Hindi    Feb 09, 1965 (India)

Verdict: Blockbuster Movie. Must watch!!
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4.5
12 reviews
Box office 3.5 Cr Budget: -- Verdict: Hit
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11 (includes nominations)

Story


Guide is a 1965 Indian Bollywood drama, romance, musical, social film released on Feb 09, 1965. The film is directed by Vijay Anand, produced by Dev Anand under banner named Navketan International Films.

Dev Anand stars as Raju, a freelance guide, who earns his living by taking tourists to historic sites. The movies starts with Raju being released from jail, and then the story runs in flashback. One day, a wealthy and aging archaeologist Marco comes to the city with his young wife Rosie (Waheeda Rehman) the daughter of a courtesan. Marco wants to do some research on the caves outside the city and hires Raju as his guide. He discovers a new cave and ignores Rosie.

While Marco devotes himself to the discovery of the cave, Raju takes Rosie on a tour and is captivated by her impetuous beauty. Raju learns about Rosie's background and how Rosie has achieved respectability as the wife of Marco but at a terrible cost. She has had to give up her passion of dancing since it is unacceptable to Marco. Meanwhile, Rosie tries to commit suicide by consuming poison. Marco, upon knowing the incidence returns from the caves to see Rosie and gets furious on Rosie after seeing her alive. He tells Rosie that her act of committing suicide was a drama, otherwise she would have consumed more sleeping pills so that she could really have died. On returning to Udaipur, Rosie discovers that Marco is having an affair with a native tribal girl. Rosie is mad at Marco, and again wants to end her life. But Raju calms her by saying that committing suicide is a sin, and that she should live to pursue her dream. She finally says good-bye to the relation of being the wife of Marco. But now she needs support and a place to live. It is here that Raju takes her to his home.

Rosie is considered a prostitute by Raju's community which leads to many problems including his mother and her brother insisting that Rosie be kicked out. Raju refuses and his mother leaves him. His friend and driver also falls out with him over Rosie. Raju loses his business and the entire town turns against him. Undeterred by these setbacks, Raju helps Rosie embark on a singing and dancing career. As she rises as a star, Raju becomes dissolute—gambling and drinking. Marco comes back on the scene. Trying to win Rosie back, he brings flowers and has his agent ask Rosie to release some jewelry which is in a safe deposit box. Raju, a bit jealous, does not want Marco to have contact with Rosie and forges Rosie's name on the release of the jewels. Rosie and Raju drift apart. Rosie learns of the forgery release and Raju is convicted of forgery, resulting in a two year sentence. On the day of his release, his mother and Rosie come to pick him up but they are told that he was released six months ago because of his good behaviour.

Upon his release Raju wanders alone. Despair, poverty, rags, hunger, loneliness, until he finds a wandering group of sadhus with whom he spends a night at a derelict temple in a small town. He sleeps and one of the itinerant holy men places a shawl upon him while he sleeps. The holy men leave. The next morning, a farmer (Bhola) finds Raju sleeping under the orange shawl. Bhola thinks Raju is a holy man. Bhola is having a problem with his sister because she refuses to marry. Raju impresses upon the woman the logic in taking a husband and she submits, which convinces Bhola that Raju is a swami (holy man). Impressed by this Bhola spreads the news through village. Raju is taken as the holy man for the village. The farmers bring gifts for him and start consulting him with their problems. Raju assumes the role of village holy man (Swami Ji) and engages in skirmishes with the local pandits. In telling a childhood story, Raju speaks of a holy man whose 12 day fast resulted in God's bringing rain to end a drought.

A drought and ensuing famine hit the region hard. Through miscommunication of a village fool, Raju's (Swami Ji) words are interpreted by villagers that he will fast for 12 days to end the drought. He finds himself trapped by villagers' belief. At first Raju opposes the idea, going as far as telling Bhola that he is just a human like any one of them and even worse a convict who has undergone trial and jail-term over a woman. But even the confession was not enough for the villagers to give up on their belief who quote the story of decoit Ratnakar who became Valmiki. He reluctantly begins the fast, although he does not believe that there is any relation between a man's hunger and rain. With the fast, Raju undergoes a spiritual transformation. As the fast goes on, his fame spreads. People by the thousands come to see him and take his blessings. An American journalist asks him whether he truly believes that his fast would bring rain, he smiles and says "These people have faith in me, and I have faith in their faith". Upon hearing his fame Rosie pays him a visit, so does his mother and his friend. He now has everything he has lost a long time back. His health starts falling, and he thinks about the meaning of his life. On one side there is Rosie, his Mother and a chance to get back to his past life and on the other side there is a noble cause to fast and hope for the rain. He gets enlightened by the concept that his past sins are washed away by his anguish and the Guide Raju he knew has died. And now the only thing that remains is the spiritual Raju, which is indestructible. He is reconciled with his mother, Rosie and the driver during his ordeal. He transcends this life. Amidst thunder clap and heavy downpour, his soul departs this earth while the crowd rejoices and his beloveds cry.

