The film festival Ekagra concluded with the screening of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’. The film was screened at Bharat Bhavan here on Friday.
Kaagaz Ke Phool is a 1959 Hindi film produced and directed by Guru Dutt, who also played the lead role in the film. The film is regarded as the first Indian film in CinemaScope and is the last film made in Guru Dutt's direction.
Along with Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman played the protagonist of the film.
The film tells, in flashback, the story of Suresh Sinha (Guru Dutt), a famous film director. On a rainy night Sinha meets a woman, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman), and gives her his coat.
She comes to the film studio to return the coat, unintentionally disrupting the shooting by walking in front of the camera. While reviewing the rushes, Sinha recognises her potential as a star and casts her as Paro in Devdas.
Shanti goes on to become an acclaimed star. Shanti and Suresh, two lonely people, come together.
Their liaison is hotly debated in gossip columns and results in Pammi's friends tormenting her in school.
Pammi, Sinha’s daughter pleads with Shanti to leave Sinha's life and allow her parents' marriage another chance.
Moved by Pammi's plea, Shanti throws away her career and becomes a school teacher in a small village.
losing her and Shanti's departure drive Suresh to alcohol. Meanwhile, Shanti is forced to return to films since she has a contract with the studio. Her producer agrees to hire Suresh because of Shanti, but his ego will not let him return and owe his job to Shanti's star status; so she is unable to help him.
In the final scene, remembering his glorious past, he dies in the director's chair in an empty film studio, a lonely and forgotten man.