Guide, The Film: Perspectives

The Guide, the book written by RK Narayan, fired the imagination of Dev Anand to bring that story to celluloid. The film Guide brought maximum success and fame to Navketan. It justifiably bagged several Filmfare awards for that year; after all, it was an epic film, which was at once radical and traditional.

Genius always provokes admiration and curiosity. Why did Guide succeed when others failed? Was there a workable formula that others could use for subsequent films? What made Guide a classic? Guide lovers have asked themselves and each other these questions from time to time. Finally, when a few of them saw the terribly tedious English version of Guide, they realised that the Hindi film needed study, because both had the same plot, almost the same cast and crew, and yet the difference was stunning. They then decided to do a study of this classic and bring it in the form of a book to be read by lovers of great cinema.

This urge to redefine and analyse the extraordinariness of the cult film led to this collection of essays. The fourteen writers attempt to focus on different aspects of the film, even if there are overlaps, which are inevitable in a project such as this.

The book also intends to be a tribute to the masters, Vijay Anand, Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Fali Mistry, SD Burman, Shailendra, Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey. Not to forget the other members of the cast and crew who reached for the apex of their talents and produced a chef d'oeuvre.

This book is a unique collaborative study, fuelled by lovers of cinema and its music. The fourteen writers are Lata Jagtiani, Manek Premchand, Ajay Kanagat, Antara Nanda Mondal, Bobby Sing, Deepa Buty, Dharmakirthi, Gaurav Sahay, Kalpana Swamy, Monica Kar, MV Devraj, Pisharoty Chandran, Sundeep Pahwa and Vijay Kumar. It's a book that all Guide lovers must possess.