Notwithstanding with is sad end, the title of this movie Guide appears to have a message for mankind that from a simple Tourist Guide, Raju could transcend himself to become a Life Guide for the common man. It probably talks of a hope that a criminal, broken, used and depressed person can have by looking life from another perspective, where all that is past can be reconciled by what is present, though, may not be in absolute terms.

Some of heart-rendering songs and painful situations are depicted in this film of a happy-go-lucky Raju Guide whose life takes a turn of misery as finds himself lost in the pursuit of the worldly affairs, viz., money, his crave for the love of a woman, and liquor and gambling. Raju's confession to his secretary and the subsequent song, Din dhal jaye hai, Raat na jaye are sure to touch anyone's heart which will make the character of Raju Guide immortal for the ages to come.


Adapted from classic novel written in English, the plot is structured around two processes of transformation. Rosie (Rehman) who belongs to a family of courtesans, is seduced away from her tyrannical archaeologist husband Marco (Sahu) by the brash tourist guide Raju (Anand). Raju helps her to realise her dream of becoming a successful dancer, realising his own ambition to become wealthy at the same time. Their life together is ended when he is jailed for forging Rosies signature on a cheque. Released from jail, he becomes a drifter and is mistaken for a holy man. Raju uses his newfound respectability to provide a school, a hospital and other facilities for the villagers. Forced to demonstrate his messianic status when there is drought, he manages to fast for 12 days and the rain comes, confirming his holy status in the eyes of the villagers (and of the audience) as he dies of starvation. The film can be seen as regressive comment on national culture, e.g. the shift from colonial tourism to capitalist enterprise to religious faith, from mass cultural commodification and spectacle to pre-colonial naivey and ritual. There is also discourse about stardom: starting out as a man of the people, the hero transgres conventional moral codes and fulfils his dream of wealth, then find this unsatisfying and, having been freed from material possessions (and women), he ends up fulfilling others wishes and finds apothesis as a god in death. The films quasi-expressionist, garish use of colour and of calendar art sets provies its own sets provides its own comment on notions of national popular culture, highlighted in the sequence when Raju changes from a fast talking tourist guide to a saintly figure through dissolves awash with blue and yellow light spots and in the rhythmic cutting of the song He ram hamare ramchandra Disowned by the novelist Narayan, the film has been attacked mainly its thematic deviations, esp. the transformation of Rosie: in the novel she is a devadasi (temple dancer and prostitutes liberated by reformist political movement leading to the Devdasi Bill in 1927 in Madras), a condition defended by orthdox historians for having preserved the South Indian classical Bharat Natyam dance tradition. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivaks essay Once Again a Leap in to the Postcolonial Banal (1990) addresses the irony of a novel, written originally in English and critical of that orthodoxy, itself being assimilated by the orthodox literary establishment in order to attack the film. She suggests a different version of colonial historical continuity than the one dominated by ideas of (literary, historical) authenticity. The film was a musical success with major hits such as Gaata rahe mera dil and Aaj phir jeene ki tamanana hai. A substantially altered 120English version (co-sc Pearl S.Buck p/d/co-sc Tad Danielewski) was released in the USA in 1965. It introduced new characters and much enlarged the role of, e.g., a bitchy US television reporter played by Sheila Burghart. It also added new scenes (including a sequence in the US Embassy in Delhi). Although the Indian version has Pathe colour, the US version has US-processed Estmancolor. [Source: Encl] Check out this page for more updates on Guide.

Cast & Crew


Waheeda Rehman

Waheeda Rehman

Rosie Marco (Miss N..

Leela Chitnis

Leela Chitnis

Raju's Mother

Reviews for Guide


No Critic Review info for this movie yet.
  • kailashmisra

    5.0

    All Time Hit Movie

    kailashmisra, 9 years ago
    This is one of best movie of all time.
  • thomas.richard

    5.0

    All Time Hit Movie

    thomas.richard, 9 years ago
    This is one of best movie of all time.
  • filmifan45

    3.0

    Cool Movie

    filmifan45, 9 years ago
    This is nice movie. I liked it.

All User Reviews (3)

Guide Movie Wiki


This page provides latest and updated information about Guide (1965) movie which released on Feb 09, 1965. Guide (1965) is directed by , produced by , starring .We have also provided 10 trailers and videos, 5 photos, 12 user reviews, and 0 critic reviews.Guide (1965) has received 4.5 rating from user reviews.The overall rating of Guide (1965) is 89 and movie is 4.5.Guide (1965) has won 0.011 crore awards.You can review, like, dislike this movie and also can add to favorites. You can also find information on showtimes, CDs, DVDs, online rental, online free watching.

Guide Keywords


Guide, Drama, Romance, Musical, Social, Bollywood, 1965, Guide movie reviews

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