Book review
Guru Dutt was born on 9 July, 1925 into a Saraswat family of Mangalore and educated in the liberal climate of Calcutta.

He started his own production company in 1954 with Aar Paar, and never looked back till Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam, 1962, his last film. On 9 October 1964, he committed suicide.

His oeuvre is now widely regarded as one of the most rich and significant legacies of Indian cinema, amongst the finest examples of the melodrama mode.

This volume aims to lay before the reader the particular melodramatic tradition of the Hindi film that Guru Dutt typified.

The critical fragments spread over the books six chapters are taken from the body of work done by critics in elevating the Hollywood melodrama, primarily of the forties and fifties, to critical acceptability and respectability.

Dutt's Indian melodramas, functioning around the same time, seem to be assembled in very similar ways and when examined under these rubrics, reveal a high level of vision and craftsmanship.


About the author Chitrita Banerji grew up in Calcutta, received her master’s degree from Harvard University, and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She spent many years as a journalist, editor and translator. Along with Life and Food in Bengal, she is also the author of Bengali Cooking: Seasons and Festivals, and The Hour of the Goddess: Memories of Women, Food, and Ritual in Bengal. Her articles, columns, and short fiction have appeared in Granta, Gourmet, Gastronomica, the Boston Globe, the American Prospect, Calyx, Petits Propos Culinaires, the Phoenix, and Boston Magazine. She has also received awards for her papers at the Oxford Symposium of Food and Cookery.