writer there. Her articles on music are always backed by deep research and display a serious approach to the subject. In Wahan Kaun Hai Tera she shows a similar insight and takes a comprehensive look, placing it in the context of the movie, when Raju comes out of the jail, not sure where to go. Even though his city is only 1 ½ miles away, but Bhool gaye wo, tu bhi bhula de, therefore, Raju trudges through the unending paths to the Unknown. Koi bhi teri raah na dekhe, Nain bichhaye na koi becomes a metaphor for everyone’s final journey. And finally Shailendra writes the fundamental truth, sung and composed so movingly by SD Burman as an atmospheric song – Kahte hain gyani/ Duniya hai faani/ Paani pe likhi likhaai/ Hai sabki dekhi/ Hai sabki jaani/ Haath kisi ke na ayi/ Kuchh tera na mera/ Musafir jayega kahan. The wise men say, the world is transitory, like writing on water. Everyone has seen it, everyone knows it, but no one can hold on to it. Antara has placed each phrase in the context of the scene in the movie, and aptly concludes that the song encapsulates the ultimate truth of life, when you realise you came alone and will leave alone. Another article which focusses on a single song is ‘The Confluence of Conflicting Perspectives‘ by Kalpana Swamy in which she discusses the different perspectives of Raju-Rosie about betrayal/betrayed on the basis of the back-to-back songs Mose chhal kiye jaaye sainya beimaan – Kya se kya ho gaya bewafa tere pyar mein. Kalpana is spot on in highlighting how they are in two different worlds. When Raju is being taken away by the police, Rosie asks him why did he do it, if he needed the money he could have asked her. Raju is bewildered, “समझता था कोई समझे या ना समझे, रोज़ी ज़रूर समझ जायेगी”, to which an equally bewildered Rosie replies, “सच तो ये है राजू, न मैं तुम्हें समझी न तुम मुझे समझे.”

There are two more articles devoted exclusively to the songs of the movie: ‘The Sojourn of a Soul‘ by Deepa Booty, and ‘Shailendra’s Lyrical Narrative’ by Dharmakirthi. Deepa takes an interesting approach in associating each track with a Ras (रस). Since Vijay Anand-Shailendra-SD Burman would not have created the songs with this approach in mind, some of her associations appear far-fetched. Piya tose naina laage re – Veer Ras; Mose chhal kiye jaaye – Vibhatsa Ras; and Kya se kya ho gaya – Raudra Ras may make you scratch your brains if you associate Veer Ras with Khoob ladi mardaani wah to Jhansiwali rani thi, or with Ramdhari Singh Dinkar’s याचना नहीं अब रण होगा, जीवन जय या कि मरण होगा; Vibhatsa Ras with Bhim drinking the blood from Duhshashan’s chest; and Raudra Ras with Lord Shiva’s Tandav Dance. But she does love her subject passionately, and her write up is otherwise quite informative. Dharmakirthi, too, looks at the songs, but from the perspective of Shailendra’s lyrics. One can ignore the hyperbole, “Shailendra is my modern day Kalidasa”, but I entirely agree with him that the story can be better understood by viewing the songs in the order of their appearance in the movie. Incidentally, he sees Shringar Ras in Piya tose naina laage re, which is perfectly acceptable.

Guide the film, Vijay Anand

Gaurav Sahay’s ’The Impact Points of an Undulating Story on Celluloid’ is an excellent article describing some important events in the film that have great impact on the viewers. He makes an interesting point whether Raju’s life can be seen as an outcome of the exercise of his free will or pre-ordained, and it is Guide’s greatness that you can view it as a combination of both. He uses Shailendra’s lyrics inevitably for underscoring his points.

Monica Kar’s ’The Power of the Spoken Word’ focusses on Vijay Anand’s dialogues. After enumerating the elements of great dialogues as summed up by Staton Rabin, she goes on to mention the powerful dialogues for various characters, including the minor characters. She befittingly ends her article with the final words of the Saint Raju: Na sukh hai na dukh hai, …Sirf main hoon, main hoon, main sirf main. You can’t but agree with her that among the elements that make the film unforgettable is also Vijay Anand’s superb dialogues.

’Navketan and Vijay Anand’ by Sudeep Pahwa is a superb article which, without verbosity, highlights the multiple roles of Vijay Anand – scriptwriter, dialogue writer, editor and director – in making Guide a great movie. ’A Spiritual Odyssey’ by Vijay Kumar is another well-written article, focussing on Raju’s ultimate sacrifice. The final redemption makes you view Raju’s entire life as a spiritual odyssey. The author also adds a section giving the overview of the songs. A number of authors have already done it, but you can never have enough of Guide’s songs.

’Les Acteurs Principaux: The Key Players & Their Personas with Psyche and Myth as Spicy Fillings’ is written by a practising psychiatrist, Dr. Pisharoty Chandran. He spends a good part of the article in explaining the literature on psychiatry, psychodynamics, difference between Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) and Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD), Id, Ego and Super-ego, and finally tries to fit in his theory to Rosie and other principal players in the story. I have to leave it to the experts to make sense of this article.

The novel and the film

Lata Jagtiani had covered a good ground on this subject in her overview article, and I was looking for something more comprehensive and analytical. ’The Guide: The Novel versus the Film’ by MV Devraj covers a still narrower ground. This might be due to the absence of a centralised co-ordination of the various authors and their contributions. I am mentioning this because a striking difference which no author seems to have highlighted is that, in the book after Raju goes to jail his mother and Rosie never enter his life again, but in the movie they do during his ‘sainthood’. That is another masterstroke of Vijay Anand as this scene not only enhances the pathos, it also redeems the mother and Rosie by their awareness that perhaps they had not been entirely fair to him, and further glorifies his final redemption as he is beyond even this attachment. But with all the accolades to Vijay Anand, one should not mistake that RK Narayn’s The Guide is lesser. One cannot but agree with Mr Devraj that both the novel and the film are master class creations. And it is a truism for any film adaptation of a great classic novel, the two are different mediums. The pleasure of reading a great book can never be recreated on celluloid.

Cherry on the cake

’How Much Do You Know on This Subject’ by Bobby Sing is a compilation of 25 questions on the novel and the two films based on it, in Hindi and English. Unpretentious, it is cherry on the cake. His stated objective is to “excite and engage the young Hindi movie lovers who might still not have seen this unmistakable classic”, but it is bound to interest, excite and challenge the connoisseurs too. Some questions do not require any prior knowledge, such as #21, “What is the unique feature of the song Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai?”, but others require knowledge of varying degrees.

I have to come back to ‘Kaanton Se Kheench Ke Ye Aanchal: Women’s Emancipation‘ which I mentioned earlier. I had left it for the end for a reason. It is neither about the song nor about women’s emancipation. The author gives a simple summary of the story of the film, and in the end mentions the song. This article does not belong in this anthology.

Overall the book is very strong on the lyrics, songs and music. You become more aware of the exceptional talent of Vijay Anand, and his contribution in creating this masterpiece. The book will inspire you to go back to the movie again and watch it with a better understanding. It might also inspire you to read the novel, The Guide, and more of RK Narayan, if you have not already. And it just might make you curious to check out the English version of the movie, which I did in spite of sufficient warnings to keep away from it.  A pirated version of the English version of the movie, rarely seen before, is now available on the YouTube. If you love your Guide, and you love its songs, as the authors of the book so obviously do, this is a book worth having and reading.