We have just lost one of the greatest stalwarts of the Bollywood film industry last week. True to his autobiography, Romancing with Life, Dev Anand lived the life of a proverbial Jon Duan immortalized by Miguel De Cervantes and who was an incurable romantic at heart.
Dev was born as Dharam Dev Pishorimal Anand on 26th September, 1923 in the Gurudaspur district of Punjab. His father was a well-to-do advocate. After graduating in English literature from Lahore he left for Bombay. His first brush with the thespian world began when he worked alongside his elder brother, Chetan Anand in ITPA (Indian Theatre Peoples’ Association).
Dev almost gatecrashed into the tinsel world when he rushed into the office of Babu Rao Patni of Prabhat film studios. Mr. Rao inducted him immediately because he was carried away by his boyish grin and scintillating confidence. He was instantly offered the lead role in Hum Ek Hain. Very soon he would team up with Guru Dutt and make a pact that if anyone of them became very successful as an actor, he would help the other to come up.
As he moved up the ladder of success, he got romantically involved with Suraiya, a singer-actress who was more infatuated with Dev. Suraiya was a very successful star and Dev considered himself fortunate enough to be paired opposite her. They starred in seven films together. Suraiya’s love for Dev became more firmly entrenched after he saved her from drowning when the boat they were shooting together in, capsized.
But since this clandestine affair was divided along religious lines, they had to part ways.
Later on, he was offered a break in a film called Ziddi, produced and directed by Ashok Kumar. In this film Dev Anand came to be associated with Kishore Kumar, who sang a duet with Lata Mangeshkar ( their first duet ). This association was to last for the next four decades. Eventually, Dev Anand went to form his film production company called Navketan. Dev Anand has produced 35 films under this banner.
His trademark style of nodding his head sideways while delivering his dialogues in a rapid fire manner made him stand out as the quintessential Dev Anand. Innumerable films have scenes where his eponymous styles have been caricatured by lesser known thespians. It was his inimitable style as a romantic hero that made him amenable to any actress who paired opposite him. His style was lapped up by the audience and he had a string of box office successes in films like Kala Pani, Bat Ek Raat Ki, Guide, Solva Saal and so on. Waheeda Rahman was the lead actress in these films. His pairing with Waheeda Rehman was very successful, professionally speaking. The government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2002. His career has spanned more than 110 films and he has acted in the lead in almost 112 films.
Dev Anand acquired a romantic image in the sixties with films like Manzil, Tere Ghar ke Samne, Kinare Kinare , Jab Pyar Kisi se hota hai. His first colour film was Guide with Waheeda Rahman based on the novel with the same name by R.K. Narayan.
Dev Anand has also been politically active. He vehemently protested against the proclamation of Internal Emergency by Indira Gandhi. He also found a political party called “ National Party of India” which he later disbanded.
He has often been compared with Gregory Peck but he was not very forthcoming and accommodating with the comparison as he famously said that “as you grow, you make idols but when you grow out of that phase, you develop your own persona.”
Dev Anand has directed 19 films and produced 35 films out of which 7 directorial ventures and 18 films produced were commercially successful respectively.
In September 2007, Dev autobiography “Romancing with Life” was released at a birthday party in the presence of the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Dev Anand has of late, lamented the fact that actors today demand and draw huge sums for acting where as he still remembers getting some 350 rupees for his first film, which was just enough to buy him a car. He drove the car at a very high speed to his next shooting sequence. He is credited with giving breaks to several actors like Jackie Shroff, Tabu and Richa Sharma. He also discovered Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim , who later on married the Reliance scion, Anil Ambani and is said to have highly encouraged, music director, Rajesh Roshan.
He died at the age of 88, in London on 3rd December in a hotel of a cardiac arrest.
In Dev Anand, we have lost one of our greatest thespians whose vacuum cannot be filled.
