Nasreen Munni Kabir with Shah Rukh Khan

How did you chance upon these unpublished letters by Guru Dutt?

Guru Dutt?s son Arun showed me the letters two years ago where the film-maker had written to his wife Geeta Dutt. At that time what we had to decide was whether it was good or not to publish these personal letters written by a husband to his wife. They were very sad letters and there was nothing controversial in the content. It couldn?t have affected his image 40 years after he died. All it could have done was help understand his thinking and their relationship better. And when Guru Dutt?s son said yes, there was no problem whatsoever.

So why did it take you all this while to come out with the collection?

First of all, we wanted to release the book in 2005, the 75th birth anniversary of Geeta Dutt. Then, the design for the book was quite elaborate. The letters themselves were quite frail. So it took some time to materialise.

Do they offer a deeper insight into Guru Dutt the film-maker?

Two Guru Dutt films ? Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool ? are considered to be very autobiographical. That?s something we assume. When we see a film and then meet the director, we do not necessarily meet the same person that comes across in his work. But when you read that person?s letters, you can observe that same character in both his film and his writings. Everything of an artiste is worth recording, everything should be preserved.

And do the letters throw any light on his relationship with Geeta Dutt?

We usually talk or write or even know very little of Guru Dutt?s marriage. We are only concerned about his other relationships. But here was this woman who had put her career on hold for her family. So, to know about her and their relationship directly from the person 40 years after he?s gone is quite a find. It?s a little treasure.

Do you have any of Geeta Dutt?s letters to her husband? Did she reply to his letters at all?

She must have, because Guru Dutt mentions in his letters, ?I got your reply? and ?It was good to hear from you? quite a few times. But we do not have any of her letters. Either he did not keep her letters or they were destroyed when he died.

Is there any mention of Waheeda Rehman?

There is nothing personal written about her.

Did Guru Dutt write to Geeta Dutt about his film-making craft?

He did write to her about the logistics of his work. Like, ?Today I finished shooting a song? or something as mundane as that. There is not one line boasting of his status as a film-maker. He seems full of self-doubt in the letters.

Did he write about the renunciation of the world, something that came across often in his movies?

He writes, ?I wish I could be as dead as death can be?. He asks often in his letters, ?Why am I living?? Yes, there is a lot of suicidal thinking in his letters.

Do you guide the readers to what the letters mean?

The letters are self-explanatory. I did not go for assumption or speculation because one has to respect the dead. You have to remember these letters were not meant for publication. I did it because there is the archival rule that 30 years after a person?s death, his personal things can be made public with consent of his family. All I have done in the book is given footnotes to each letter to put the writings in minimum context. Say, if in one of the letters, he mentions ?Mama?s place?, I have written that Mama is Mr Benegal, his uncle?

For a documentary film-maker like yourself, what was it like working on a book like this?

I had done a long biography on Guru Dutt in 1996. So this was like a natural progression for me. You can say I just pressed the reset button on the computer.

This comes just after your documentation of Shah Rukh Khan?s life in The Inner World and The Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan?

Yes, when I spoke to Shah Rukh, I could see a certain sadness in him. Despite all the success and the glamour that is there, the personal conflicts are always there. That Shah Rukh lost his parents so early in his life will always haunt him. I saw a similar sadness in Guru Dutt around his personal life. I guess that?s the commonality between the two works of mine.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali flipping through Your’s Guru Dutt, as Nasreen looks on. Picture by Pratim D. Gupta

Compared to this, translating Javed Akhtar?s songs (Talking Songs) must have been a lot easier?

Not at all. Translating poetry is difficult in itself. And it becomes terribly difficult to translate songs. Without music, the lyrics are just half the story. Even Paul McCartney?s Yesterday sounds so flat on paper. It is the music, the instruments, the voices? that make all the difference. What I did was just translate the meaning of the words of Javed Akhtar?s songs so that people who do not understand Hindi or Urdu can at least follow the meaning. Say a Kuch na kaho is Don?t say a word?

What are you on to next?

I am documenting the making of the stage version of Lord of the Rings in Canada, which has music by A.R. Rahman. That?s the only Indian connection.