guru dutt week - C.I.D.

c.i.d. was made in 1956, and starred dev anand, shakila, and johnny walker. guru dutt produced the film, and raj khosla directed. dutt knew khosla, as he had assisted on several of dutt's previous films; and khosla had recently directed his first film, milap (also with dev anand). unfortunately milap was not the success khosla (and the production company) had hoped for. after milap's commercial failure, it was a credit to both dutt's generosity and his belief in khosla's potential that he decided to produce c.i.d. and hand the directorial duties to khosla. in light of khosla's minor reputation at the time, c.i.d. was a risk; but dutt's friend dev anand was already a star, and fortunately for everyone involved, music director o.p. nayyar was at the top of his game.

c.i.d is considered one of the great early bollywood crime thrillers, and khosla went on to be considered one of the great directors of hindi cinema. the movie is indeed a good one, but the songs really steal the show. nayyar had previously written the music for dutt's aar paar, and his distinct style is evident in both soundtracks. nayyar's songs gleefully borrow from western melodies, and there are strange enchanting moments where a bollywood song will suddenly fall into a few bars of "brazil" or in the case of c.i.d.'s yeh hai bombai meri jan, part of the main melody is clearly lifted from "my darling clemintine".

the soundtrack to c.i.d. is considered one of nayyar's greatest, and features mohammed rafi, geeta dutt, asha bhosole, and shamshad begum. because the cover art is so great, i've pictured both the LP and the 7" above. because the songs are so great, it didn't feel right to pick just one, so here are a few tracks from the LP. click on the titles and listen.

ankhon hi ankhon men geeta dutt & mohammed rafi

jata kahan hai diwane geeta dutt

leke pehla pehla pyar shamshad begum & mohammed rafi

yeh hai bombai meri jan geeta dutt & mohammed rafi