Yeh Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye To Kya Hai (Pyaasa, 1957) | The Idea of Artistic Integrity in Guru Dutt's Magnum Opus

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"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.

Ravikant traces the significance of the poet as protagonist across Hindi cinema of the 1950s to 1970s. A figure who carries within himself the tensions between artistic integrity and social pressure, between idealism and disillusionment.

Antara Nanda 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 this song from Pyaasa, that critique finds its most devastating expression.

This segment is part of T.R.I.S.' workshop series "A Musical Glue for Nation-Building: Deconstructing the Film Song," featuring Madan Gopal Singh, Ravikant, Antara Nanda 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.

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