The Idea of Artistic Integrity in Guru Dutt's Magnum Opus
Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (Editor)
Document TypeIn-house Video
Date31 August 2026
Duration1 min 02 sec
FormatVertical Video
Description
"Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye To Kya Hai" from Guru Dutt's magnum opus Pyaasa (1957), penned by Sahir Ludhianvi, composed by S.D. Burman, and sung by Mohammed Rafi, moves between a deeply personal outcry and a broader socio-political reflection on a world driven by greed and compromise.
Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Ravikant traces the significance of the poet as protagonist across Hindi cinema of the 1950s to 1970s, a figure who carries within him the tensions between artistic integrity and social pressure, between idealism and disillusionment.
Writer Antara Mondal examines how Guru Dutt's films return repeatedly to a critique of the commodification of art, asking what happens to the artist in a society that measures everything by its material worth. In Pyaasa, that critique finds its most devastating expression in this song.
This session is part of the workshop "A Musical Glue for Nation-Building: Deconstructing the Film Song," featuring Madan Gopal Singh, Ravikant, Antara Mondal, Juhi Saklani, and Neville Tuli, presented by the Tuli Research Centre for India Studies (T.R.I.S.) at the 7th Self-Discovery via Rediscovering India Festival.