Dev Anand, an actor-turned-filmmaker who swayed generations of fans in a career spanning 65 years, died in his sleep Dec. 4, leaving behind a legacy of classics including “Guide” and “Hum Dono.” The 88-year-old artist had come to Mumbai for a medical checkup some days back, and died after a massive cardiac arrest in his hotel room in London with his son Suneil by his side, reported the Press Trust of India.
Technically, Anand was an actor and producer who later turned writer-director. But he was much more.
In the ‘70s he started the Anand Recording Center, a complete post-production outfit where at its peak half the big-ticket films were post-produced. As times and technology changed, the studio and the building (which also contained Anand’s office) were pulled down. A new building is coming up in this place and it had two floors for Dev and several levels for a state-of-the-art studio. Dev was itching to get back (he had a temporary office a couple of kilometers away) but the building is still to be completed. A film he made with Zeenat Aman, “Darling Darling,” was completed but unreleased.
What few people know are the rarer Dev trivia — the actor even recited a few lines in songs in his “Pyar Mohabbat,” “Mahal” and his own film “Gangster” (1995). He acted in an outside production for the last time in “Return of Jewel Thief,” the sequel to his own classic “Jewel Thief,” but the 1996 film was a non-starter. In 2005, “Mr. Prime Minister” saw Dev writing and singing the theme song in rap! The miracle was that this then 82-year-old man could do this in both English and Hindi with identical meanings and metres!
Dev’s attachment to music, however, went for a toss after “Des Pardes,” which in a way was a game-changer for his career. In 1975, to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of his banner, Navketan, Dev launched three films, the other two being Chetan Anand’s “Jaaneman” and Vijay Anand’s “Bullet” (Dev’s nostalgic olive branch to his elder brothers with whom he had professionally parted ways after severe creative differences). When “Bullet” bombed and “Jaaneman” was a mediocre success, and “Des Pardes” became a hit, Dev thought that his writing and directing skills combined with nubile new heroines and a topical theme was the winning formula now. Sadly, “Des Pardes” (1978) was the last hit of Dev, both as actor and filmmaker, though he valiantly made 14 more films as director, all the way till “Chargesheet.”
Dev’s credo was looking ahead, and he hated the concept of remakes. He decided to make a sequel to his first hit as writer-director, “Hare Rama Hare Krishna,” which was being scripted when his health failed him. The colorized experiment of “Hum Dono” only happened because he was floored by the technology.
It is indeed a matter of pride for the Indian talkies that for 66 of its 81 years of existence, a legend called Dev Anand was associated with it. And when we celebrate the centenary of Hindi cinema in 2013, it will be with the knowledge that Dev Anand lived for 88 of those years.
The graduate in English literature was among the earliest highly-educated actors who brought respectability to Hindi cinema. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and Indian cinema’s highest honor — the Dadasaheb Phalke trophy — in 2003. There was a tale there as well. When Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in 1975, clipping the wings of democracy, it was Dev who spearheaded a part of the industry’s revolt unlike Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar, who were traditional Congress supporters. Dev even floated the short-lived National Party, and thus there was no question of his being conferred honors he deserved. It was in the NDA-ruled span that he was chosen for both the honors that he so richly deserved.
Dev Anand made his debut in 1946 with Prabhat’s “Hum Ek Hain,” directed by top writer-lyricist Pyarelal Santoshi (Rajkumar Santoshi’s father), and got his first hit in Ashok Kumar’s production “Ziddi,” his fourth film, in 1948. Destiny engineered his association with his favorite playback voice in this first hit itself, with Kishore Kumar singing two songs for the actor, the first being the popular “Marne ki Duaen Kyoon Maangoon,” also Kishore’s first song as a playback singer. Later, for almost two decades, Kishore refused to sing for any other actor besides Dev and himself.
Dev Anand’s plunge into filmmaking was quick. In 1949, he launched Navketan, his now-famous banner, named after Chetan Anand’s newborn son. Their first release was the social drama “Afsar” (1950) directed by elder brother Chetan Anand, who later remade it with Dev as “Sahib Bahadur” in 1980.
