Where to begin detailing all the New Testament Christian imagery in this film? The character of Gulabo — the prostitute who discovers Vijay after purchasing his poetry from the scrap paper dealer to whom his brothers have sold it — parallels Mary Magdalene, in her conventionally ascribed (though not explicitly biblically supported) role as a prostitute. She is a true disciple of Vijay (Jesus), and follows him amidst the unbelievers — including his own brothers, who disown him (just as Peter thrice disowned Jesus in front of the authorities), and his ex-girlfriend Meena who has married the tycoon Mr Ghosh. Meena excuses herself by explaining, "Besides love, a sensible woman needs security and comforts" — but Vijay calls this bargain not true love but prostitution, "selling love for wealth," and reminds that "Life's real joy lies in making others happy."

Vijay is believed to have thrown himself in front of a train, and when Mr Ghosh begins reading this news to Meena, she looks up from an issue of Life magazine (eternal life) bearing a cover photograph of a crucifix (Jesus is crucified). One year passes, with Vijay confined to bedlam because of his claim to be the dead poet (three days pass, during which the body of Jesus lies entombed). Gulabo is in attendance at an event putatively organised to honour Vijay on the anniversary of his supposed death, but really organised to sell books, when Vijay appears in the doorway, backlit with white light, arms outstretched against the door frame making the shape of a cross (Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty and knows that Jesus is resurrected). Vijay admonishes the crowd for their love of idols and not people, observing, "the Vijay for whom you shout slogans — I am not that Vijay." He sings a poem whose refrain is Matthew 16:26, "For what will it profit a man, if he gain the world" (Jesus rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith), and then steals away from the ensuing riot ("I have no complaint against them, or any other human being") to begin a new, anonymous life with Gulabo (Jesus ascends to heaven to sit at the right hand of God).

Much of the New Testament is about forsaking materialism and consumerism (e.g. Jesus in the temple), and this theme is of course shared by all other major religions, including those of India. This is the central theme of Pyaasa, whose "thirst" is both a misguided thirst for idols and an unsatisfied thirst for happiness. The devotional impulse of Indian cinema has been more often fastened to the Hindu mythos, but Pyaasa shows that it works just as well with the New Testament. This substitution is not a complete or exclusive one, of course, as evidenced by Vijay's wandering the streets to encounter an open-air theatre scene, between Krishna's (foster-)mother Yashoda and his lover Radha — which occurs just after Vijay has learnt of his own mother's death, and in this context maps Christ onto Krishna (which is not hard to do, given Krishna's immaculate conception in the womb of Devaki, the attempts of the king (Kamsa in Hinduism, Herod in Christianity) to thwart prophecy by killing infants, and his dharma as saviour of a world that has lost its way.

Vijay's commentary on the depersonalisation of art and love carries not only a moralistic sense but also a philosophical sense, and in this latter regard I find relevant the work of Walter Benjamin, viz. "Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit." When Vijay's poems are discovered and printed, the film's direction highlights the act of their mechanical reproduction, superimposing images of offset presses in operation. As Benjamin observed, the very act of mechanical reproduction of a work of art robs it of its authenticity, sabotaging the personal connection between the creator of the art and the interpreter of art. And remember that Vijay would never have connected with his disciple Gulabo had it not been for the authentic, irreplaceable nature of his handwritten poems which she bought as scrap. So Dutt's story is not only a comment on the bankruptcy of a modern society in which wealth is measured in possessions, but also a comment on the contribution of technology to this bankruptcy, which robs art of personal investment and significance.