{"id":2185,"date":"2015-09-26T00:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=2185"},"modified":"2019-10-02T12:10:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T06:40:05","slug":"dev-anand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/dev-anand\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Zindagi Ka Saath Nibhata Chala Gaya – Evergreen Dev Anand"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0rare pictures used in this article, unless specifically mentioned in the caption, are courtesy the Collections of SMM Ausaja<\/a><\/span>, renowned film historian, archivist and memorabilia collector. Movie stills are courtesy\u00a0the Internet.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Dev<\/a>

Dev Anand<\/p><\/div>\n

Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, <\/em>
\nHar fikr ko dhuyen mein udata chala gaya.<\/em><\/p>\n

For a man who was part of the Indian cinema for some 65 years, acted in over a 100 films, directed some 19 films and produced over 40, media has written and divulged almost everything there is to the man. In my tribute this year to the greatest entertainer we have had I have decided to look at some figures.<\/p>\n

My brother, Shanu Dev, who works as a dubbing artist and voice over in the Mumbai film world, was close to Dev Anand. He has acted in a few Dev films, like Censor, Sau Crore<\/em>, among others. Through him, I had sent a message to Dev Saab in early 1998 and seek his reaction.<\/p>\n

There were two parts of this message, first, that Dev Anand stands out as the hero in Hindi cinema who has the best music\/songs to his credit going by quantity and quality.\u00a0 Next, if he had allowed his brother, Vijay Anand to direct most of the films that he did himself, we might have had some more class cinema to connect with him.<\/p>\n

‘Give me Dada Burman again’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me tell you how he answered. For the first part, Dev Saab said, \u201cThanks to Peeyush, he seems to have deep understanding of music. But the credit of my films having great music goes entirely to Dada Burman. He was the driving force, the inspiration to all that music we have had. A real grounded man, he would sit on earth, on a carpet, and create those melodies, one after the other that mesmerized the entire world. Give me Dada Burman again, and I will give you another Guide<\/em>. He was a source of inspiration, I truly miss him the most. Such was the standard that Dada set in my films that other music directors who worked on some of the films I acted in, had to match and come up to meet that standard. Thus all around the music got a boost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Poster<\/a>

Poster of Dev Anand’s Des Pardes<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

For the second part, Dev Saab said, \u201cWell sometime around a film maker needs to yield full control and show the world his ideas the way he wants the world to see. We made three films at the same time, Chetan Bhai made Jaaneman<\/em>, Goldie did Bullet<\/em> and I directed Des Pardes<\/em>. Only Des Pardes<\/em> was a jubilee. I thus made a decision to make my own films.”<\/p>\n

Well, Sir, you are gone into the other world and for us who love your films, that last 20 years of your cinema has remained a regret. But, the other 45 years of your films, we love everything, the films, the superior camera work, exceptional direction, some of the best ever performances, excellent scripts and dialogues, style and fashion, exciting new discoveries, locations and beauty of scene concepts, cinema of high hopes and spirit and of course, all the music and the songs, a testament to its terrific legacy.<\/p>\n

Lasting impression of SD Burman\u2019s music<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"RD

RD Burman, Dev Anand and SD Burman at a music session with lyricist Neeraj (L to R)
(Pic courtesy: sdburman.net)<\/p><\/div>\n

For his music, as one would guess, he had Maestro Sachin Dev Burman score music for 28 of his starrers. I recall only one, Ek Ke Baad Ek<\/em>, with weak music. Rest all had excellent score and songs that we relish even after all these years. From Baazi, Jaal, Sazaa, Taxi Driver, Munimjee, Paying Guest, Nau Do Gyarah, Kala Bazar, Bombai Ka Babu to Guide, Jewel Thief, Teen Deviyan, Gambler, Tere Mere Sapne<\/em> and Prem Pujari\u00a0<\/em>to name a few of the 28 films that contained 210 songs – if I start listing these songs, readers would hum along at least 90 percent of them. Such a lasting impression they have had.<\/p>\n

\u2019The most romantic song of impulse ever\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Geeta

Geeta Dutt’s ‘Tadbeer se bigdi hui’<\/em> became one of the most popular club songs ever, picturised on Geeta Bali and Dev Anand in ‘Baazi’<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

At one time in the history of Hindi films, \u2018Yeh raat yeh chandini phir kahan<\/em>\u2019 (Hemant Kumar \/ Sahir Ludhianvi \/ S D Burman \/ Jaal, <\/em>1952) was hailed as \u2019the most romantic song of impulse ever\u2019. Whether you talk of the scene on screen\u00a0 or just the audio – the impact was tremendous, of equal strength.<\/p>\n

I remember screening Jaal<\/em> at one of our monthly meetings of the Vintage Hindi Music Lovers Association in Bangalore in early eighties. We had a packed house of approx. 250 members of which there were over 140 women in the audience. After the screening a question was posed to the women in the audience as to how they would react if they were in place of Geeta Bali when Dev starts stringing his guitar and croons Yeh raat yeh chandini phir kahan<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I have seen a more unanimous response from public declaring that they would be reacting just as Geeta Bali did. What an impact that song had even after some thirty years of its making with some in the audience having viewed it many times before. Not only was the music, the lyrics, the singing that left that impact, it was also the performance of the lead artists (Dev and Geeta Bali), the direction by Guru Dutt and extremely polished and reverberating cinematography by V K Murthy that all contributed in their might. Dev Saab, no one can take these memories away from us.<\/p>\n

Yeh raat yeh chandini phir kahan<\/strong><\/em> (Jaal<\/em>, 1952)<\/span><\/p>\n