1957 Bollywood film will be screened at Venice film fest

Dailybhaskar.com | Aug 26, 2015, 11:02AM IST

Buzz is that the Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman starrer Pyaasa which released in 1957 is all set to be screened at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival. The 10-day fest which opens on September 2 will have Pyaasa competing with 20 other films from across the world for the Venice Classics Award for the best restored film. It will be screened on September 11 and 12 in the Sala Volpi auditorium.

What's special about the film is that it's said to be the first ever movie which has been restored in India. As per news sources, the job has been done by Ultra Media and Entertainment. The company has the negative rights of some memorable movies made by Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, V Shantaram, Homi Wadia and studios like Filmistaan, AVM and Gemini.

The idea of taking the film to Venice came to Sushilkumar Agrawal, CEO of the company when he noticed the absence of Indian films in the retro section of prestigious fests and thus decided to restore Pyaasa which when searched on Google came among the top 100 classics.

After the screening of the film at the festival in Venice, the movie apparently will travel to various other international film festivals, after which it will be re-released worldwide in 2016.

Directed by Guru Dutt, the film narrates the story of Vijay (Guru Dutt), a struggling poet trying to make his works known in post-independence India, and Gulabo (Waheeda Rehman), a prostitute with a heart of gold who eventually helps him get his poems published.