Who doesn't love love?

W ho doesn’t love a story on film actors? And when the actors in question are Guru Dutt and his singer-wife Geeta Dutt there is a whole world of romance.

The Hindi play Gardish Mein Taare , directed by Saif Hyder Hasan, is a take on the tumultuous relationship the two shared, against the backdrop of the cinema of their times. The play celebrates its 25th show with a debut in Bengaluru today, October 21.

Gardish Mein Taare is the second in a trilogy that the director has conceived, all based on the man-woman relationship. The first in the series was

Ek Mulaqat that dwelt on the relationship between the poets, Sahir Ludhianvi and Amrita Pritam, played by Shekhar Suman and Deepti Naval. The third, says the director, titled

Yaad Piya Ki Aaye will explore Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s relationship with his muse.

This second play is fictionalised and traces the collapse of the relationship between filmmaker Devdutt Bose and his singer wife Bhavana, played by Arif Zakaria and Sonali Kulkarni. “Both plays talk of unfulfilled love, music, artists, and death,” is how director Saif strings together the commonalities. With the trilogy, he says it is like “narrating the same story thrice,” and laughs. He believes that the nature of most of these man-woman relationships hold good, irrespective of the period they are set in.

“I haven’t fictionalised Geeta and Guru Dutt's relationship or life. I have only fictionalised the situation to create drama. I have remained true to the spirit but have tweaked their characters. I believe that what happens between a couple happens in their bedroom. Anything anyone else says is always speculation.”

Guru Dutt’s letters to Geeta that were published in the books on Guru Dutt written by Nasreen Munni Kabir, “form the structure of my play,” Saif says. “The letters talk of how he hoped his films would do well abroad, his meeting with Charlie Chaplin, in some he apologises to Geeta for his bad behaviour...you figure out that he hit her...”

And therein lies the crux of the relationship that attracted him to this pair, “that you cannot stay together despite being so in love with each other. It could be the story of two colleagues at an office today. It could be the subject of Chetan Bhagat’s next novel!”

Gardish Mein Taare will be staged on October 21 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, at 8 p.m. Tickets are available on Book My Show.

Who doesn't love love?

<em>Gardish Mein Taare</em> looks at that one constant - love, unrequited - through the story of Hindi cinema greats Geeta and Guru Dutt