Early on, Dev exhibited both his propensity to give breaks to new talents when he kept his promise to struggling friend Guru Dutt and signed him to direct “Baazi” (1951). In return, Dutt delivered an ahead-of-its-time crime thriller, complete with classy club numbers like “Suno Gajar Kya Gaaye” that were to later become a regular Navketan and Dev leitmotif. “Baazi” steamrolled Navketan to the forefront, and the momentum never flagged all the way till “Des Pardes” (1978) despite the occasional flop.
It did not take long for Devdutt Pishorimal Anand to take his due place in the Top Trinity of Hindi cinema alongside Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar. Even among the three brands, Dev Anand was different: for one, he almost never did a rural film; his image had a Western tenor complete with an uber-cool urban look and a jaunty flamboyance that even Shammi Kapoor once acknowledged was his inspiration in song-enactment. Dev, with his trademark puff of hair, the crooked gait, the unique dialogues delivery and expressions and of course his adherence to light entertainers, gradually came to represent modernism and agelessness and all the energy that came with these.
Dev Anand even made his social comments in “Munimji,” “Kala Bazar,” “Guide,” “Prem Pujari” and “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” with direct intensity and almost no melodrama. In an era when crime thrillers were never considered A-grade material, he repeatedly produced or starred in slick crime dramas like Guru Dutt’s “Jaal,” Raj Khosla’s “C.I.D.” (produced by Dutt) and “Kala Pani.”
Beginning with the 1957 “Nau Do Gyarah,” Dev found a rare soul-mate in his protégé and younger brother Vijay Anand, who presented Dev Anand with a range of characters and subjects — besides cult thrillers in “Jewel Thief” for Navketan and the outside film, Gulshan Rai's “Johny Mera Naam” (Dev's career-biggest hit), he challenged the actor in Dev with diverse characters in and as “Guide,” the fabulous dual role in “Hum Dono,” the doctor in “Tere Mere Sapne” and the blackmarketeer of “Kala Bazar,” not to forget their unforgettable romantic comedy that was “Tere Ghar Ke Saamne.”
Dev Anand’s standout commercial triumphs outside his home banner included Nasir Husain’s “Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai,“ Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s “Asli Naqli,” S.S. Vasan’s Dilip Kumar-Dev Anand film “Insaniyat” and T. Prakash Rao’s “Amar Deep” (two of his rare South-made films), Amiya Chakravorty’s “Patita,” Subodh Mukerji’s “Munimji,” “Love Marriage” and “Paying Guest,” and Amarjeet’s “Teen Devian.” The second-biggest hit of his acting career after “Johny Mera Naam” was Mohan Kumar’s 1974 “Amir Garib,” his last super-hit that came after a spate of duds. Recalls Mohan Kumar, “When Chetan-saab wanted Madan Mohan for ‘Jaaneman,’ Dev insisted on Laxmikant-Pyarelal, who had proved lucky for him with their brilliant score in my film. He asked me to approach them on his behalf.”
In the last two decades, most of his discoveries went nowhere, but Dev was the one-man Discovery Channel who introduced Guru Dutt and Vijay Anand and was responsible for Zeenat Aman’s breakthrough. He was the first to sign Shatrughan Sinha (who did a cameo in “Prem Pujari”) though another film released earlier, and spotted Jackie Shroff modeling for a whisky on a hoarding and signed him for a small role as a villain’s sidekick in “Swami Dada.” He also introduced both Tabu and Richa Sharma (later Sanjay Dutt’s wife) in “Hum Naujawan” and introduced Abhijeet as singer for his son Suneil Anand in “Anand Aur Anand.” Of course, there was also Tina Munim in “Des Pardes” and mentored names like Amarjeet, his publicist, who started the first classy teaser ads in Hindi cinema, and Amit Khanna, later lyricist and now Reliance head honcho, besides Yash Johar, the founder of Dharma Productions and father of Karan Johar.