New Delhi, July 22 -- As film aficionados around South Asia and the diaspora remember Guru Dutt in his birth centenary year, there is nostalgia and deep affection for the legendary filmmaker who died on October 10, 1964.

Whether it was suicide or an accidental overdoes of sleeping pills, this gifted auteur would have turned 40 the following year. Tragically, his life was cut short - perhaps by his own despair and despondency and the many vicissitudes that punctuated his personal life and professional trajectory.

An auteur filmmaker

The concept of the auteur filmmaker has its genesis in post-World War II French film criticism of the late 1940s with figures like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard being key proponents. An auteur is a f...