The Guru Dutt team is a group of people Guru Dutt created for some of his finest works. The death of Guru Dutt cut short more works. What the team created is considered to forever have left its mark on Indian cinema as well as world cinema.
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Some well-known movies the team created are Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Kaagaz Ke Phool and Pyaasa. Pyaasa is ranked among the top 100 movies of all times by Time magazine.[1] Much of their work found critical appreciation long after these movies were made. Movies such as Kaagaz Ke Phool, which was a huge commercial failure of its days, found critical and commercial success when it was re-released in the 1980s in Europe. Guru Dutt has a huge fan-following in France, Germany and Japan, where his movie festivals are held occasionally.[2]
The magic of the team dissipated after the death of Guru Dutt when he was 39 years old.
Post his death, only a few of the members were able to achieve the critical acclaim they did as a team. Partly the reason was Guru Dutt's eye for detail. Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool are an inspiration for directors even today. The exceptions were S.D. Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, Hemant Kumar and Mohammad Rafi who were already established when Guru Dutt entered film making. Waheeda Rehman may be debatable, however none of her future roles would give her same critical acclaim as under the team. V.K.Murthy continued work with Promod Chakravarthy but his notable work was in Tamas (1987), directed by his erstwhile assistant Govind Nihalani.