Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)

That was an excellent one.

One of my all time favorites.

best movie i've ever seen.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

saw pyaasa first which sorta disappointed me but then i watched this one just for the song 'waqt ne kiya'. for a modern day movie goer there is no sanctity attached to this stalwart of yester years, it follows that no offense whatsoever is intended in my casual language. about the movie, it is difficult to realise that so many scenes seem 'old' because these have been excessively used/copied/parodied/improvised/destroyed in the past 50 years in various languages. but there are so many scenes where the intensity of the passion of Guru Dutt as a film maker is unmatched. Waheeda Rehman was blissful in pyaasa and is even more so in this one..one word 'love her' !! if you were to watch this movie as a critic, you will appreciate it well but if you were to watch it as a casual man, it is heart wrenching. yet, i prefer the latter.

Apparently Guru dutt stopped directing movies after the failure of Kaagaz ke phool at the box office. What a pity! If only he had considered the holes in the plot, being the perfectionist he is, he would definitely have made at least one more film. And Indian Cinema surely needed more from a director of his calibre and taste.Kaagaz Ke phool ( paper / artificial flowers ) is the story of a brilliant director who gets trapped into a downward spiral of self destruction. As soon as the titles roll down to the tune of "waqt ne kiya", we hear a poignant background song by Rafi , written by Sahir Ludhianvi and composed by S.D. Burman. An old and battered Suresh Singh is seen looking at the studios forlornly. And soon ensues the flash back about how this brilliant director goes through a roller coaster ride, suffers the pangs of a bad marriage, misses his daughter, discovers a star, meets an understanding friend and companion, and how he becomes a victim to the whims of society and loses everything. There are a few flaws in the plot, especially around the events related to the turning point in the life of the protagonist, which may put off some audience.There is a comedy track, which may not gel well with the present day viewers. However, if the viewer is willing to be generous with his suspension of disbelief, he is in store for an audio-visual treat of a kind that is rarely seen among the annals of Indian Cinema. Guru dutt and Waheeda Rehman do well in their respective roles and most of the cast give good support. But what stand out are the music, the songs and the cinematography. Lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi is a master and "waqt ne kiya" proves it beyond any doubt. And what to say about S.D. Burman? He is an acknowledged genius and here he composes music that captures the spirit of the movie so wonderfully. The cinematography is a lesson for photographers. Some of the scenes,where conversation between the actors is picturized with the actors alternately fading in and out of the focus, have a wonderful effect on the feel of the film.On the whole, be kind towards a few flaws, and you will not regret watching the movie.

This movie sums up the genius of Guru Dutt. A reclusive and introvert man portrayed in the movie was Dutt himself. Too bad the movie went over the heads of Audience in the 50s, however, its charisma has given it the status of a cult classic. Waheeda Rahman was beautiful as ever and acted much better than she did in Pyaasa. I rate this movie better than Pyaasa personally. Kaifi Azmi's lyrics are at their best with "Waqt ne kiya" song topping everything out! I think the beginning is extremely maudlin and same for the ending. He enters the studio as an old and broken man, only to be jeered at by his ex colleagues. A must watch with outstanding Music!!!!

A huge disappointment! Dutt's Pyaasa is one of my all-time favorite films; few have moved me so greatly. I didn't think he could top that one, but I also didn't think that his next film would fall so low. I mean, it's a fairly good film, but it really failed to resonate with me. Where Pyaasa was an archetypical plot that aspired to myth, Kaagaz Ke Phool is more along the lines of melodrama. Completely lost is the previous film's visual and aural poetry. The story of Paper Flowers concerns a film director, played by Dutt, who discovers a poor woman, Waheeda Rehman, to star in his new film. The two of them develop a special relationship that approaches love, but is not quite there. Then the director's daughter, Baby Naaz, enters the picture. The director's wife separated (not divorced) from him because her upper class family did not approve of a man involved in the film industry. But the daughter cannot stand to see her father fall for another woman, so she convinces Rehman to quit after the film is done. Disaster ensues for everyone. For this film to work better, I think the characters really needed to be better developed. They are mostly pretty generic. The daughter especially needed a more fully written role, because she basically ruins two lives and we only hastily see how she is affected by this. The movie pulls together a bit by its end, and its last couple of sequences are good, but nothing comes close to the cinematic magic of Pyaasa. Even the songs are far below Bollywood standards; they're too few and far between, and they tend to sound alike. Sometimes I wasn't sure if one song was a reprise of another. I liked a few of them, especially those sung by the actress character (sung, that is, by Geeta Dutt, as the actors tend not to sing in Bollywood). 7/10.