Review of Pyaasa (1957) by Lauren H — 21 Mar 2008

Atmospheric Bollywood film with some truly brilliant moments. The first half felt needlessly cliched, but my interest picked up in the second half (despite the fact that the DVD mismatched the dialogue and subtitles).

I will admit to being a little tired of the 'suffering artist' cliche. Particularly troublesome was the scene in which Vijay watches a female dancer who wants to go take care of her crying baby.

Instead of helping her, he simply cries himself. The world does not need another passive hero. Some of the camerawork was overused, such as Dutt's apparent love-affair with the zoom lens. But the ending was touching and acting broad but strong.

The poetry was certainly lovely.